Wheel bolts

[RichardW]

I fitted the spare to the Xantia yesterday as the front NS tyre was, ahem, illegal The rim is a bit rusty, and the tapers for the bolts were too, but I tightened down the wheel nuts evenly as normal. Driving to work this morning there was some vibration, which I initially put down to the tyre being out of round / balance. However, as I was driving round a mini roundabout I heard a slight knocking that rang the 'loose wheel nuts' bell in my head. Stopped a bit down the road and checked them - all 4 were loose and could be turned by hand Tightened them up again and they have stayed so the further 20 miles to work. Presumably the rust on the tapers had prevented proper tightening, and they had worked loose. Never seen all 4 come undone before though - just as well I stopped when I did. One to be aware of if fitting the spare at any time! I shall grease the tapers on the spare in the future to keep them in better condition

[jonathan_dyane]

I've had this problem too, but it's more due to rust on the back of the wheel where it mates with the hub that the tapers; the tightening of the bolts clears the tapers rather well, but the flange is another matter...

[Paul-R]

This is quite a well known problem. I always tighten the wheelnuts up, slacken them off and then retighten to "break" the rust barrier when fitting a spare wheel.

I don't know where the Xantia stores the spare wheel but the Xsara (underslung under the boot floor in the fresh air) is always bad. Compared to the C5 (in a well on the top of the boot floor), the C5 wheel actually looks almost new!