MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG MGA - Defective 'DAYTON WIRE RIMS'

I would like to respond to R Fisher regarding my rims from a previous post but I feel the need to inform everyone on some difficulties I am having with them. The rims are “Dayton chrome 60 spoke wires” Model# DU60-155. These are 15”x5” tubeless type.
I am presently engaged in a disagreement with the company because of a defect with one of them. I have three spokes that have pulled out of the hub with less than 1000 miles on them (See Photo). They are presently under a three year warranty; however Dayton has been trying to find every excuse not to warranty them! They finally agreed to honor the warranty and determine weather it needs replacing or can be repaired. But they say it will be 6 to eight weeks! I want them to send me a new one that I would pay for until they received the damaged one and then credit me back. They refused. Needless to say I will not be buying Dayton wheels for my TR restoration. I would think in these economically difficult times that Companies would put more of an effort in pacifying a customer. I guess the good thing about a recession is it does weed out these bad apples!



WMR Bill

Correction on rim size! It is a D452 15X4.5 60 spoke

See "Dayton" site;
http://www.daytonwirewheels.com/britishcars.html
WMR Bill

This is troubling as Dayton was becoming the prefered supplier due to quality problems with the Dunlops after they moved their production to India. I agree with you, a 6 to 8 week turn is too long, especially at this time of year with the event season just kicking off. They need to get this wheel back in house quickly and find out what caused the failure before they have a wreck caused by a wheel failure and get a multi million dollar lawsuit. That's next as you now have put the word out if they don't respond quickly they'll leave themselves open to huge liability.
Bill Young

2 days UPS to Dayton, two more max to examine = phone call to you saying either a new wheel is on its way as of today's UPS or a VERY good explanation of how it's your fault.

Get the CEO's name and address him - it's his job!

If that doesn't work, inform them via reg letter that this wheel WILL be on display at events far and wide.

It's hard to tell from the picture (take lots, in different light!), but are there substantial differences in how the spoke heads are formed, and how they sit in the hub? They should be pretty much all the same. Can you tell if the holes are bigger/deeper in some cases than others, or if the spoke heads vary in size and thickness? You have 240 examples to look at - look at all of them, from both sides!

I've seen an awful lot of junk/rusted/abused wheels, but I've NEVER seen a spoke pull through a hub.

I have sold people Daytons and have never heard of a problem, but if your story is verified, I'd sure remember it. OTH, IF they fix it NOW, pay the freight, and give suitable apologies - and maybe the offer of a discount on your TR wheels - I'd be relating that to any future customers too. With about 100 years of experience, they shouldn't be having this sort of problem.

FRM
FR Millmore

You should not have to ever offer to BUY another wheel for a later credit. What would happen if the reject the credit. Then you have another wheel you have paid for and no repairs. Why not email the company the link to this forum and let them see for themselves the exposure this fault may gain. Can you use your spare for the short term, but if one wheel has failed im not sure if i would want to challange any corners.

Im aware of another Dayton Chrome wheel in Australia which suffered a total collapse on a highway a number of years ago. The spokes collapsed. The car was fine and the wheel was replaced.

Where are Doyton wheel made anyway?

Further to all this if the other wheels do fail in the future you have at least recored the original event on the world wide web. That would be good to prove the history of the fault.

Best of luck.
DJ Lake

For whatever it's worth, I sent the link to this thread to Dayton, noting that the classic car community takes such complaints very seriously and that the current widespread preference for Daytons over Dunlops is importantly the result of our networking. Let's hope that Dayton does the right thing.

Ken
Ken Korey

Wow,
They should send you a new wheel and pay to have to failed one returned for evaluation. I can't believe they don't want to evaluate it to determine what happened. Be sure to check your other wheels for signs of a similar problem.
By all means, escalate this issue. Sales people (no offense guys) sometimes try to gloss over these issues. Take it to the "Top"
Good luck,
GTF
G T Foster

It may be the light/angle in the photo, but a number of those spoke 'heads' appear to not be sitting evenly against the surface of the inner rim. I would have expected quality manufacturing to have ensured a high degree of uniformity in that aspect.

I'll follow this thread closely as Dayton were emerging as a most probable option in respect of a wheel update I'm looking into.

Regards
Roger
Roger T

Further to my previous comments, i bought a set of DUNLOP wheels from the local MG supplier in Brisbane and cannot complain about them at all. They are paint finish and not chrome. Just the way I like them.
And in the the hidden side of the hub the spoke ends all sit neating within the chamfered hole.


Quote from a Dayton sales page "the most ruggedly built wire wheels in the industry"....."most durable wire wheel on the market today"...really.
DJ Lake

I copied and pasted this entire link. Then I looked up their website and snet it to them in it's entirity. This way maybe somebody will read it.
Sandy
Sandy Sanders

This is a serious problem! When a company that thrives on the quality of their product...is willing to disregard a situation where by deaths may occur, there is a problem.

It could be compared,in similarity to the Ford Pinto gas tank expolsions of passed years. After due consideration and several deaths,Ford decided that it was less costly to pay off the death suits than to recall the car. Do you see many Pintos these days?

Dayton is WRONG and this is seriously going to affect my purchase thoughts. I will be sixty in June and I was going to "treat" myself with a set of 60 spoke chrome wires. Now I am not sure. Gordon
Gordon Harrison

Well I would like to update everyone with the responce from Dayton and my responce to them. Thanks everybody for your support and suggestions.

Bill,

I have been informed by both Tor and Jim of the situation. I do
appreciate the pictures but I am not able to tell what caused the issue
without inspecting the wheel. We will do our best to expedite the
process but as you mentioned this is the beginning of the season and we
are extremely busy. Please send us the wheel with the original receipt
of purchase that so it can be properly checked in. The repair process
can take approximately 2 to 3 weeks. Of course the sooner the better.
Again we will do our best to expedite the process. Please make sure the
RMA is noted on the outside of the package.

Best regards,

Brad Crutchleo
Sales Manager
Dayton Wire Wheels
115 Compark Road
Dayton, OH. 45458
937-438-0100
1-800-862-6000 ext:212
fax: 937-438-1215


WMR Bill

And my responce:

Dear Mr. Crutchleo
I am quite disappointed with both your response as well as the response of your sales representative Jim. I would think from a liability standpoint you would have a little bit more concern let alone the thought of keeping a customer happy. It’s bad enough that you imply that you’re very busy and you will ‘Do your best to get to it”. But what a slap in the face for Jim to try and force a sale of a replacement on me at a $100 mark up above the cost of your own distributors. Then to suggest that if the defective rim is repairable, I would be stuck with both rims! All this while my car sits on Jack stands for several weeks if not months, until you get to it! NO THANKS! I will NOT be doing business with your company. I have purchased another rim from a reputable company and will be sending back the defective one to you for repairs as soon as I receive my new one. Meanwhile I have already begun circulating amongst the different clubs and forums the “DANGER” of your product and your lack of concern and cooperation. I will also be forwarding my complaint to the attorney General of Ohio and the auto consumer groups. This is a potentially dangerous situation that should be investigated immediately. Should other rims fail resulting in death, this is your notice that you were notified of the defective hazard.
Please govern yourself accordingly
Bill Robinson
WMR Bill

Like tens (or hundreds) of thousands of classic car owners around the world I have wire wheels on my cars and, like a high percentage of those owners, plan to purchase more wheels in the near future. Like many others I have been watching this thread and the other threads on wire wheels to keep up to speed on the best manufacturer (and outlet) to use.

I had been pleased to hear about the recent improvements in the Moss Dunlop wheels, but was recently heavily swayed by the praise of the Daytons.

I cannot believe the poor response from Brad above. How many hundreds of thousands of dollars he has lost his company with that approach even he may never know.

To have a customers car off the road, not to mention the potential safety issue already covered, his response is more than a little bizzare.

Surely they would like that wheel back in the most extreme urgency - what better way to expedite that than than sending a replacement?

I have previously worked in the auto industry for a leading global manufacturer for over 25 years and I can state quite categorically that if anything like this happened to a part on recently manufactured vehicle, there would be a company representative there on the spot the same day, or soonest time physically possible.

This is a huge black mark against Dayton, and a shame as their reputation was building quickly thanks to forums like this across the classic car communities.

Come on Dayton, provide a better response; fail to at your peril.
Neil McGurk

I hope Dayton will reconsider, but I doubt it. Looks like the market to LBCs is getting smaller and they would prefer to deal with the lowriders with the 20" gold plated wires than deal with us. That wheel should have been replaced immediately and then if repairable they could sell it at a discount in a "scratch and dent" sale later. You should have been back on the road in a matter of days, not weeks. Just my tuppence worth.
Bill Young

Please note the item has been successfully resolved to be benifit of Bill and the entire classic car community. Refer to the link. Or Dayton Wire Rim Update in this forum.

<http://www2.mgcars.org.uk/cgi-bin/gen5?runprog=mgbbs&mode=thread&access=&subject=6&source=T&thread=200804031820214237>
DJ Lake

I am updating this post from a previous thread for archaive purposes to indicate that Dayton is resoliving this matter:

I wanted to stat a new thread to update everyone on a call I received from The President of Dayton Wire Wheels. He gave me a personal phone call to apologize and to send out a replacement ASAP. He stated that they are greatly concerned with the problem and would like there engineers to evaluate why the problem occurred. I was greatly impressed with his response and help as well as the response from this forum. He did indicate that as an owner of several British Cars himself, he was aware of the "Talk" from these forums on this issue. However I do feel his response was sincere regarding the safety rather than the PR it was getting. I will expect them to share the results with us as to why this problem occurred in the event that someone else may have the same problem.
Many thanks to everyone including Charlie C of Dayton Wire Wheels.
Sincerely, Bill Robinson

WMR Bill

This thread was discussed between 02/04/2008 and 04/04/2008

MG MGA index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.