Cracked bent wheels

ralexcur

ralexcur

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So its getting close to another season to enjoy our cars and i am wondering if any or many on this forum have had problems with bent or cracked wheels on their C7s
I have very few KM on mine and wondering the odds of me having this type of problem. With the GM big smiles and patting themselves on the back with what a good job they have done with the C8 and having customers lined up to buy the new cars I am not sure a C7 owner will be much of a concern to them.
 
ralexcur said:
So its getting close to another season to enjoy our cars and i am wondering if any or many on this forum have had problems with bent or cracked wheels on their C7s
I have very few KM on mine and wondering the odds of me having this type of problem. With the GM big smiles and patting themselves on the back with what a good job they have done with the C8 and having customers lined up to buy the new cars I am not sure a C7 owner will be much of a concern to them.
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This has been discussed several times in the past.We have very few complaints of this here but here is a previous thread with some member input.

Class action lawsuit for cracked / bent wheels.

For those of us who have had cracked wheels and no support from GM. https://jalopnik.com/corvette-owner-sues-general-motors-over-allegedly-defec-1834675372
canadiancorvetteforums.com canadiancorvetteforums.com
 
ralexcur said:
So its getting close to another season to enjoy our cars and i am wondering if any or many on this forum have had problems with bent or cracked wheels on their C7s
I have very few KM on mine and wondering the odds of me having this type of problem. With the GM big smiles and patting themselves on the back with what a good job they have done with the C8 and having customers lined up to buy the new cars I am not sure a C7 owner will be much of a concern to them.
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On my 3rd Z06 and have never had a problem personally but clearly some others have. A fairly dangerous situation if indeed proven to be the result of a design or manufacturing flaw.
Many of us are watching this situation closely as interestingly the cars at spring mountain are not seeing this problem with day in and day out use on the track. However it is a very smooth track.

I admit once I’m behind the wheel I soon forget about this and get lost in enjoying my car.
 
Of the 43 Corvettes I've sold over the last 3 years, there has been one customer...

He was driving the highways of Indiana where, apparently, there are potholes big enough to eat a whole car (exaggerating, but he did see lines of cars with wheels nearly broken right off from potholes). While driving through the obstacle course at highway speed, he bent two wheels on his ZR1 after hitting one hole. Same size wheels as a Grand Sport or Z06. No cracks, but not cheap to replace.

I have not had any other complaints of damaged wheels.
 
From what I've read, it all seems to lead to the mode that you're in. Driving around on nasty roads in Track and Sport mode, is probably leading to these issues. I had the same concerns... I'm new to ' 'Vette-ing' ( Yip, just coined that a new verb!) and planning a 8K km trip in May into the US and highly concerned aabout this.... after this forum and what I've read... I think unless I hit a crater, the beauty will hold up!🤞
 
Morby said:
From what I've read, it all seems to lead to the mode that you're in. Driving around on nasty roads in Track and Sport mode, is probably leading to these issues. I had the same concerns... I'm new to ' 'Vette-ing' ( Yip, just coined that a new verb!) and planning a 8K km trip in May into the US and highly concerned aabout this.... after this forum and what I've read... I think unless I hit a crater, the beauty will hold up!🤞
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You are onto something there as although it’s not in the manual GM guys are on record advising not to drive the C7s on the rough streets and roads in “track” mode. The reasoning is obvious as many of our roads just suck.
I can tell you in my 15 Z06 in sport mode, I did hit a pothole on the Yellowhead at the highway 43 interchange at about 130 kph that shook my fillings loose but no damages were incurred. I expected at least a bent wheel. But the car ate it like a champion. I am very careful to look for this more carefully now as this stuff won’t be warranty covered.
Happy Cruising 👍
 
ddgermann said:
You are onto something there as although it’s not in the manual GM guys are on record advising not to drive the C7s on the rough streets and roads in “track” mode. The reasoning is obvious as many of our roads just suck.
I can tell you in my 15 Z06 in sport mode, I did hit a pothole on the Yellowhead at the highway 43 interchange at about 130 kph that shook my fillings loose but no damages were incurred. I expected at least a bent wheel. But the car ate it like a champion. I am very careful to look for this more carefully now as this stuff won’t be warranty covered.
Happy Cruising 👍
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Thanks ddgermann. I know exactly the crater you're speaking about.... I live south of 43 by about 5 kms. Take care.
 
The bent rims issue is more of a C7 GS, Z06 and ZR1 problem. No need to worry if you don't have either of those models. Tire/rim insurance or keeping some cash aside for forged rims comes with the territory of wanting 19/20 inch low profile wide tires.

Prior to getting my C7 Z06, I had met with 3 owners who have experienced bent rims, one had the unfortunate luck of getting all 4 rims bent and cracked. It was not driving mode that did them in, just cruising on normal roads with the canadian flair sub optimal road condition after harsh winters. I personally inspected the 4 bent rims and can tell you that the nature of the cracks is NOT from hitting any 1 large pothole, but rather through metal fatigue. They were all on the inner barrel and spread out around the whole rim. There was nothing to indicate any single large impact (let alone something that could do ALL 4 corners).
 
I’ve seen three Z06s with bent wheels. Each car had multiple bent wheels, not just one. I videoed two of them. One of these days I’ll get around to posting them. If you spin them on a top quality machine you will see runout numbers. Most with less than 50 thou runout can be balanced and you won’t feel it. A good Hunter machine flags anything over 25 if I remember right. You could not feel the bent wheels when driving the car. It only became apparent when they were spun up for balance with the new tire. The videos are of wheels with 27 and 35 thou. You would be shocked to see how visible the little bend is! As stated above, seems to be a GS, Z06 thing, can’t speak to the ZR1 at this point.
 
ralexcur said:
So its getting close to another season to enjoy our cars and i am wondering if any or many on this forum have had problems with bent or cracked wheels on their C7s
I have very few KM on mine and wondering the odds of me having this type of problem. With the GM big smiles and patting themselves on the back with what a good job they have done with the C8 and having customers lined up to buy the new cars I am not sure a C7 owner will be much of a concern to them.
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I have a 2019 GS with about 6000 km on it. I also have two bent rims, front and back on the LHS; I don't remember ever hitting anything, and I don't use Track Mode. There are no signs of trauma on the rims or the tires but the inside of the barrel is bent on both. Neither one is cracked yet but I haven't gone very far since I noticed the problem. For six months I went round and round with the selling dealer and GM Canada's VP of Sales, Service and Marketing. GM continues in their position that the damage was caused by road hazard and is not warrantable. With luck, between the selling dealer and GM I may get two rims as a "one- time only repair under customer enthusiasm". (Their words) The new rims if I get them will be identical to the old ones, not upgraded in any way. There are at least two class action lawsuits against them in the US but I asked this forum if anyone knew of anything similar in Canada and no one appeared to. I was at Spring Mountain last August and I asked them if they had any wheel problems on their GSs, Z06s or ZR1s. They talked about spoke failure from cornering on a couple of ZR1s but nothing on the GSs or Z06s. Their track is smooth as .... so I wouldn't expect the kind of failures we are seeing. Bottom line: these wide rims are not suitable for use on public roads. They bend easily and then cyclic loading causes the rim to crack. GM knows about it but won't step up to the plate. I'm not looking forward to $5,000 or $6,000 for forged rims but maybe that's what it's going to take.
 
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ralexcur said:
So its getting close to another season to enjoy our cars and i am wondering if any or many on this forum have had problems with bent or cracked wheels on their C7s
I have very few KM on mine and wondering the odds of me having this type of problem. With the GM big smiles and patting themselves on the back with what a good job they have done with the C8 and having customers lined up to buy the new cars I am not sure a C7 owner will be much of a concern to them.
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I put 45,000 km on a 2014 Z51 without any problems and 32,000 on a 2017 Grand Sport with no problems. Six weeks into my 2019 Grand Sport I hit a pothole on the 401 just north of Toronto that would swallow a Smart car. Everything seemed OK but next day on the highway I noticed a odd vibration. Took it into my favourite tire guy and he quickly confirmed that the wheel had been knocked out of round but the tire was OK. Took it to my dealer and didn't even try to get warranty as I knew it would not be covered. I asked what they could do for me and they gave me the chrome wheel at trade price so just over 20% off. I also filed a claim with the Ministry of Transport but the claim was turned down which did not surprise me as it was a construction zone with lots of warning signs but it was at night and we were all travelling at highway speeds rather than the posted limit. It is easy to understand why the wheels bend given our freeze thaw damaged roads and the very little bit of sidewall our tires have to absorb any serious impact. I used to have several acquaintances who drove little hot rod rice burners with super low profile tires and they were always complaining about bent wheels.
 
scraze66 said:
I am pretty sure my old Grand Sport had a bent wheel or 2, and now I am experiencing a shake at 50km/h in my Z06. I will have the dealer check them out during next service.

Could a manhole cause damage?
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I would be very surprised if a depressed manhole would do that. I have had all my C7s over some pretty rough roads and this was the first problem I have had. When driving around the city where there are bad potholes I try to drive in Touring mode most of the time however last June I hit a couple of nasty holes while touring in Vermont and driving in Sport mode and no damage. Hit some very nasty holes in Cape Breton too but had it in Tour mode much of the time there due to road conditions.
 
They won't break or bend from just one hit. GM would have you believe that you hit a pothole the size of a curb, but the sad truth is that the everyday imperfections of the roads (cracks, depressions, expansion joints, manhole covers) anything that is above half the size of the sidewall hit at normal speeds will fatigue the inner barrel of the rims. This will slowly degrade until you have a massive failure of the metal and then it cracks. It will be 1 of them which causes a vibration or a slow leak, but when inspected you may see as many as 7 bends or "cracks" forming on the inner barrel. Doing the msrc update on 17 or earlier gs/z06 cars and driving in tour mode will just delay, not prevent, the eventual bend/crack.

I've examined my Z06 rims and while I have no visible cracks yet on them, I have areas on the inner barrels which I can feel on the touch that the rim is not consistent in its shape. I will mark them in the spring and see which ones will form cracks over time. The car has 17K km on it already, and on the fronts and rears, I've felt at least 5 areas of concern.
 
Yep, not cracked but out of round on my '17 GS. I live and drive in the GTA, am super careful (never curb rash, always looking out for potholes), usually have the suspension on tour mode. Sometimes I sensed the slightest of vibrations soon after I bought it, otherwise I have a garage lift so I'm always checking for cracks or obvious damage and never saw anything. Never happened with my other cars that also ride low aspect tires so I thought I was ok. But when I got a nail in the driver's side rear and had it patched the specialized shop said they couldn't balance it 100%.

12 inch wide light cast rims sitting on 25 aspect ratio tires - it's almost 100% certain that it will happen to some degree. Simply it's cost cutting by chevy.
 

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