Joey's New Volvo S60: Wheels and Tires V2.0

[Joey D]

So here's what they look like not in the rain:

Next up, I'm looking at a Ferrita exhaust since they sound pretty good on the T6s. I like the Heico system but $5,000 for a cat-back exhaust system is absurd. The Ferrita is still overpriced, but it's only $1,500 which is less mind-numbing.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

They're 19x8 Forged PIAA Super Mesh and I went with a set of Goodyear Excite tires since they're still kind of all-season. As much as I'd like summer tires, I do have to go up in the mountains from time to time for work and even in July, it can be cold and snowy up there. I didn't really want to risk driving down the mountain on what equates to hockey pucks that the Michelin Sport Cups would've been if I would've gotten those. I really wanted a set of Conti DWS tires but I'm guessing COVID hit the manufacturing plant because there's virtually none in the US and Discount told me it would be at least a couple of months due to backorder.

These UHP all season tires are getting pretty darn good and are a really good choice for street driving. I was considering going with all seasons due to the unpredictable weather to stretch it out a bit. With work and all I'm running 5-6 months on the winter tires. Change sometime in the winter and they're coming off in April. There was that one time a year or two ago, where we got snow at the end of April.

In the end, I went with the General GMax RS due to the performance and price. Tried tirerack, but they also called and notified me it would take months to get the back-ordered front tire sizes. Was able to get an order through Discount Tire, but they're waiting on one of the tires to ship arrive from another state. I don't know if it's a manufacturing delay or shipment.

 

[Joey D]

So my wheels are all sorts of screwed up and I'm going back and forth with the guy that sold them to me. When they were redrilled, these sleeves were placed in the lug holes and it allows some play in the wheels so I get a horrible vibration when I'm going down the road. I worked with Discount Tire who balanced them twice, then road forced balanced them, then matched balanced them. After that, I put hub rings in the wheels which didn't help, and then Discount went as far as to swap the tires over to something completely different to rule out the tires completely. Seriously, Discount has been amazing and didn't charge me for any of this. When none of that worked, they had me swing by when their wheel guy was in and he inspected every wheel and found that the sleeves had play in them.

Now I've never had a set of redrilled wheels before, is this common? I honestly don't know. The seller told me the wheels had been redrilled and were made for an S60R. He also told me they had been completely refinished. While true, I get the feeling it was sort of half-assed. So now I'm trying to get him to take the wheels back and get my money refunded, but he's fighting me on it. Also, there's now a scratch in the wheels too around the lug holes because the paint was applied so poorly and the lug itself chipped it off. He says it's my fault and won't take them back because they've been damaged.

I'm really close to saying screw it and just trying to recoup some of my money by selling them.

===

In other news, my parents were in town and my dad and I went to Wendover last Saturday to bet the Belmont (thanks to no online gambling in Utah). I stopped by Bonneville since it's right there and had to snag a photo of my car.

I didn't go too fast out there, but I did get the car up a speed that wouldn't be legal on I-80. It was pretty fun and the Crown Rally was going through there and we got to see all sorts of Ferraris and stuff making high-speed runs.

 

[Danoff]

So my wheels are all sorts of screwed up and I'm going back and forth with the guy that sold them to me. When they were redrilled, these sleeves were placed in the lug holes and it allows some play in the wheels so I get a horrible vibration when I'm going down the road. I worked with Discount Tire who balanced them twice, then road forced balanced them, then matched balanced them. After that, I put hub rings in the wheels which didn't help, and then Discount went as far as to swap the tires over to something completely different to rule out the tires completely. Seriously, Discount has been amazing and didn't charge me for any of this. When none of that worked, they had me swing by when their wheel guy was in and he inspected every wheel and found that the sleeves had play in them.

Now I've never had a set of redrilled wheels before, is this common? I honestly don't know. The seller told me the wheels had been redrilled and were made for an S60R. He also told me they had been completely refinished. While true, I get the feeling it was sort of half-assed. So now I'm trying to get him to take the wheels back and get my money refunded, but he's fighting me on it. Also, there's now a scratch in the wheels too around the lug holes because the paint was applied so poorly and the lug itself chipped it off. He says it's my fault and won't take them back because they've been damaged.

I'm really close to saying screw it and just trying to recoup some of my money by selling them.

Have you looked into the cost of getting them re-re-finished? Because it's usually not terrifically expensive. You might need new sleeves or another redrill and a powdercoat. That shouldn't work out to insane $$. I've had really good results with powdercoat refinishing. Rims that are just repainted end up chipping.

 

[Joey D]

Have you looked into the cost of getting them re-re-finished? Because it's usually not terrifically expensive. You might need new sleeves or another redrill and a powdercoat. That shouldn't work out to insane $$. I've had really good results with powdercoat refinishing. Rims that are just repainted end up chipping.

There are two companies in SLC that do this sort of stuff that I know of and the one I went to said they can't sleeve and redrill the wheels without compromising their integrity since they've already been drilled once. I still need to check with the other place to see what their thoughts on it are. From my understanding, what they do is fill in the lug holes with a plug and then weld it in before redrilling it. The company I went to said that since this has been done once before, doing it again will change the strength of the center of the wheel and could very well cause cracking. Since my car is a fatass (4,300lbs) they aren't confident in it and don't want the liability.

 

[eiriksmil]

I'm very careful on buying re-drilled wheels, same reason why I dislike buying modified cars, so many cowboys out there. What about getting the dude to accept the wheels for a refund minus a little for wear and tear and be done with it?

It sucks because the wheels you found did look good! 5x108 life is sadly not as easy as I thought it would be. Also $5k for an exhaust is crazy, I am looking into Heico springs or coils for my Polestar but those are reasonably priced.

Out of interest, are you allowed to just take your car out on Bonneville and hit as high a speed as you can?

 

[Joey D]

I'm very careful on buying re-drilled wheels, same reason why I dislike buying modified cars, so many cowboys out there. What about getting the dude to accept the wheels for a refund minus a little for wear and tear and be done with it?

It sucks because the wheels you found did look good! 5x108 life is sadly not as easy as I thought it would be. Also $5k for an exhaust is crazy, I am looking into Heico springs or coils for my Polestar but those are reasonably priced.

Out of interest, are you allowed to just take your car out on Bonneville and hit as high a speed as you can?

I'm going back and forth with the guy right now. He wants me to try flat lug nuts instead of conical ones and then get them balanced with a lug-mounted balancing machine. The thing is I'm not even aware of a place around here that has a lug-mounted balance machine since they're all center bore ones. I'm also not super keen on buying a set of lug nuts that may or may not work, but I would if I knew for certain that would correct the issue. I might just say the hell with it and sell the wheels as is to someone and see if I can get most of my money back.

Not sure what wheels I'd get though, but I need to get something since I have tires for 19-inch wheels sitting around that I want to be able to use. Pretty much all the places around here sell things like TSW wheels which I know are OK, but they're super heavy for what they are. I don't need something lightweight, but something that's around the same weight as the stock wheels is my goal.

For Heico stuff, we only have one place in the US that sells their stuff. I'm sure the currency exchange has something to do with it too since the Euro is at a higher value than the USD. There are a few other companies that sell stuff in the states, but the S60 isn't super popular so I don't have a ton of choices at the moment.

And for the Salt Flat, yup you can legally go as fast as you'd like out there, but if you crash you're going to be paying a ton in fines for destroying the salt as well as contaminating everything with fluids. When I was out there a rally was going through and there were all sorts of exotics doing speed runs. The one guy I talked to who had a McLaren 570 claimed he'd hit 180mph. I've never been super fast out on the Flats because it can be bumpy and everything looks the same, but I did take my last S60 up to about 120 out there and I had my truck to about 90 (fast for it).

 

[Joey D]

So let's try this again.

Since I had a set of Fast FC04 wheels on my last Volvo I figured I would get them for this Volvo since I know how they hold up, plus I like the way they look. I had to order them from Quebec since they aren't sold in the US, but I'm happy I managed to get a set on 19x8.5 with a +35 offset and get them shipped in a reasonable amount of time. I'm not sure how I didn't end up having to pay duty (haha duty 💩) but I'm not going to complain. I'm pretty happy with them and they're definitely lighter than the stock wheels by a good margin. They're also flow formed and winter certified so I know they'll hold up just fine to daily driving.

 

[wfooshee]

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