FAsnakes

Noticed my right front tire was slowly loosing air - took it in to have the tire replaced / repaired. . The shop noticed the wheel had a hairline crack on the inner barrel.. Wheel had to be replaced.

Fast forward 3 weeks and now the other rear wheel was loosing air, took it to the shop and it the inner barrel has a small crack.

I don't off-road the car nor have I hit any potholes or anything.. I have a Z07 with the super sports.
Anyone have any ideas on what's going on here?

CaRockZ06

Have the tires been subjected to cold temps? That could be the issue.

Randy G.

Cold temps would crack the wheels?

383vett

Did GM replace the wheels?

jaden61

Do you drive in "track mode"?

FAsnakes

I typically drive in Tour & Sport. I have just under 19k on the car.

Sk8Man_

Can you post a photo or two? How are the cracks located in relationship to where the center hub piece is mounted to the barrel section? Have you determined that what appears to be cracks in the wheels are actually where your leaking is occurring?

AORoads

YOu don't state if these are the stock wheels and if the car is lowered. And presumably you are running at stock, 30 lbs. pressure in the tires.

In the distant past, kids getting ultra-low profile tires on wheels used to crack the wheels from some very minor bumps. This hasn't happened in some time to my knowledge.

FAsnakes

Everything is stock, (wheels, air pressure, etc)

FAsnakes

Tire shop pulled the wheel, poured water over the crack and you could see bubbles. Crack is on the inner edge of the barrel. I don't have any pics.

Edwardz

Any pictures of the cracked wheels?

AORoads

That is really odd. I don't think there's been another post like this that I can recall.

VictorBarron

jaden61

The reason I ask was at Spring Mountain Corvette Owners School they said track mode on the street is a rim killer.

Bill Dearborn

GM did have some issues with the C5 Speedline Forged wheels where the cracks would appear right where the spoke met the barrel. They resolved that by going with a thicker spoke cast wheel after that. There were also a few C6Z cast wheels that cracked in the same area but there really weren't many reports of that issue and the wheel design didn't change.

It may be the OPs problem is an outlier that won't be repeated often or it could be like the C5 issue where they had to change the wheel design. The C5 issue didn't show up until there were some miles on the cars.

Bill

mdz06vetter

OP stated 19,000 miles on car, so.............am thinking the accumulation of hitting bumps on roads with the mileage and the cold probably caused the problem just like what happened with older cars

CaRockZ06

Sorry about that. I misunderstood, was thinking that the tires are cracked

Mad Dog 24

Very odd but I've had customers that swear they hit no bad pot holes but it was obvious they did. Cracks were on the same side of the car were yours too? In NY we have pot holes and bridge seams that are knife edges!

Were they chrome which has an additional heat and chemical process?


Or could be a late Friday afternoon forged time and was the guys last day on his minimum wage job.

Checkmate1

From what I understand, the wheels on our Z's are cast wheels.

Cast wheels (when not built right) are prone to cracks especially from unforgiving road surfaces. I'm curious as to whether the wheels are JWL/VIA certified.

I suppose its tall order for GM to provide us OEM Forged Wheels eh?

BigBird440

they charge 2k plus for chrome wheels why not sell forged (suply and machine time would be a killer)