18" Medusa Woes

[yellowbenzene]

Hello, recently bought a 2006 V50 sport running on 18" medusa wheels.

Passenger side rear tyre keeps slowly leaking air, and I am concerned about it being damaged if it's continually running whilst low pressure. I had the front of the wheels refurbished for kerb rash, but evidently there is a crack in this particular wheel where it is leaking air, which I cannot guarantee isn't my fault. Having upgraded from an old Merc e200 (RIP) with steel rims, I'm pretty new to this alloy game, particularly with such large rims relative to my old motor.

I have read on here that the Medusa rims in particular are easily damaged, and with Glasgow's road network in such poor repair, should I consider replacing these? 17" Volvo rims of varying kinds seem to be easy enough to get hold of (sale or swap) and I have read that with the correct tyre fitment, overall wheel plus tyre size should be no different, but give me added ride quality and protection for the rims when going over the six-inch deep potholes that the council won't fix.

What do you lot think?

[cramhurst]

I've got 18" Medusa alloys on my 2005 V50 SE Sport. I'm in Surrey who must be the second worst council on road repairs. On my way home yesterday my front left tyre caught a rock in the gutter a ripped a whole through the tyre.

The 215/45 R18 tyres Volvo put on the Medusa are expensive with little choice in make. They also have no protection for the alloy so kerbing is inevitable.

I've been looking at other options. One is to put 225/40 R18 tyres on. Much more choice, much cheaper and give more protection to the alloy. They are 14mm smaller in diameter, less than 2.5% so safe to run. I've read posts from quite a few people who do this.

I'm thinking of going fot the 225/40 R18 with Winter tyres this year as the 215/45 is just impossible to buy at a sensible price.

I've tried many sizes of alloy and tyre and never found an exact match for the 215/45 R18. Try using http://www.etyres.co.uk/tyre-size-calculator.htm to check what you are buying is acceptable. If you find an exact match let me know!

[sprout99]

i have a tyre for sale BTW

http://volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=150228

may get you out of a pickle

[yellowbenzene]

Originally Posted by cramhurst

225/40 R18

Wow, they are half the price of the standard ones. I think I might try that. Honestly - £200 a year in road tax, £285 per month council tax and there are potholes which recur year after year on the busiest roads in the city. Yet, Glasgow City Council employed the highest-paid local authority staff member in the entire UK in 2010, who must have been great value for money at £450,628.

[cramhurst]

Originally Posted by yellowbenzene

Wow, they are half the price of the standard ones. I think I might try that.

Exactly! My problem is my tyres are all different ages so if I swap size I'll have to bin some fairly decent expensive tyres in the process.

Not sure if it's safe to run 215/45 R18 on the front and 225/40 R18 on the rear?!

[t5_monkey]

Originally Posted by yellowbenzene

Hello, recently bought a 2006 V50 sport running on 18" medusa wheels.

Passenger side rear tyre keeps slowly leaking air, and I am concerned about it being damaged if it's continually running whilst low pressure. I had the front of the wheels refurbished for kerb rash, but evidently there is a crack in this particular wheel where it is leaking air, which I cannot guarantee isn't my fault. Having upgraded from an old Merc e200 (RIP) with steel rims, I'm pretty new to this alloy game, particularly with such large rims relative to my old motor.

I have read on here that the Medusa rims in particular are easily damaged, and with Glasgow's road network in such poor repair, should I consider replacing these? 17" Volvo rims of varying kinds seem to be easy enough to get hold of (sale or swap) and I have read that with the correct tyre fitment, overall wheel plus tyre size should be no different, but give me added ride quality and protection for the rims when going over the six-inch deep potholes that the council won't fix.

What do you lot think?

Hey Mate I'm in Glasgow and changed to 17" alloys.

Your welcome to ride in mine sometime so you can compare the ride.

You'll find 17's WAY easier to live with in Glasgow - 225/45/17 is the way to go - I've got very light 17's on (OZ Super T's) and they improve the ride massively over 18's and significantly over the stock 17" wheels.

Did you get the whole wheel refurbed? Chameleon Coatings will refurb the rim for about £20 a corner if it's air leaking out of the seal due to corrosion.

[yellowbenzene]

Originally Posted by t5_monkey

Hey Mate I'm in Glasgow and changed to 17" alloys.

Your welcome to ride in mine sometime so you can compare the ride.

You'll find 17's WAY easier to live with in Glasgow - 225/45/17 is the way to go - I've got very light 17's on (OZ Super T's) and they improve the ride massively over 18's and significantly over the stock 17" wheels.

Did you get the whole wheel refurbed? Chameleon Coatings will refurb the rim for about £20 a corner if it's air leaking out of the seal due to corrosion.

Alright mate. Where abouts in Glasgow are you? I'm in Partick.

I'm going to take the wheel up to Chameleon this weekend maybe once I see whether or not the tyre is still leaking. They seem to come highly recommended. The wheels look like new from the outside but there's definitely a crack or something. Tyre goes from 32PSI to 24PSI over about 5 days of light driving...

Got any pictures of your S40?

[Lee '71]

I dumped my Medusa alloys after I paid over £300 to have them all refurbed and then kerbed one within a month!! I swopped with a guy on this forum who had a brand new C30 but wanted bigger alloys, so my 2006 V50 2.0D Sport got his 24 hour old 17" Cratus alloys and he went away very happy with my 18" Medusa ones. The ride is so much better and it no longer gets caught in the HGV tramlines left down the roads and of course the tyres are cheaper too!!

There's a -2% difference in the speedo reading (speedo says 100mph, car actually doing 98mph) going from 18" to 17" and with the tyre size difference so it's negligible really.

[t5_monkey]

Originally Posted by yellowbenzene

Alright mate. Where abouts in Glasgow are you? I'm in Partick.

I'm going to take the wheel up to Chameleon this weekend maybe once I see whether or not the tyre is still leaking. They seem to come highly recommended. The wheels look like new from the outside but there's definitely a crack or something. Tyre goes from 32PSI to 24PSI over about 5 days of light driving...

Got any pictures of your S40?

I'm in Maryhill! Just near Byres road.

[scoobysn7x]

In the past 3 weeks I've had 16" s, 17"'s & 18"s on my S40, my findings were that there wasn't really any significant difference in ride quality between the 18" s running 225/40 and the 17" currently on the car running 215/45, if anything the ride may be a little harsher on the the 17" s, I did find however that the tyre/road noise was quite a bit worse with the 18" s on (could be down to the type of tyre although the 17"'s are a similar tread pattern) , but the grip/cornering was better (prob due to the bigger 'footprint' of the tyres on th 18"), I had the 16" s on breifly and the ride was a lot worse (well for me girlfriend prefered it) car felt a lot more wallowy, was better over the bumps etc...

I live in glasgow too and have to say the roads are shocking, I could have lived with the ride on the 18" s but I inherited some issue with the wheels so they got returned and I got a new set of 17" s, although I'm thinking of trading back to a black and chrome set and even going up to 18" s again....

18" s


17" s


PS nice to find another glasgow member we should have a mini meet as I want a go in Monkeys car :LOL: