Spare Wheel Problems

[Guest chrislaurenceleo]

Last weekend I got a puncture so took off my spare wheel and replaced with the punctured wheel. I went to get the puncture repaired today and had to get a new tyre fitted. The tyre fitter took down the punctured wheel by using an airgun spanner to lower the attaching wire but when he went to rewind the wire with the spare wheel he found that it wouldnt rewind all the way. The fitters said that they had experienced this before and they were not to blame. I explained that I had only used the spare wheel on about three previous occassions and that I was surprised that it would break so quickly. I took the problem to my local dealer who said that they had never heard of this happening before and they thought that the tyre fitter had "cross threaded" the ratchet system. The tyre fitters are refusing to take any responsibility for the damage and I wondered if anybody else had experienced the same problem with thier spare wheel. If so how did they get it fixed.

[Andrew T]

Yes, this has happened to many of us. Your fitter is responsible, but it is so easy to tangle the cable he didn't really do anything wrong either. A new winch is about

[GSMGuy]

Write to the fitters and explain that whilst your vehicle was in their care, they have a legal responsibility for it, and by using the incorrect tool.. ie not as per the manual, they have caused the dameage!

 

Mike

[Andrew T]

But using the incorrect tool wasn't the problem, it was not keeping the cable tight while winding it up. There is nothing in the handbook to emphasise this, so how could they reasonably have known ?

[Guest chrislaurenceleo]

Ta Andrew. I have taken off ther old retainer. Volkswagen have quoted

[Ivor_E_Tower]

First try unwinding it whilst pulling down on the wheel - then try re-winding it. I've had this problem before when checking spare tyre pressure. All is not lost yet .....