raztek

Would like to understand why this failure happened given the info down below. Do not want to invest $1000s in new forged wheels without understanding what could have caused this to happen. TIA!



Additional info:

• Forged wheel
• 4 yrs old
• Not tracked (as I was told)
• Custom hub-centric wheel adapter torqued properly
• Rear wheel
• No hits/no curb rash
• Stored indoors in winter

raztek

No one has any insight?

zrracer

I would contact the manufacturer.
Maybe a big pot hole hit could cause that. Maybe be a ram over a corner curb also. No road rash so a hit from something straight on.
Good luck

Robin

Eff A Ford

I've seen this happen a lot around the internet. Probably just a defect.

If you're lucky, the manufacturer will replace it. Worst case scenario, they will say you were using the car off-road and won't help you. It's your word against theirs.

If they are multi-piece, you can save a little money and just have the center reproduced.

walleyejack

mfg defect i would guess. contact manufacturer

raztek

Thanks for responding. Nope no curb hits or pot holes. Happened on two wheels. Contacted the manufacurer who provided hypothesis but stopped short of saying defect. Solution offered was effectively buy replacements at retail price. In the market for a replacement so trying to understand if this was a defect or something inherent in forged wheels.

leadfoot4

Care to mention what brand of wheels they were? I know that many people don't like to "single out" manufacturers, but possibly this particular wheel company produced a bad batch of wheels, and if others had a similar problem, maybe a solution can be found.

raztek

I am wary of posting the manufacturer name as I want an unbiased discussion on what caused the above to happen. The manufacturer had an opportunity to help that would have made me a customer for life but flipped the solution last minute that left a bad taste.

Can I rule out the adaptor as a cause of the stress cracks? I have a replacement set of wheels on with a thicker adapter and have driven the car more than 4x the distance that I did with the above wheels. The replacement is a GM factory wheel off a 2008, had curb rash was three years older and re-powdercoated. In all respects as I understan them an inferior wheel to the ones that failed. Or is this an apples to oranges comparison?

Back to my question, is the above due to some other reason I have not considered, is it inherent to forged wheels themselves?

I prefer to not post the manufacurer at this time as I do not want to bias the discussion.

walleyejack

If it was a "big pot hole", would the tire not be destroyed if it caused this much damage to the wheel ? Leading to possible fender damage ?
I tend to believe not a pot hole.

Just my 1 pennie

RiceBurnerZ07

Saw you post this link on the C5 Modified page.


Without writing a whole story here this is my experience. I had a C4 with OEM Grandsport wheels on the car and was leaving a light and driving normally at a dark intersection, hit something in the road (not a clue what is was to this day) that caused both barrels of the wheel on the drivers side to get 'punched in'. It looked like someone took a hammer and knocked holes in the barrels to the point where the caliper was hitting the knuckle in the barrel of the wheel on both the front and rear wheels. The tires were perfectly fine.

I could imagine a similar case happened with you but wasn't as serious on impact and could've happened before you owned the wheels. As time went on the stresses on the spoke eventually caused them to fail.

I would do what the others have stated, see if the manufacturer will offer a replacement or work with you.

But my guess, previous owner hit something to hard like a speed bump or somehow damaged the wheels and caused a little stress in them and over time with you driving they finally gave up.

leadfoot4

OP, keep in mind, it appears that you didn't purchase these wheels new, so you don't know their history. Secondly, if manufacturers replaced wheels, every time somebody complained, they'd be out of business. People DO hit potholes, curbs (not in you case), and all sorts of things in "normal use". A manufacturer cannot warranty EVERYTHING.

Oversight

I've seen this quite a few times, all were forged wheels. Apparently there is a big difference in the forging process with lesser expensive forged wheels but I think any "lightweight" wheel can crack over time if there is enough stress on them (track use, heavy loads) Search "forgestar cracks" From all of the different sets of wheels I've owned I do believe you mostly get what you pay for.

0Luke@tirerack

The most likely cause is metal fatigue. Wheels do flex and can go through extremely high stress levels when driven aggressively. That can cause the metal to weaken over time and use. While you were told "never tracked" you don't really know how the wheels were used prior to you having them on your car.

raztek

Thanks for posting folks.