damaged wheel

[LCHIEN]

Oh the hazards of driving on Houston Freeways 100 miles a day

I hit something going 70 MPH on IH610N yesterday. I managed to avoid it with the front wheel but it punctured the sidewalls of the rear tire in two places and it also punctured the Alloy rim taking a big chunk out of it.

So I know the two 3" x 1" punctures in the tire sidewall are a death sentence for it. My first reaction was that the rim is toast also. My tire dealer told me he would need to order a new wheel from Dodge for around $500 and who knows how long delivery. I suppose used wheel dealers would also likely have the Dodge OEM rim but the tire dealer said he would not do that so I would have to find one.

I found in the web an www.wheelsamerica.com place both national and local and sent him the picture above and he said no problem to fix it. The had a number of pictures in the gallery of repaired rims.

They said about $135 to fix the wheel. On their website they also has what looks like the copy replacement for that wheel and costs like $212.

Is this a good idea? Is a repaired rim safe?

[Jim1]

Same thing happened to me this past year. NE San Antonio on I35. After checking around, i.e. new at dealer, wheel taken off car at Discount Tire, and checking on line; I bought at WheelsAmerica. Went right to the shop in Schertz and looked at what was being offered. I bought a OEM wheel which had been damaged, but repaired. Looked perfect. I couldn't find any place that had been repaired. Product was guaranteed. The price was the lowest of any of the places I had checked. I've had absolutely no issues with it.
Jim

[LCHIEN]

I forgot to mention I got another big rock chip in the windshield on the way home Friday night... joins the three cracks I already have.

Wheelsamerica says the repairs have a lifetime warranty.

[JimD]

Wow! I thought the roads around here were bad. I managed to straddle an extension ladder in my SUV one morning. I've also dodged furniture in the road. I had also had cracked windshields in every vehicle I've owned in SC. Both my cars have small chip/cracks right now.

I believe that the vast majority of aluminum wheels are cast. I don't think they have any special heat treatment. If that is true, then I don't see why they couldn't be welded. If the welds are not annealed afterwards, there would seem to be some possibility they would change shape a little later. I would view a welded wheel to be a little more risk than a new wheel. A used wheel could have been repaired previously so I don't know if it would actually be lower risk. But the chunk out of your wheel looks pretty big to me. That would make me think hard about a different wheel.

Good Luck

[leehljp]

Loring,

I never thought about getting a wheel repaired. Didn't know that could be done. Good to hear that.

I'm glad that incident didn't result in a wreck and you are safe!

[capncarl]

You did not say what vehicle this wheel goes on. Salvage yards are all over the place, you should be able to find one.

My first suggestion, check with the shops sell the big fancy rims that some folks buy and pimp up their cars with and see if they have your replacement from one of their customers pull offs.

Car swap meets. Any near you? Tires and rims are all over the place at these meets. There is a giant one coming up in Moultrie Ga. Feb 6-7-8. I'll be glad to look, they might ship.

No, I would never have an alloy rim repaired. Too risky, and too easy to replace with a good rim.

I wish that there was a way to do something about the idiots that put stuff in their trucks and do not secure it down properly. I have picked up a set of ladders off the roads. Some of my drunk buddies use to joke about never having to haul their trash off, they just threw it in the back of the truck and it randomly blew out. There was an incident in Atl. A few years back where some idiot bought a washer or dryer and it blew out of his truck on an interstate and killed someone. He did not stop, but went back to the same store and bought another appliance thinking no one would put it together. Good detective work checking the serial numbers against sales caught him, he can now be visited on Wednesdays at one of Ga.s finest.
capncarl

[durango dude]

Your wheels/tires are the life blood of your vehicle ----- they're what hits the road to steer, stop, and start. All of those things direct a ton of force to your wheels.

I don't think I'd do a repair. I'd just go with a replacement - either from a discount dealer or from a junk yard.

[Hellrazor]

There is no way I would use a repaired wheel. Find a junk yard or online dealer who sells used wheels. You might be able to find one on ebay.

[cwsmith]

Given today's welding technology and where exactly on the wheel the repair is being done, I think I'd give it try. If the repair were down on the hub or in one of the spoke/support areas, it would be more of a problem I think. Looking at your picture, the rim damage is pretty localized, or so it would appear. I think at most, a failed repair would only result in leakage at the tire bead.

The company is providing a lifetime guarantee, and I don't think they'd do that if they didn't have this type of repair well within their confidence.

I think your state needs to tighten up its regulations, considering the number of occurrences that seem to happen. Up hear in NY, I've made the trip from Binghamton to Painted Post several hundred times (between 1968 and today) and I've never run into any kind of debris like what you speak of. Route 17/I-86 is a major interstate, perhaps not on the scale of yours, as we don't have a large population center like Houston. The 150 mile round trip for me is a challenge of wandering drivers on their cell phones, too fast tractor-trailers and too slow locals in their ram-shackled vehicles, but other that the occasion tire debris, and perhaps a just-occurred accident, I've never run into anything else.

Here in NY, any open vehicle must have the contents properly secured and in many cases a tarp or other covering is required, and its pretty much inforced.

CWS

[Charlie R]

Locating junk yard parts

You might find a wheel and tire on Craigslist.com . Junk yards subscribe to services at these links where you enter a description of what you need and the yards that have it respond with prices and shipping info. Good luck.
www.junkyarddog.com
www.partrequest.com
www.autosalvageyards.com
www.autopartslocatingservice.com

[MBG]

My daughter had not one but two damaged wheels in the past three years. I read that once bent (especially torn) they will never be as strong. I too found that the dealer wanted around $500. I did a search online and found a new aftermarket wheel for just over $120 delivered. Try rockauto or carparts and do a google search.

Mike

[jdon]

Call me a Luddite, but other than cosmetics I can't understand the great appeal of alloy over steel rims. Sure, alloy rims have lower non-sprung weight and lower rotational inertia, but for most non-racing driving conditions those seem pretty small advantages when considering that steel rims are less expensive, structurally stronger, arguably more aerodynamic, and require less maintenance.

[JimD]

steel wheels are also more ductile so they are more likely to bend than tear. They are MUCH easier to weld if they are damaged. Cheaper to replace too. I have two vehicles with aluminum wheels but it is because that is how they came. One is a sporty convertible (BMW) where they make sense to me. The other is a SUV. They look nice but steel wheels with decent wheel covers would have been fine.

[jdon]

In the 30+ years of my driving life spent in the rust belt (WI, MN, Upstate NY), where winters are long and salt is used liberally on roads, I never had any problems with rusted steel wheels. Maybe I was lucky, or road rash wasn't an issue. By lower maintenance, I meant I don't need to spend any time keeping steel wheels clean (other than washing along with the rest of the car. Full wheel covers keep debris from the wheel. Just my experience.

[os1kne]

I'm glad you're safe and there wasn't more damage. Not sure if you're tallying votes, but I agree with those that recommend getting a replacement from a junk yard, craigslist or wheel shop (where someone with a similar vehicle replaced their factory wheels).

The repair place may be able to do a good fix, but the difference between the repair cost and the cost of a used replacement wheel is probably not enough to justify the risk of the repair failing.

Good luck!