Odd wheels...is normal?!

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nametooshort
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Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by nametooshort »

My 305 has odd wheels. The two rear wheels are different to the two front ones.

The front ones have bigger vent holes and more pressings (holes have raised bits around them, and caliper bulge has a more pronounced apex).

The rear wheels are much more basic, with just oval smaller vent holes, not raised bits around them, and the 'caliper bulge' (if there was a caliper there, of course, which there isnt) is just a plain curve.

Front:
Image

Rear:
Image

I always assumed that this was just because my car had odd wheels...BUT...today some tire fitter guy told me that this is actually normal on older Pugs. The front wheels have bigger vents for the brake discs, and the extra pressing features is because the front wheels take much more pressure then rear wheels (since they hold the engines weight and steer and drive and brake, the rears brake a little bit and support weight thats all), so different front/rear wheels is actually normal.

Is this true?

Or DOES my car just have odd wheels?
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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by Peter.N. »

I've never heard of that before, what happens when you have a puncture or want to change the wheels round as they did in those days. I would hardly have thought tht the performance of a 305 would merit extra cooling for the front brakes. I have been driving for for over 50 years and have never seen that done on a run of the mill car - but I could of course be wrong.

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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by nametooshort »

The spare that came with the car (apparently original factory spare) is the 'front' type, so it can be used on any wheel. I am not sure about swapping wheels, I guess maybe they assumed that wheels would not be swapped between axles.

I have never heard of this either, which is why I got curious when the tire fitter guy said its normal.

I guess it kind of makes sense, since the rear wheels would be cheaper to produce, and you know what car manufacturers are like. There are incidences of car manufacturers doing things like deleting circlips and using press-fit shafts instead, because it would save some kind of extremely tiny amount of money per car, so I guess this thing with wheels doesn't sound too ridiculous.

Or like I said, it could just be that my car has odd wheels lol.
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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by Citroenmad »

Most likely that two of its wheels are not from that car. Probably Peugeot wheels but off another model?
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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by spider »

I'd suggest another model. They do look a bit like 405 wheels actually or later 306 ones...
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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by Oldpug »

I`ve been working on Peugeot`s for 40 years and they have never had "odd" wheels on any of their models.Plenty of different styles of wheels,round holes,oblong, square etc.I would say they are 305 wheels but two of each style??.
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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by nametooshort »

Well, perhaps it was another case of 'mis-interpretation of own memories' by the person who told me that. It happens a lot. One time a gas station attendant who was pretty old kept telling me that VW aircooled engines needed lead in their gas, and that he even remembers VW sending him a memo about it in like 1972 or something.

...The same VW that never made a aircooled engine (or as far as I know, ANY engine) which needs lead. EVER. Even in WWII.

It happens. People make mistakes, especially when it comes to remembering stuff that happened like 20 yrs ago.

I think I am going to try to find another pair of those wheels that are like my rear wheels, they look cool. Iv been meaning to do something cool with the wheels anyways.

I found some absolutely dope looking vintage appliances for it, but unfortunately they are designed for 1970s fords, and therefore they have a flat cross section and don't clear the front calipers. The only way to clear the calipers is to space the front wheels out like 20mm, and that would push the scrub radius way out and basically I think would seriously mess up front wheel geometry and kill the ball joints and bushes and bearings. I dunno, I know some people run massive spacers, but those same people do really stupid stuff to cars, and my car is a daily driver, I think 20mm is a little excessive. Spacers should never be needed anyways, keeping the stock scrub radius is important, something the usual slightly stupid tuning people don't seem to realize. Spacers are only good if the wheels you want have different offset, so the spacer actually returns things to normal, but unfortunately its not the case with these :(

Most cool vintage wheels in that PCD are for Fords, and therefore have the correct offset but no bulge for the caliper, so same problem. I hate modern wheels, especially alloys, stuff like appliances or rostyles look cool on old cars.

So what I am thinking is, get a whole set of those wheels like the rear wheels on my car has, acid dip them and give them a nice white and black paint job (rear centers, white outside), that would look pretty cool.

Just need to find some now. Iv been looking in photos and junkyards and called everyone I know thats into old cars and nobody knows what they are from.
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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by Harlequin »

i would be more concerned that the tyres are a different size..... top pic is 175/65x14 , bottom is 175/70x14
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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by Oldpug »

Harlequin wrote:i would be more concerned that the tyres are a different size..... top pic is 175/65x14 , bottom is 175/70x14
That`s an MOT failure isn`t it ??
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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by C5Alan »

Oldpug wrote:
Harlequin wrote:i would be more concerned that the tyres are a different size..... top pic is 175/65x14 , bottom is 175/70x14
That`s an MOT failure isn`t it ??
I think its only if they are on the same axle but if both fronts are the same size and both rears are the same you are ok look at a lot of the big engined merc's and bmw's having wider rear wheels cant see manufacturers fitting illegal wheels?
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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by Oldpug »

C5Alan wrote:
Oldpug wrote:
Harlequin wrote:i would be more concerned that the tyres are a different size..... top pic is 175/65x14 , bottom is 175/70x14
That`s an MOT failure isn`t it ??
I think its only if they are on the same axle but if both fronts are the same size and both rears are the same you are ok look at a lot of the big engined merc's and bmw's having wider rear wheels cant see manufacturers fitting illegal wheels?
Your correct ,I didn't think of that!! :oops:
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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by Harlequin »

ones on the rear might be wider - but not taller.....
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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by nametooshort »

Hotrods and drag rats and other various styles of vintage cars often have much wider rear wheels anyways, and germanlookers have stupidly small front tires forced onto huge rims, in Germany (where actually nobody cares about Germanlook) they tried to make it illegal, whereas I think the practice is widespread in the UK as it is in the US.

Besides, think about tractors and other construction/agricultural/special-purpose machines, which are often road legal so they can travel on the road.

I think its technically illegal to have different wheels on the SAME axle, but not very enforceable, because that would make space-savers illegal, and trying to prove that you are NOT limping home on a spare wheel in court would be very hard.

Besides those are just junk wheels that came with that car. I don't really care too much about them, I want to replace them with something reasonably cool, on decent tires (those are cheap nasty Chinese cheapies anyways). At the moment I am running it on some kind of (205?) alloys, but I don't like alloys, proper vintage wheels are way cooler.
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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by puddlethumper »

I have a 305 and all its wheels are like your front ones. I used to work for National Tyre Co some years ago and the guys used to tell the punters some real bull.
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Re: Odd wheels...is normal?!

Post by puddlethumper »

P.S. I had another 305 15 years ago and the wheels nad no vent holes at all.
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