Bent, cracked rims discussion......No personal attacks!
 

I started a bent/cracked rims thread that degenerated into internet mudslinging and that is not going to help anyone.

I'd like to continue the discussion about bent/cracked rims on the Z06 and GS as I think this is an important one regarding these cars much in the way overheating was. GM ultimately did respond to that problem with changes in subsequent years and probably would not have done so without pushback from the owners.

So I do think it's important to acknowledge that there is a problem and that these cars are not performing as they should even at the lowest expectation level for many owners. If you have had an experience with bent or cracked rims on your Z06 or GS please feel free to interact here about the nature of the problem, what your experience has been in trying to get it resolved and how you think GM can move forward to resolve these issues more productively.

Comments about "improving infrastructure" or "providing free Lasik" are not productive and will be discouraged.

Personal insults and questioning of motivation will not be welcome and will be ignored to keep the thread open I hope.

One more try at this.

With regard to your other related thread, I think this forum should do less thread locking and more member banning.

The mods have it tough enough and some folks need a time out...

I've put 12K miles on my 2107 Z06 with the stock pearl silver wheels over many bad roads at high speeds. To date there are no leaking tires and no visible cracks. The wheels are also not bent or out of round since the car running over 150 on a well paved road is smooth as silk. The tires are stock MPSS. I do have a DSC sports controller which is set to their provided settings for Tour, Sport and Track. In normal driving I use Tour but when I am screwing around I use Sport.

You folks with problems might want to try to isolate your problems to specific batches and/or wheel type and tires combinations. I haven't looked but there is usually some kind of identification on most manufactured parts for anything.

Obviously not all wheels have a problem since I've bounced mine over bad rural roads and expansion joints at high speed on interstate type highways.

I don't want to jinx you but I could have made the same claims at 12K. My problems started at 13K. That's when the first cracked rim happened and then 14K the second one. 17K or so seems to be for most owners about the time when the sh4t hits the fan. I hope that in your good experience with z06 wheels continues and I don't believe in jinxs or I would not mention this to you. I do believe that certain lots of wheels are more prone to problems than others or we'd all be having the same miserable problems no doubt. I suspect that cold weather may contribute to the problem

I concur that the problem is likely batch related where some batches barely exceed the OEM specs given to their lowest bidder off shore producers and other batches fall below the line. I have had my car at two track events and have bent two wheels. This is my tenth Vette, and none of the other 9 before it (several which were tracked hard) nor any other vehicle we have owned with aluminum wheels (including SUVs weighing 1,500 lbs more than the Z) have ever had wheel issues.

Like the OP, I am moving on to very high quality fully forged through a private deal.

Sometimes you just have to make lemonade from lemons, because the car is fantastic otherwise.

Hopefully this is a TROLL FREE ZONE

I think the cold weather hypothesis is invalid, I live in north central Florida.

I have a 2017 Z06 with 19,000 miles on it. I bought the car in the winter of 2017. Drove it a few times when it was cold outside because how can I not. All summer long the rims were ok, so I think anyway. My problems started at the end of the summer and into the fall when the weather started to change and it would get really cold out at night. By now the car had roughly 15 to 16,000 miles on it. I get my first cracked rim in the rear. 3 weeks later the other rim in the back cracks. I have a warranty on rims and tires that I paid 1,300 bucks for 6 years so they replaced them free of charge because they wouldn't hold air pressure. So after that the car went down for the winter. I brought it out a few times in the winter. When the weather started to break I brought it out a few more times. The other day I started to feel a wobble in the front. I brought it to the dealership. They called me the next day and said all 4 of my rims were warped and they would need to be replaced. Since the tires were holding air pressure the warranty company wouldn't replace them. They had to be cracked. So now the car has 19,000 miles on it with 4 warped rims and it has a wobble to it. I'm just going to ride the rims until they crack at this point but I can bring the car up to high speeds. I go and replace them just so they could warp and crack again after a couple hundred miles. The brand new rims warped with less than 2,000 miles being put on them. I hate GM at the moment. I sent out a couple emails to their executives. They left me a message today and told me to call them tomorrow. Hopefully we can come to a resolution. I sent the email and to be be honest I didn't expect to hear back. So I'll see what they say tomorrow when I call.

Johnny, I'm curious, what executives did you contact and how? I have a non wheel related problem with my '16 stuck at the dealership for 6 weeks with them trying to get a replacement differential but can't get above the dealer level yet. Any contact info would be seriously appreciated

13k miles on my 2016. Rear rim is cracked ordered a replacement from HOW. Car is going to the dealer Saturday, it almost sounded as if they were aware of the issue and might help me out in someway. I'll update the thread after I take her in.

I have called GM customer service OVER and OVER and OVER again. They tell me they will get a service advisor....put me on hold.....and then after 10 minutes say ....the service advisor is busy and will call you back. Nobody calls.....not once ever When I call back the next day they say " This case has been resolved". I tell them...."no it has not" and we got through the whole game all over again. Today I wrote a letter to Mary Barra the CEO of GM at the urging of one of my patient's who knows her. I've already bitten the bullet and put in an order for Forgeline wheels but I don't plan on letting GM off the hook on this and feel they need to address this problem. I will call them every damn day if I have to and keep calling. Most people have a similar story as JohnnyKlik...That's how my situation played out basically Couple of cracked rims in the teens of mileage and then constant bending of all the rims after that. I'm sure this problem can happen in warm climates but I do believe that the risk of damage is greater when the weather is cold old. Cracks when cold......warps when warm.

2019 ZO6 -- 550 miles: hit a moderate size pothole on interstate at about 50 Mph. Front left wheel bent and slowly dropping air pressure. Wheel was replaced by tire/wheel insurance - tire fine. - tom

:lurk:

2012 GS 19K miles and a 2015 Stingray Z-51 Chrome Wheels 40K miles same crappy roads -- no issues

The one thing I will add is that I'm 100% positive that many folks out there are driving GS and z06 with cracked and warped rims and don't know it yet. If my car wasn't put on a lift I'd be unaware of this and thing that some of the noises I hear are normal mechanical whirring noises or not hear them at all with the radio on etc. I am trying to rule out a bearing or differential problem when I bring the car in because of a whirring noise I hear and they put the car on the lift each time and show me the bent rims and tell me that's the cause of it. After I get the Forgelines put on will find out if the whirring noise goes away because if it doesn't it means I have another problem that will need to be addressed. Felt I had to move on this because my warranty will be up at the end of the summer and want to make sure that there is no issue beyond the rims and can't prove if it's a separate issue or not because EVERY single time I bring the car in they find the rims are bent. Even a few days after fixing them!

Found my 2016 Z @ a high end used car dealership in December 2017. It had 30K miles. Prior to purchase I had Chevy do an inspection and they found a cracked black rear wheel. Dealer got me a new one.

Last fall I ran over one of those construction joints that should be downright illegal. I thought for sure I would find a cracked wheel during the spring oil change but no.

Have done all my homework regarding forged wheels however so I have a plan if I need it.

I 100% would not have known my rear wheel was cracked in 3 places unless I looked.

Agree. My cracked wheel never lost air in the 2 or 3 months I waited for the new wheel to arrive.

I can see that you are clearly upset by this. You're obviously not getting anywhere with customer service. There is a class action lawsuit now so you're definitely not getting a response from Mary Barra. Try to enjoy your car and let the lawyers do their thing.

If the whirring noise is most prevalent between 1000 and 1500 rpm, the problem is the supercharger tensioner pulley. This is a known defect and there's a TSB for it. When I find it, I'll post it for you

I hit one of those cracks in pavement where the entire slab is raised up across the whole lane while driving through Chicago on my way back from MacMulkin. All 4 tires took a hard square hit and had no bends or cracks. I think when they get hit on the inside of the tire, far from the outside of the wheel is where the bends can easily happen. It's like a foot long lever. I think because mine hit square across the entire tire that I didn't have any damage. Just a theory. Mine was a 2019 GS with black painted aluminum rims that were stamped "Speedline Mexico". I never hit any potholes but I think those are where the majority of the damage happens. I have heard many theories of why this happens but the data seems to be all over the place. Here are a list of variables I can think of off the top of my head:

-Which rim type? (black, chrome, machined face etc).
-What model year?
-MRC up date done?
-Run-flat or non-run-flat.
-Tire pressure?
-Cold or warm outside?
-What you hit and how
-VIN
.

Makes sense.

I will definitely keep that in nind....I think that what I'm hearing is something different .....speed dependent.....peaks at around 53 mph....occurs whether the clutch is engaged or not and sounds a bit like a flying saucer.