rcarter

Fellow ZR1's
I want to let you all know that my 2013 ZR1 had (2) rims bent from the factory. After I put new tires on it was discovered by the dealer that the right front and rear left rims are bent. They order replacements but for a $100K plus car this suck! Buyer beware

mirage2991

How many miles on the car? 3?

rcarter

Nope I got my in July of 2012 for Boardwalk, I had 8000 miles on it and changed out the PS2 tires when they discovered the issue...

FAsnakes

Buyer beware from what? I already bought a ZR1 and have had it for some time.. . My wheels are fine.

How do you know this was a factory defect?

MachAll 2005

"After I put new tires on" .... maybe this is when they were bent and not from the factory. Looks like someone is covering their A$$ at the expense of GM!

jvp

I'm sorry you went through that, but it's highly unlikely to have happened at the factory. The tires are mounted and balanced by Bridgestone (yes, really) before they're shipped to the Bowling Green factory to be put on the car. If they were bent, the folks at Bridgestone would have had a LOT of trouble balancing them without adding a bunch of stick-on wheel weights. And even then...

You'd know it if the wheels were bent. Anyone driving the car would know it immediately. Been there, done that.

The wheels were either bent by you hitting a nasty pothole (I've done it), or by the dealer while they were trying to wrestle the runflats off of them.

jas

Jimmy Z

I agree ....don't believe it's a factory issue.

3LZZ06

With 8,000 miles on the car, then the wheels were discovered to be bent?

Something smells a little...

rcarter

Here is what I know; it took the ZR1 Tech at Boardwalk (7 hours) to do the tire swap... I watch him from end to end. He was very careful and appeared to know the ends and outs of this process. If he bent them during the dis/remounting process, he is indicating this was from the factory or Bridgestone. The car had no noticeable vibration before and believe it or not it still has no noticeable vibration with the bent rims and new tires. The new rims are in for me to have installed. So if this is not a common problem, then GM gave up to (2) new rims in a couple of days… I find this very odd. If I hit a nasty pothole, then I did this multiple times to bend one in the left rear and one on the right front.

SLK1Z

It is very interesting. Last summer I purchase new rubber for my fathers 2007 Z06. Took the tires and rubber off the car and took them to an installer with the lastest equipment. While I was waiting they came up and told me that the front right wheel bent/warped. At first I thought that they had done it. I inpected them rim and not a mark on it. Was confused. Once the rubber was installed they went to balance and then they were puzzelled. It balanced out with very few wieghts , and less then each of the other 3. The car never once, before or after the new tires showed any sign of vibration at any speeds, including much higher then legal.
I also just purchased a set of new Cup wheels off a forum vendor. Had my tires swapped( at a different shop) and they too said a wheel was bent, yet the wheels balanced out with no issues or excessive wieghts.

09Z06pj

The scenario is bizarre. Seven hours to change tires? Why did it take so long? I can understand taking time and being careful but that seems a bit excessive.

rcarter

You’re telling me, it was my Saturday that I gave up. I live 115 miles away from this dealer and was very careful selecting the company to do the work. They had the latest high tech tire equipment so I was told. The Tech said the front tires are more problematic to mount and the rear were more difficult to balance. If was funny, because after they discovered the first front rim bent I suggested to put the other one on the balancing machine to see if it had an issues before they dismounted it. They declined. I too inspected the wheels to include after they clean them wiping them down myself and there was not a mark on them. I’m just glad that I am getting new replacement rims to resolve the problem… I hope. I only posted this because I think this is an odd issue and if you have a ZR1 and trust you are getting a top of the line performance car you should not have to deal with this…

whatcop?

The rims aren't bent from the factory. I am willing to bet you hit a joint in a highway or somewhere where the road was uneven due to construction on the highway. That's when you simultaneously bent both wheels.

Your cup wheels are forged from the factory. The forging process is a press in a mold. The only way to bend them after would be to drop them from a decent height. No way the guy at the dealer bent them either.


Stiff sidewall tires aka runflats mixed with a sudden jolt is going to bend them. I am willing to factor in that driving around in sport mode isn't going to help the situation either since the shocks are stiffer and will not allow the wheel to rebound from the sudden shock.

K B Vettin

i just had all four tires swapped and the installer showed me while drivers side rear was on the balancer that it had a slight bend and you could easily see it while the wheel was spinning. i never noticed a vibration at high speeds and the tire balanced just fine and even now i don't feel any type of vibration. the shop i went does a lot of cars like ours with wide wheels and the tech told me this is very common on wide wheels since there is no support in the barrel towards the inner lip. he told me that that area is so venerable a small bump at speeds as low as 45 or 50 could cause it if hit just right. needless to say I've hit plenty of road gators at much higher speeds so I'm sure i caused it.

ZeeOh6Nut

While I was going through the trying multiple trips required to my dealer’s service dept. for my vibration issues to be solved, which eventually got me a new set of front rotors, I had a similar experience to rcarter's. The first visit resulted in 2 left side bent rims being detected. I was shown on the road force balancer that the rims where1/4" on the front and 1/2" on the rear out-of-round. I purchased two new wheels (chrome). I have been the only driver of the car since new and it had only 13 miles on the odometer when I closed the deal. I only had one occasion where it was possible that I was driving when the wheel damage occurred and it was on the slightly larger than the norm for this state, buckling ridge of Michigan hiway 23. I was going about 75mph and if that is the source of the damage, all I can say is that THESE WHEELS ARE DELICATE! I have never owned a car that had wheels that would get bent with such a noticeable, but noncritical road hazard.

Since there is absolutely no proof of where the damage came from, I can't blame anybody damaging the wheels except for myself. The car had the vibration since new and until the rotors were replaced. But the protocol to track down the vibration involved taking the wheel problem out of the equation first. I wish I had the same size tire all around and room for a spare because I think the theory on the run-flat sidewall being so hardened also plays in to the vulnerability of the wheels getting bent.