averagej

I've now experienced the dreaded cracked rim issue for the second time. First the left rear and now the right. I own a 19 Z06 that I purchased new. Unfortunately, it just ran out of the factory warranty, so the local Chevy dealer is not able to help. Yes, I’ve searched the forums and I know about the issues. Years back I had a ZR1 with the out of balance rotor. My car would vibrate like hell from 75-85. I was getting nowhere with GM. I posted here and was given the contact information for the Corvette brand protection manager. I reached out to him and he was able to help. I’m hoping someone has gone through a similar process with the rims and could share what they did to get help.

Jeremie Fischer

Most everyone that I now just bought new aftermarket wheels. GM isn't going to do anything to help you most likely. Especially now that the car is out of warranty.

rare96ws6

They replaced 2 of ours while it was under warranty, but then stopped doing that, although the car was still under warranty. There are class action law suits for the cracked rims, but I've seen no new info on this in a year now. As the previous poster said, just get some after market ones, but get forged or flow forged rims. The stock sizes are just too wide for cast rims, so I would not trust any cast rims, even after market.

SladeX

The stock wheels are not cast. They are flow forrged/rotary forged/spun forged. The problem is that even though they are made with a stronger process, the rim width combined with the low profile exceeds the strength level of that process. Getting another "higher quality" flow formed wheel still puts you at risk of repeating the problem.

mnl119

Is anyone else sick of reading posts like this? I'm not speaking negatively of the owner posting... please keep posting. It's just discouraging and depressing from a $100k+ car.

NK-minnesota

To the original poster: how did you know it was cracked? Pothole that you felt or slow leak?

it seems people have had different experiences. I also have a 19 purchased new. Figure it’s a matter of time for me too.

thx

SladeX

I look at it this way, as the cars move from original owners who didn't "drive" their cars to second and third owners who will drive them, we will see younger and more internet savvy people pop up here researching the problem and sharing stories of their bends/cracks. Not saying all C7 Z06 owners will eventually pop up here, but the fact we get new owners chiming in every few weeks should be a telling sign that the stats pointing to the bend/crack issue being a low % of owners is false.

After 7 years, the number of 15-17 Z06 owners with sub 20k miles is incredible. Heck I'm feeling like calling out all owners now with sub 20k miles. They say they "drive" the car, but the mileage says, you only drive the car occasionally, and most likely you are probably careful and avoid bad roads, bad days etc. Seeing people scoff at 20k miles or more as high mileage for such a mass produced car is weird to me.

averagej

The TPMS light went on so I looked to see which tire was low. It was the left rear. I went looking for a nail or screw and couldn’t find it. When I couldn’t find anything, I took it off and did the old soapy water trick. That’s when I found the crack.

averagej

Also, I had the same size wheels and tires on my previous C6 ZR1. I never had an issue with them and I put more miles on it. I'd be curious to know how those were manufactured? My Z06 has about 15K miles on it now. I live in Wisconsin so we only get a few good months to drive it. IMO It’s kinda scary to drive it in the cold, or when it’s wet. I’m more flabbergasted that I’ve had two rims crack now. I’ve owed a lot of cars in my life (including corvettes) and have driven well over a million miles and I’ve never had a rim crack, much less two.

Carvin

As soon as my TPMS read 26 psi I knew what happened. I had the crack on the inner part of the barrel and could see it just by getting on the ground.

These cracks seem so random. I have no idea what caused that one yet I have hit joints in the road twice and a large pothole (during lane change) with no cracks.

jasonb357

I have 43k miles on my 2016 and I am the 3rd owner. I don't know if any of the previous owners had to have any of the wheels replaced, there is nothing on carfax. I recently ordered new wheels and tires though because I am sure it is coming.

mattya9

Was in the same boat as you (I also have a 2019 and cracked a wheel around 18k miles) and I echo what others have already said; you're just going to have to bite the bullet and pay the money for new (much better quality) wheels. GM isn't going to do anything but try to sell you more OEM wheels (at around $800 a pop last I checked). I got my new wheels from BC Forged and paid around $4500 (monoblock forged). Have been very happy with them and more importantly I now have peace of mind which is priceless. Best of luck to you whichever way you go.

Matt

Bill Dearborn

My 2015 Z just went over 20K miles this year. I do use my car regularly, however, a little over 25% of the miles are on the track. I typically put at least 4K miles per year on the car but the last 2.5 years have seen little usage as there have been very few reasons to drive any car anywhere.

Bill

SladeX

Bill you are one of the few exceptions to the group and an example of how to use a Z06 to its fullest.

I put on 3k miles in the past month on my car and I just work from home. My oil life is already dropped to 55% since my spring oil change after 2x track sessions and travelling around.

It's when I see things like a 2016 Z06 with 8k miles pop up for sale that make me cringe. A car that barely saw road and spent the majority of it's life in some garage. Heck I bet that car still has the stock tires on it where I'm on my 3rd set in 1.5 years.

twiget

I must be in the minority when it comes to wheel cracks. I heard all the horror stories about the stock wheels cracking so when I had the opportunity to "upgrade" to some forged aftermarket wheels for a good price, I took it. I had about 11k on the stock wheels when I put the aftermarket wheels on my '19 Z. I got another 11k down the road when I cracked the left rear aftermarket wheel. I went back to the stock wheels and I've got another 10k with them, and no problems (knock on wood). All told, I've got about 21k on the stock wheels and the "stronger" aftermarket ones barely lasted me 11k.

SladeX

This is the problem with the aftermarket. There's constant talk about stock wheels being cheap chinese steel when in actuality the problem is really the process used. Our stock wide body wheels use this same process. Rotary/spun/hybrid/flow formed forged ISN'T a monoblock forged wheel. The process heats up the wheel and "reshapes" the barrel to be wider, but it's not the same as taking a red hot metal slug and dropping a 10k ton forge hammer on it.

The pricing is deceptive too, we see a ton of companies tout their wheels to be better where some of these rotary/spun/hybrid etc are reaching into true monoblock forged pricing territory.

Also have to rip on some true monoblock/2piece forged pieces too. The whole reason we go into this pricing territory is strength, but complicating the design into pretty patterns at the cost of removing strength material defeats the purpose of going into a forged design. I've seen some 2 piece designs that move the rim edge strength of the outer wheel inwards leaving the "spokes" to be more decorative and leaving the outer rim edge thinned up. Then someone gets this design, bends that saying oh well forged isn't strong and I spent 10k for mine and it still bent.

A proper forged wheel will be beefier at the inner and outer edges with large enough spokes to carry cornering loads seen in track use. Ideally it should be just a few pounds shy of stock weight, but shouldn't have a drastic weight loss as we need more inner rim edge reinforcement.

NK-minnesota

My 19, purchased new, has 950 miles on it. Just don’t get to drive it as much as I’d like. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Jeremie Fischer

I put more miles than that on mine in a month. I know the weather in MN is not great year round, but an average of 25 miles a month is almost criminal for a car like that. Throw some all season tires on that damn thing and drive it! I promise it won't melt even if it gets some snowflakes on it.

ronsc1985

t the stake.
Careful, the forged wheelaholics, may want to burn you at the stake.

I have 31K on a 2017, driven really hard over all kinds of roads at high speeds and had one cracked wheel. Suspiciously the crack appeared about 2 days after I replaced the OEM tires so I suspect the installer probably cracked it on the wheel machine. This was after about 18K original miles. I replaced it with an OEM wheel, which at the time cost about $525. The only difference from stock is I do have a DSC suspension controller which in general has softer shock settings for any setting except track.

If another ever cracks I'll do the same thing since getting forged wheels makes no economic sense. The ROI on the original savings over replacing with forged has already bankrolled enough return to pay for any cracked wheels a few times over.

Carvin

2 years ago I put on a Factory Repro for around $380, so far so good. I do 3-4K miles annually.