Buying wheels from a breaker

[Rory Finlay]

Hi,

After introducing myself in the Newbies forum over a year ago, here I am 30k-odd happy miles later with my first post!

I'm up and down the M6 to Scotland quite a bit in winter for the skiing and while I managed ok last winter without snow tyres, after sliding around a few times on the back roads this week I've decided to invest in some winter tyres.

I'm going down the route of getting a spare set of wheels to stick the tyres on, so that I can save on paying a garage to change tyres twice a year. I've managed to find a set of alloys at a local breaker that are exactly the same as the ones I've got on just now, at a reasonable price, but just wanted to check if there's anything in particular I should be looking out for before I pull the trigger.

If anyone's bought a set of wheels from a breaker and could offer any experience that would be much appreciated.

Feel free to chime in with winter tyre recommendations as well, but I know there's plenty on here about that already!

Thanks,

Rory

 

[Stevearcade]

I've heard very positive stories and very bad ones about buying wheels from breakers. The main thing is to get a thorough look at the wheels first and if possible the car they were on. You can often gauge by the nature of the car's smash as to whether you want the wheels or not. If the car's been rear ended or front ended not too badly, you're probably ok. If the car's been shunted at funny angles and/or slammed over kerbs at speed, then avoid the wheels.

 

[brodziu]

if there's no deep curb scuffs, dents or cracks wheels should be ok, you can also check the rims by moving your hand around the wheel to feel if they are buckled, even if it's minor you should be able to feel it under your fingers ;-)

 

[Rory Finlay]

Cheers Guys,

I went along today and the wheels looked not too bad, but a the breaker was asking a bit much money compared to I've seen out there on ebay etc. and they weren't willing to budge much on price. Think I might just get the winter tyres put on my current wheels for a tenner a corner and keep an eye out in the meantime....