ChillTravelers

C7 GS with 44k miles with a cracked wheel. I started noticing a rear tire leak that progressively became worse. Traveling, I took the car to the GM dealer in Las Cruces, NM. They did a typical tank test, could not find a leak and pumped the tire back up. Waited an hour for a leak. All good. Woke up the next morning and it was flat. The dealer did a full submersion test and the leak was in the wheel at the bead. This was the 20" rear wheel. I was reading the forum and notice a number of complaints about these wheels being defective, so I asked if there was a recall. No, and it was not covered because I am over the 36k bumper to bumper warranty.

The bill was going to be $900+. Because I read about the wheel potentially cracking and being warped, I opted to order in a set of C7 racing wheels that are high speed certified. Not too much more to buy four new wheels than one OEM wheel. So, we got the tires off and I was able to see the crack and that there was no road damage to the wheel. The crack was a strange vertical cleave indicating a casting problem. I quick check with a friend in the aluminum wheel business and his prognosis was a factory defect.

The reason for my post is to educate that a high-speed wobble or a leaking tire could be the wheels. I understand that there is some sort of lawsuit as well.

Name on the wheel is RONAL dated 22 June 2016

Bob



Bead Crack

Scudz

Copy your post here:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...roll-call.html

SilverGhost

Register with the lawsuit attorney's for when damages are paid out:

https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-...ys-rims-crack/

ChillTravelers

thanks! I went to the site, but could not see where to register. Bob

ChillTravelers

I was able to get the car out for a high speed run after the new wheels. Clearly there is a significant improvement in the areas of vibration and smoothness. The. Full range between zero to 💯 is significant both in the interior noise and in the butt. I am now convinced that the wheels were not true as well as the leaking crack in the rim. The difference is palpable.

I have a long history of wheel and tire problems going back to the first week owning the car. The dealer misaligned the car using a FE4 setting instead of the FE6-7 setting. This prematurely wore out a set of Pilot 2’s. They diagnosed a vibration as a bad torque converter. Luckily this forum set me straight that it was the fuel management system going in and out of 4 and 8 cylinders. A plug-in module eliminated that, but there was still a strange shimmy to the car that is now gone.

As a note to others, I also went away from the run-flat Pilot 2’s to Continental road tires which also made a huge difference in both touring and sport mode.

Bob

Vetteman Jack

It is a shame that this problem with bent/cracked wheels is happening. Hopefully the lawsuit over this does some good for those that have had problems.

olblue75

I bent 3 and was told it was a user issue not a manufacturing issue told me to hit up my insurance. So insurance approved my claim for 3 new wheels.