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I bought my first corvette love it, just wondering, the place I live has terrible roads, potholes, well long story short, my car is at dealership for a cracked wheel, is this something that happens a lot with corvettes? I have always owned Camaros, this never happened. Just seeing what everyone else’s experience has been. Thank you
The C7 wide body versions had problems with cracked wheels, the C7 Stingray did not. There have been very few reports of cracked/bent C8 rims. However, any wheel with a low profile tire can be damaged by potholes and other road hazards. If you have MSRC, don't drive around poor streets with the suspension set to track. Consider purchasing Wheel and Tire Insurance.
The C7 wide body versions had problems with cracked wheels, the C7 Stingray not. There have been very few reports of cracked/bent C8 rims. However, any wheel with a low profile tire can be damaged by potholes and other road hazards. If you have MSRC, don't drive around poor streets with the suspension set to track. Consider purchasing Wheel and Tire Insurance.
Thank you for the information, I will definitely check on wheel and tire insurance, one more question, you said not to have it on track, what should it be on?
Set the suspension to any setting other than track if you have to drive on poor roads. Sport should be OK. Not as stiff as Track, but firmer than Tour.
Set the suspension to any setting other than track if you have to drive on poor roads. Sport should be OK. Not as stiff as Track, but firmer than Tour.
Cheap cast OEM wheels; as noted, GM has a history of such on Vettes. Consider the price of quality, aftermarket, fully-forged replacements as eventually part of the price of admission. All the best.
It’s not that common what wheel do you have? If you keep your tires slightly over inflated 33psi you will get less damage.
I think you got that backwards. The more inflated it is, the stiffer the tire; the more load gets transferred to the rim. Under inflated makes it cushier and absorbs more bumps.
Set the suspension to any setting other than track if you have to drive on poor roads. Sport should be OK. Not as stiff as Track, but firmer than Tour.
I used to quote that from "Forum Comments" before Tadge posted this on his C7 Forum Post re C7 wheel cracks and bends:
Part of long Forum Post: "When you hit a pothole, high mass wheels generate higher loads into the suspension and body. As wheels get wider to accommodate wider tires, all these challenges are increased. For these reasons we spend a huge amount of engineering resources on optimizing wheels. We design wheels to withstand extreme pothole loads and test them on high speed laboratory equipment that can simulate the entire life-cycle of the vehicle. I have heard from some people that there is a theory that running the car in sport or track can contribute to damaging a wheel. That is not true."
He had no reason to bring that up as it was NOT part of the Forum Question. Can accept as he knows the loads involved as they have specs the wheel must meet. Probably well beyond what is caused by MRC regardless of setting. In fact hitting the "bump stop" in Touring (that Track setting might avoid) could cause a higher wheel load! Frankly hit a huge hole with my Grand Sport and sure felt like I bottomed the suspension and hit the bump stop. It was such a hard hit I asked the only nearby store I was in IF anyone had reported that hole to the city. They had several days before. Took their name as I was sure I bent a rim! Thought I'd get the City to pay for my Machined Faced Optional OEM wheel That was a year before I sold my Grand Sport before my C8 arrived and zero vibration or bent wheel!
Tadge also said and I have observed the reinforcement added to the C8 wheels. He said they increased the max load requirements as well. HOWEVER hit a big enough pothole hard enough and any wheel can bend!
Tadge said they added a thicker section to the C8 wheels which I observed and measured when I had a wheel off. Made this schematic as had to see in a pic. The added thinness was where the highest loads are- near the center hub- is significant. Note it's NOT a separate piece just a thinker barrel section in this highly stressed area. Several folks have commented bent inner barrel bends! No extra material inside!
Good to know info..The other day I hit a big boy hole and it made my teeth rattle...I played it back on my recorder and it did not sound so bad but boy was it loud..
I went by the other day and they had fixed it...It looked about 3 inches deep to me . Was going around 40 mph..
I was on the interstate yesterday and at about 80 mph she was not pulling, running straight and true.....but I still worry about that hit...No cuts or anything on the tire or anything I could see...
thanks for info...I learn so much here...maybe too much sometimes
I used to quote that from "Forum Comments" before Tadge posted this on his C7 Forum Post re C7 wheel cracks and bends:
Part of long Forum Post: "When you hit a pothole, high mass wheels generate higher loads into the suspension and body. As wheels get wider to accommodate wider tires, all these challenges are increased. For these reasons we spend a huge amount of engineering resources on optimizing wheels. We design wheels to withstand extreme pothole loads and test them on high speed laboratory equipment that can simulate the entire life-cycle of the vehicle. I have heard from some people that there is a theory that running the car in sport or track can contribute to damaging a wheel. That is not true."
He had no reason to bring that up as it was NOT part of the Forum Question. Can accept as he knows the loads involved as they have specs the wheel must meet. Probably well beyond what is caused by MRC regardless of setting. In fact hitting the "bump stop" in Touring (that Track setting might avoid) could cause a higher wheel load! Frankly hit a huge hole with my Grand Sport and sure felt like I bottomed the suspension and hit the bump stop. It was such a hard hit I asked the only nearby store I was in IF anyone had reported that hole to the city. They had several days before. Took their name as I was sure I bent a rim! Thought I'd get the City to pay for my Machined Faced Optional OEM wheel That was a year before I sold my Grand Sport before my C8 arrived and zero vibration or bent wheel!
Tadge also said and I have observed the reinforcement added to the C8 wheels. He said they increased the max load requirements as well. HOWEVER hit a big enough pothole hard enough and any wheel can bend!
Tadge said they added a thicker section to the C8 wheels which I observed and measured when I had a wheel off. Made this schematic as had to see in a pic. The added thinness was where the highest loads are- near the center hub- is significant. Note it's NOT a separate piece just a thinker barrel section in this highly stressed area. Several folks have commented bent inner barrel bends! No extra material inside!
You do realize Tadge makes these public statements to simply cover their rear ends on these known issues right? Fact is the C6 Z06 with Z07 and the ZR1 had the same size/width wheels & tires as the C7 GS & Z06 but experienced zero bent or cracked wheel problems, unlike the C7. The fact that they had to add additional support to the C8 Stingray wheels, to me, shows they knew the C7 wide-body wheels were garbage. Heck, Car & Driver reported 7 bent wheel repairs & 3 wheel replacements in less than 35k miles on their 2017 GS.
^^^
In some cases the GM lawyers probably washed his public written statements to eliminate what could be brought up in court. (I had 5 attorneys review my groups monthly newsletter to distributors in our Division of large billion dollar Intentional company. Yep Corporate Patents, Product Safety (read product liability) Trademark, and Commercial Attorney AND our Division Attorney who scrubbed for any possible implications of price signaling as our business was part of an oligopoly where when one of ~3 companies raised prices on Industrial Gas (especially Argon) all followed!)
If you read what I wrote, sure GM attorneys may have carefully reviewed and "washed" the post about bending and cracking. BUT not only did he NOT have to address drive mode setting, a Corporate attorney would have pulled that statement about you CAN use Sport or Track as nothing should state what you can do!
I learned to get the Newsletter out in time I had to literally carry the approval sheet to the Corporate attorneys. If I waited for each to take from their in box and get to the inbox and wait for the company mail Newsletter would be months late!
PS: If you also read what I speculated, Tadge is an engineer and is well aware of the forces wheels are subjected to and what they specify for a test. "Likely" the forces that can be generated by a shock (MRC or stiff racing shock) are not close to peak design forces. In fat as I mentioned setting in Touring is probably more likely to have it hit the hard bump stop where the highest forces. Yep as I said because it was stated on the Forum i also would quote that NO TRACK setting BS until I read Tadge statement and thought through why! Yep his statement is logical compared to someone at XYZ driving school said...!
Wasn't as easy as it sounds to hand deliver the "Approved" sheet! The Corporate Office was moved from a 52 story building in NYC to this sprawling facility! To get people (like myself) to come back to a central corporate office (verses in my case managing an R&D facility in OH) this building was in a rural area of CT. Everyone had their own office with a large window looking out and we picked our own rug and furniture (all equal size offices, even the Division President!) Parked on the same level as your office!
You do realize Tadge makes these public statements to simply cover their rear ends on these known issues right? Fact is the C6 Z06 with Z07 and the ZR1 had the same size/width wheels & tires as the C7 GS & Z06 but experienced zero bent or cracked wheel problems, unlike the C7. The fact that they had to add additional support to the C8 Stingray wheels, to me, shows they knew the C7 wide-body wheels were garbage. Heck, Car & Driver reported 7 bent wheel repairs & 3 wheel replacements in less than 35k miles on their 2017 GS.
I agree. I take what Tadge says with a grain of salt. I don’t doubt he knows what he’s talking about but there’s some liability terrain to cover and he must carefully phrase what he speaks. I’m not buying that track mode doesn’t trash your wheels. If you hit a pot hole and drive a load back toward the car, it would really help if there was a big cushy spring to take up some load,
I thought it was odd that top tier Camaros came with forged wheels while Z06’s came with cast. Sometimes GM does things just don’t make no sense:
Designer Imagines A Corvette That Looks More Like a Corvette Than the Corvette
Slideshow: A Jaguar designer's personal project imagines what a modern front-engined Corvette might look like if Chevrolet revisited the golden age of the Stingray.
Just wondering 🤪
Frankly hit a huge hole with my Grand Sport and sure felt like I bottomed the suspension and hit the bump stop. It was such a hard hit I asked the only nearby store I was in IF anyone had reported that hole to the city. They had several days before. Took their name as I was sure I bent a rim! Thought I'd get the City to pay for my Machined Faced Optional OEM wheel That was a year before I sold my Grand Sport before my C8 arrived and zero vibration or bent wheel!
The Corporate Office was moved from a 52 story building in NYC to this sprawling facility! To get people (like myself) to come back to a central corporate office (verses in my case managing an R&D facility in OH) this building was in a rural area of CT. Everyone had their own office with a large window looking out and we picked our own rug and furniture (all equal size offices, even the Division President!) Parked on the same level as your office! 
