JoeMama69

Hi,
Own a 2018 Z06 with $13K miles. I never race, have not hit curbs or potholes. Only have rear end slide a little when taking 90 degree turns and probably about 20 times. In other words I havent used this car yet to how its supposed to be driven. Had loss of pressure in one rear tire and had dealer look at all wheels. Both rear wheels have three cracks and need new ones. GM denied warranty. I always loved Corvettes and had a few 15 years ago and never had this issues. But after this I am starting to hate GM and Corvette for this reason. WTF, if I knew this was an issue I would have never spent $90K on this "used to be" awesome car. GM is a bunch of losers to not own up and deny these claims. They obviously have a design flaw and wont own up to it. . This will obviously keep recurring every 10K miles. Dealers/GM have no other wheels or tires to sell or suggest so need to figure out what to do.....Im not blowing $2400 over 2 years on wheels. I would sell the car and but another non GM one but I already gave like $8K in sales tax when bought the car so dont want to waste more in sales tax. The dealers are to blame as well cause they should disclaim this issue to buyers.

Im an electrical engineer, however it seems that the issue is caused by run flat tires since the cracks all appear at the rim and the run flats transfer all the energy directly from the ground, thru metal side wall, and right into the rim. Its also strange that the cracks all occur on the inside rim, which also points to design flaw. Non run flat would absorb some of the energy and dissipate it more evenly and probable prevent any cracks.

I am wondering if this car cant handle any rear sliding without cracking the wheel?

1) I am thinking of replacing with non run flat tires but want to ensure it doesnt cause any issues and can handle the car. Has anyone done this? Which tires did you use and can you tell any difference in performance.?

Thanks.
JoeMama

kenownr

That's really crappy !! GM needs to step up and cover these sub-standard wheels I keep reading about. Sorry about all the losses.

I'm not sure non-runflats are available at least in the Michelin closet.

Good luck and keep us posted -- tom

SLEEKVET

I had the same issue with 2 bent wheels and it just leaves a bad taste when your driving the car when your worried you are going to bend or crack another wheel. I'm doing the same thing, looking for non-run flats. I also did the MRC calibration which made it ride softer so that may be a thought to check on your 2018. Mine is a 2017.

Z0HS1CK

Continental extremecontact sport.

They come in our sizes and it totally transformed the car for my type of driving. I don't do any track driving and every part of my street driving became better once i got rid of the crappy PSS tires.

Car runs quieter, smoother, takes bumps better, doesn't tire skip at full lock when it's cold out, has a longer life and it's cheaper. I can't see any lose in that situation.

Some might argue that the PSS is a better looking tire and i would agree. But that upside doesn't outweigh all the downsides that come with having it on the car.

It was so bad that i switched out the PSS's in both my vettes, and installed conti extremecontact sport, both times.

cyi1

Non run-flat Michelin Pilot Super Sports have been great for me.

JoeMama69

I just called EXR racing in vegas and they dont use run flats on the 2016 Z06, they use the Michelin PS4 or supersport. Called a tire shop and they dont have non run flat for 2018 Z06 but said the Continental ExtremeContact Sportnon run flat fits on 2018 Z06.

So I will probably swap to those and use for a year and then see if I have any cracks in wheels.

Its so dangerous cause my other rear tire didnt lose pressure but I asked dealer to check anyways and I would have never known that it had three cracks .......

dee zed

Unfortunately I have you beat - 2015 Z06 2 rims replaced
-2019 ZR1 3 rims replaced on the road AP30/18 OCT 24/18 rear ( all ZR1 cracks were on non run flat tires )
NOV 21/18 rear
AP 11/19 front
I have had it and will not buy another piece of **** OEM rim

April 16/19 I installed HRE wheels and new tires I hope original poster has better luck then me .

Z0HS1CK

You'll be happy with the conti tires.

People go crazy for certain names that come with the car from factory so perhaps they think it's the only thing that's allowed on the car lol. LIke michelin and mobil 1 lol.

I use conti and motul oil btw. Totally going against the norm. And all is well!!

Bill Dearborn

I have no idea what caused your wheels to crack but I doubt it was the zero pressure tires. They don't have a steel stiffener in the inside sidewall they have either a stiff piece of rubber or some other organic material. It also isn't that stiff. If you attended spring mountain you should have had the opportunity to hold a cross section in your hand and see how flexible even the inside sidewall is. The cause is something else besides the tires.

Bill

tertiumquid

Come on Bill. The sidewalls are so stiff and short that they might as well be steel and they transmit impact shock directly to the cast OEM wheels that are too brittle. The anecdotal evidence is overwhelming. OP: go to forged wheels and Continentals and your troubles will be over

LagunaSecaZ06

IMHO, after reading a lot of threads on bent wheels, I think its a few scenarios in combination that cause the problem.

I have 22,000 miles on my Z06/Z07 and about 18 track days on the stock rims. Two of my wheels have a slight wobble that was detected on a Hunter Road Force balancer, but my wheels road force balanced and my steering wheel does not shake and the car is smooth when driving. With that said, I think this is multi faceted problem.

Points that cause this problem-

1. The wheel design. Huge offset from the hub to inner barrel edge, especially on the rear wheels. This loads the barrel and creates a lot of leverage for bending.
2. Poor casting. This leads to cracks, typically in the inner barrel. The wheel design exacerbates production tolerances and probably stresses the seam in the barrel.
3. Geographical area, crappy roads and pot holes. It appears that many people that have the bending wheel or cracking problem are in the North east or on roads that affected by winter. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I think this combination of problems is why some people crack and bend a lot of wheels, and some like me in California don't. I would also be pissed off, If I had to buy a $4-$6,000 set of wheel(even though they are beautiful) to deal with this problem.

pcguy2u

Here's a post I made earlier on this very issue.....
Having wheel problems on my new/leftover 18Z and after looking, the budget for suitable replacement wheels seems to be north of $5k.

Also, in my pursuit of new wheels, I happened to chat with someone from a local dealer who suggested that when these issues with the C7 wheels first surfaced, GM was honoring claims on them. But, after analyzing the demographics/geographics they determined that most of the claims came from CA. Never mind that there are probably more C7's per capita in CA. Now they decline claims, even if there are extremely low miles on the vette.

Anyone getting claims honored anywhere???

Nick

CW4L

This cracking issue isnt going away with the crappy wheels on our vettes, simply they are not made for these high HP machines! If anyone needs help with new Forged whees please call/text me at 440-915-6166

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-solution.html

dee zed

Perfect well thought out answer ( Toronto Canada North East ) 5 wheels replaced 3 ZR1 2 Z06

Oh4GTO

I ran Alpin PA4s during the winter which are very soft. Never hit any potholes or bumps and still developed 3 cracks in one wheel.

SLEEKVET

I'm in CA and I had my 2 bent wheels covered by GM last year, as my dealer did get a "one time exception". One front and one rear wheel on the same side. It was right after I picked up my car from service so it was hard to tell if it was my driving or dealer test drive. Anyway, I did get the MCR calibration which helped and will probably go to Conti tires since I don't track except a couple 1/4 mile events. Hopefully that will soften the blows on the wheels.

JoeMama69

I'm in California and dealer was able to get both cracked wheels replaced under warranty. They had to escalate to GM district manager. So kudos to them. However, I'm not taking any chances as maybe they wont cover again in future when it will probably happen again and its super dangerous. So I am having the Magnetic Ride Upgrade done and changing to non run-flat Continental Extreme Contact Sport tires (the only ones that fit on 2018, well the non sport does too.). This will be my test before I spend money on forged wheels. So will post back after I run thru those tires. They are 30K rated but I suspect will get like 20K out of them. I probably would have gotten 17K out of the stock Michelin but Im not driving those puppies again on these lame wheels.

Remember, don't trust anyone. The GM service advisor originally told me my other rear wheel wouldnt have any cracks since the tire didn't lose pressure. Such a stupid comment, not even worth explaining to him. And they are called "service advisor"...... I had them look anyways and of course there were three cracks. They need to change their titles to "scheduling assistants" or train them better. Imagine if I listened to him and drove off and then the wheel brakes and people die because of that.....

Cant wait to drive again, the car (except for wheels) is insane !!!

BLK06ZO6

I view this cracked and bending wheel problem as an opportunity for improvement. Great excuse to tell the wife why you needed buy a set of Forgelines. 😂

SLEEKVET

Let us know - I'm looking at the same tires for the same reasons. My only concern is dry pavement grip compared to the MPSS.

tertiumquid

The Conti's are just as good in my experience and they don't pick up every damned little stone and throw it up into the wheel wells either