BEWARE - Carbon Fibre wheels & Dealer Service

[Neils]

Was poking around on YouTube and found this video from Speed Phenom. Oh boy, looks like GM was not prepared for servicing this type of machine, especially getting the expensive CF wheels on and off the car.

I think he has a valid point, you cannot and should not have your fairly expensive exotic supercar, serviced with the same equipment, with the same mechanics, with the same service processes, compared to the rest of their GM models on offer.

It should be a white glove service in a custom bay with standalone tools and properly trained mechanics to work on this specific model. I have no plans anytime soon to own this Z06, but man oh man would I be pissed if some random mechanic would be shoving his impact gun and socket into an expensive wheel like that and causing that much damage.

Best of luck to those of you who went with the CF wheel option ...

 

[DenisC8]

His wheels are not cracked, the clear coal is just chipped off. Its dealer's mechanic's error as the Hunter tire balancer comes with a cone attachment and also a stud attachment that is designed specifically for situations like this.

 

[cdnz]

 

[cdnz]

Just be aware of the potential headaches when time for new replacement tires.

 

[Afterimage]

I don't know why he's smiling in the covershot at the Ferrari dealer cause if you watch the video yes Ferrari techs mounted his C2R's to the wheels without damage but no matter what they did the tire bead did not seal up to the wheel lip. A later shot in the video showed him bringing the wheels back on a warmer day with the tires sitting out in the sun for a period of time to try to soften them up but still the Ferrari techs could not get them to bead up.

So you got a new set of CF wheels, went all over your area to find a Chevy dealer to mount your tires. Couldn't find one so Ferrari to the rescue or so you thought and they R&R the tires twice on and off those wheels and you still couldn't get the job done completely. Man I would be happy to have them get the tires on that one time and if the beads don't seat up I wouldn't take the chance of them dismounting them again to try a second time.

He's rolling the dice with those wheels getting damage again on and off those stiff 2R tires.

 

[cdnz]

Perhaps 25 side wall on run flat has reached its limits? May have to send it to the supplier/vendor that mounts these tires for GM??

 

[Afterimage]

I found this video (uploaded 6 years ago) when there is the issue of mounting the rear C7 widebody tires 335/25/20 (so almost near the size of the rear C8Z tire). Michelin and GM developed a way to get the tire to bead up after install and the Hunter rep in the video showed a different way to do it with their revolution tire machine.

It could apply to getting the 345/25/21 tires to bead up on the wheel, of course whether the wheel is CF or not doesn't matter you can have the best equipment to do the job but it's still up to the bloke doing the work to be careful and take the time to do it properly without damage.

 

[Murray20c8]

When I had small winter tires put on larger rims they used a donut around the tire and filled it with air collapsing the tire and forcing the bead up to seat on the rim. Hard to describe, but imagine a belt around the middle of the tire. It pushes the bead up.

 

[Afterimage]

Here it is: right equipment, right adapters, right person for the job to properly mount and balance your CF wheels (or any wheels for that matter).

 

[Afterimage]

Hunter's latest video demonstrating servicing of CF wheels: