OT: Bending Wheels. On a Car.

[ti_boi]

I know we have some car guys here. I am frustrated with the fact that I keep bending wheels. 3 at a time. Twice. Within Six Months. What can I do? Are my shocks to blame? Should I just quit driving? The car has AWD which adds some unsprung weight to the chassis. 220 lbs I believe.

1st set BMW factory wheels. 17" with Runflat Bridgestones.

2nd set Breyton "Spirit" 18" with conventional directional radials by Yokohama.

This is getting expensive. When I bought the car they offered me insurance "just for wheels". I should have taken it.

[maunahaole]

How tall are your tires? Low profile tires dont provide much protection for the rim. Maybe go narrower and taller?

[rwsaunders]

How tall are your tires? Low profile tires dont provide much protection for the rim. Maybe go narrower and taller?

+1...worked with a gent who ran low profile tires on an A8 and he cooked a rim about every four months or so....especially on the pothole infested roads around here.

[Charles M]

Man the RFT's have a hard / solid sidewall and overhang that does a great job of wheel protection...

Not sure what else you want to try.


Just sold the Z coupe and have a kitted 335 and never had an issue with the Stones and bent rims, even with aftermarket OZ's which are not the hardest things to tweak. And low pro tires in 18 and 19" on both...

The Stone RFT's are some of the best tires available for rim protection.

[csm]

I run 18" 35 series in the summer and 17" 40 series in the winter and haven't had a bent wheel yet... or maybe I don't know I do. how do you tell?

[Ken Robb]

needless to say you don't want to let the air pressure get below spec---you don't do you?

[goonster]

I'm going through the same thing myself: three bent OEM wheels. My car is also AWD, but I doubt very much that it adds 220 lbs. of unsprung weight. Tires have 45 aspect ratio and I don't think tire pressure was an issue although, as Ken rightly mentioned, it really can't be checked often enough. I also had two bent winter wheels, which are 16's with even taller tires, and I'm very confident the pressure on those was always good.

Makes me wonder if cast alloy wheels have a life expectancy under normal use.

Replacement wheels will be Compomotive, which take three weeks to machine and ship from England, but since they are favored by rally privateers we hope they will stand up to the local tarmac.

[avalonracing]

I have 40 series tires on my C230 and while I've had a hell of a time with nails and screws in my tires (also with my motorcycle and our Subaru... effing contractors) I haven't bent any wheels. But overall Maryland roads are a hell of a lot better than your Jersey roads. I would probably just give up and go with a SUV if I bent that many wheels.

[RPS]

Are my shocks to blame?
Interesting that you should mention your shocks, because my first thought was to ask if you have altered/modified the suspension in any way. For instance, have you modified the ride height, replaced springs, and or shocks?

I know a lot of guys who install stiffer springs and shocks to make their cars “handle better” and don’t consider the extra loading that places on some parts of the car. If you’ve made changes I’d start evaluating there. If not, I’d go back to BMW unless you already know you’ve been driving over excessively rough roads the car wasn't designed for.

[Ti Designs]

Get a bike!


Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Back in the early 1900's when cars got stuck, people would often yell "get a horse"...

[Steve in SLO]

Think about how you are driving your car when you transition over hazards--do you go faster than most over them? Are you bouncing the car?

Potholes--avoid
Curbs--don't scrape along, and enter/exit driveways and parking lots slowly, and at an angle, if possible.
Tire pressure--Keep it up.
Slamming the car--make sure you don't lower it so far that you lose travel and are at risk of bottoming out the suspension.
Wheels--go forged for strength.

Unsprung weight shouldn't do it, nor will most stiffer shocks, unless one of the above is off.

[jbrainin]

Think about how you are driving your car when you transition over hazards--do you go faster than most over them? Are you bouncing the car?

Potholes--avoid
Curbs--don't scrape along, and enter/exit driveways and parking lots slowly, and at an angle, if possible.
Tire pressure--Keep it up.
Slamming the car--make sure you don't lower it so far that you lose travel and are at risk of bottoming out the suspension.
Wheels--go forged for strength.

Unsprung weight shouldn't do it, nor will most stiffer shocks, unless one of the above is off.

NJ roads (especially Essex County)--never drive on 'em.

[PaulE]

Back in the day, normal cars had tires with a 78% aspect ratio. 70 series and 60 series tires were performance tires. Today, a basic sedan is lucky to have 65 series tires. Cars now run 17, 18, 19, 20 inch wheels with brakes that look small cause they're basically the same size brakes we had with 13, 14 and 15 inch wheels. We all want these wheels cause that is the latest and greatest, so car manufacturers don't even offer the old stuff anymore. But I digress.

If you run stock wheels, check out a place like Wheels America, and get some remanufactured wheels.

Wheels America (http://www.wheelsamerica.com/)

When I had my Audi A6 Avant I bought a remanufactured wheel from an outfit like this. The exterior of the wheel looked factory brand new. For my Honda Accord, I recently bought two remanufactured wheels from them. They look great. Wheels America now gives you a $25 core credit for your old wheel and a UPS return label to ship it back to them.

If you run something more exotic than factory wheels, find a place that can fix your wheels and keep a couple of extras in inventory.

Poorly maintained roads with lots of potholes are likely to be with us for a long time in this economy.

[Kevan]

to avoid.

[ti_boi]

Thanks guys. Whew. Deep Breath. Yeah. :beer: