WARNING - TVR have discontinued 17 inch wheels

[johnmckenzie]

I've just had an incident with a pothole in Oxford which has put a twist in one of my front, bog standard, original fit 17 inch silver wheels. Phoned dealer to acquire new one who then phoned factory who stated 17 inch wheels are discontined and there are none in stock. Dealer advice - convert to 18 inch!!!!!!!
Oh, very bloody funny! I've got a nearly new (2000 miles) set of SO2's fitted and 3 unbent wheels and I'm expected to fork out best part of £1800 on 4 wheels and tyres to fix a problem that should cost £150.
Got a couple of dealers sorting through their junkheaps for me to try and find a straight secondhand one. If this fails, then what?
I haven't spoken to the factory myself yet, I'll await the results of the secondhand search. In the meantime, anyone out there with 17 inch silver jobs they want to offload on me? I'd even consider buying a whole set if the price was sensible.

Hellllllllp !!!!!!!

[PetrolTed]

Isn't there some law requiring manufacturers to stock spare parts for a certain number of years?

[mattjbatch]

IIRC there is some piece of legislation covering this. Get back on to TVR

[anonymous-user]

This happened to me the other month, spun the car on a rounderbout and buckled a wheel on the curb

I had the 16' Cerbera wheels and when I tried to buy one from TVR dealer I was informed that TVR had stopped making these wheels.

So is that both the 16' & 17' wheels they've stopped making ! ...looks like the spiders are the way forward for TVR.

The TVR dealer did say they could still get them, but couldn't say when, and nor could the TVR factory... so I could have been waiting indefinatly !

Luckly...thanks to Pistonheads, I found someone selling a set of 16' wheels on the Classified section and went and bought them instead. Cheers Ted

Not good though. I hope you find someone selling the 17' or you may be in for a long wait / expensive set of new wheels!

Good luck

[JMCerb]

"I was informed that TVR had stopped making these wheels."

TVR don't make wheels!! These are OZ items!!

[ro_butler]

I thought the 17" items were made by raceline...

[richb]

quote:TVR don't make wheels!! These are OZ items!!

AFAIK the original 17" Cerbera 4.5 wheels are Raceline RL-7's. Speedline have taken over RaceLine and no, you can no longer obtain RL-7's.

However, there must be loads of Cerbera owners out there who are/have upgraded to 18" Spiders. Have you put an e-mail on the yahoo cerbera e-mail list? That seems to be the hotbed for Cerbera modifiers!

Rich...

[bilton_d]

I agree with ro butler either speedline or raceline, i think they are available via a local performace garage in Gateshead Tyne and Wear ... Revolution

[gazzab]

There are loads of 17 inchers sitting in peoples garages following upgrade to 18s.
Wont be a problem sourcing a wheel privately. Just be careful to ensure they havent gone porous. I'd look to buy a set of 17s off someone. Might even get some half useful spare tyres as well.

[johnmckenzie]

Having spent 20 years in the motor industry (10 with Ford and 10 with Unipart) I can tell you the requirements to supply service parts and spares after production is finished is a little hazy. 10 years is an oft quoted number but try to find definitive legislation on the subject and you'll be out of luck. 10 years is a period deemed by most manufacturers to encompass a reasonable lifetime for a vehicle during which they have a moral if not legal obligation and is also a period that is felt courts would find reasonable in the event of a customer suing for lack of support. Certainly 4 years, in the case of my wheels would be morally short (especially when TVR's tend to kick around for 20 years or more).

In the meantime however, anyone out there with wheels, please get in contact either through the thread or my e-mail address in my profile. Thanks guys!

p.s I think we all know that TVR don't make wheels!

regards

John Mckenzie

[zertec]

The 7-spoke Griffith wheels are also extinct. Some of the last cars even had "re-cycled" wheels (2nd hand and resprayed).

[JonRB]

quote:The 7-spoke Griffith wheels are also extinct. Some of the last cars even had "re-cycled" wheels (2nd hand and resprayed).

That's outrageous. I thought 2nd-hand parts on a new car was for kit cars only. Oh. Ah.

So any of us who dare to have a TVR that is more than a few years old can expect no support should we sustain damage? No new wheels and body panels that might be made in a few months when the factory get round to it. Great.

Regards
Jon
Chimaera 500 with now-rare-as-rockinghorse-shit Griff500 wheels.

[pedestrian]

Just been on the Oz wheels site (nice flash stuff!) - they don't do the cross spoke any more
Guess we should start panic buying!!

[paulk]

I Have a set of 16" Cerbera wheels with decent set of SO2's on if any one is interested.

Paul

[whatever]

I'd prefer to keep the 17s on my Cerbie too, despite having one which is currently a bit porous (i.e. not bad enough to warrant an upgrade to spiders).

I'd rather keep the original fit items, so if anyone has a single 17"... (unlikely, I know).

Maybe if somone has upgraded, us on this thread could probably split a full set of 17"s!

[deanpluthero]

i will sell my 17's but in the next couple of months run out of money to get 18's at the mo plus just bought 2 new tires for front.....3 alloys are in good condition, 1 has had paint part removed from the inside as air was seaping underneath/out....?

will keep you informed

Dean

[Graham]

last i heard from raceline/speedline is that they were getting closer to making rl7's again

the story goes that SL bought out RL and moved production to italy only to find the moulds are imperial and dont fit the italin metric machines... so they've made some more moulds but are now getting hotspots ( air bubbles?) in the wheels and were trying again but they italy went on strike....


how do i know this well i had some rl-7's on order since August and got told two weeks every week untill march when i gave up and they gave me some sl 2120's instead...

[johnmckenzie]

Offers are coming in guys, thanks very much. I'll keep you posted and let you know when I have a result (this afternoon I hope)

Cheers

John

[BrianM]

I've got a set of 17's with almost new so'2's on them one of the wheels is flaking badly and needs to be re-powdercoated, if you want to pay the shipping you can have them. I put them in to a local place to get re-finished but ended up just getting the spiders.

Brian

[whatever]

quote:
I've got a set of 17's with almost new so'2's on them one of the wheels is flaking badly and needs to be re-powdercoated, if you want to pay the shipping you can have them. I put them in to a local place to get re-finished but ended up just getting the spiders.

Brian

I'm not sure if this offer is exclusively for John (or even if John has already found replacements), if so apologies in advance, but do you have any idea how much national postage for a set of wheels and tyres would be? Is it as dear as driving up and collecting them?

Either way, still looking for between 1 and 4 17"-ers...