cracked rim

**Train** · 01-08-2010, 07:29 PM

have had my TA for almost a year now and i put new tires on it because it was in dire need. then about 2 weeks after i got them on my one tire was extremely low so thinking it was a faulty tire i went back to get it check out and they said my rim was cracked and i asked to see, and sure enough it was. the thing that gets me is the location of the crack, its on edge of it but not on the edge that faces outward (area that isnt seen when looking at the car). they tried to tell me it could be caused by pot holes and what not, however i baby my car and by no means did i hit something to cause my rim to crack. they could have dropped it or cracked it from the pressure but i have no way to prove it being it was 2 weeks later. anywho, i need to either get it fixed or get a new one..any ideas/suggestions?

can you see the crack? (itd be on the bottom. & sry cell phone pics)

close up

here's the crack

if you look at the first one again, you can def. see it after it gets pointed out to you.

**AKA Speedy** · 01-08-2010, 09:14 PM

Yeah that kind of a crack definitely came from someone dropping it. The way it splits I don't think it was caused by air pressure. you may be able to get a machine shop or a good fabricator to fix it, but there is no guarantee that it won't develop another break or leak air. I would get on Ebay and see if you can't get one in good condition there, or look at a junk yard in your area that may have parted a WS6. If you go to the factory you're looking easily at almost $500 w/out the core charge.

**Train** · 01-09-2010, 06:58 AM

i'm considering finding a good aluminum welder for the time being (just so she doesnt have to sit on a jack stand) until i can find one for a decent price. i was able to find a company that charges $262 for a refurbished one (and that's with a company discount). for as much as it would cost to get a new one from the factory i can find a pretty much a whole set of wheels w/ tires included but i really want to have the originals too.

thanks for the input

**AKA Speedy** · 01-09-2010, 08:48 AM

Originally Posted by Train

i'm considering finding a good aluminum welder for the time being (just so she doesnt have to sit on a jack stand) until i can find one for a decent price. i was able to find a company that charges $262 for a refurbished one (and that's with a company discount). for as much as it would cost to get a new one from the factory i can find a pretty much a whole set of wheels w/ tires included but i really want to have the originals too.

thanks for the input

lol its no problem! I'm a Mechanical Engineering student, so I figured I'd just let you know with Aluminum properties It's kinda unknown because of the place your crack is at. If you want someone that's really good at Al work call Eric Vaughn. He has a web site (google Eric Vaughn Machine). He's based in Cali, but I'm sure you can call him and send him pics of your crack to give you the best course of action to take on your rim. I'm actually going to have him widden an extra set of speedline WS6's for my 02 to 11" so I can put 315's on the back.

**znasty** · 01-09-2010, 10:08 AM

a good welder should be able to fix this for you and save you some money

**Spikito** · 01-09-2010, 12:18 PM

we need to see the outside of the lip...see if it looks like something struck it our not.

I would venture to say that it could have happened from a temp drop...now that winter has set in.

**Train** · 01-09-2010, 09:37 PM

Originally Posted by BrianH.WS6

lol its no problem! I'm a Mechanical Engineering student, so I figured I'd just let you know with Aluminum properties It's kinda unknown because of the place your crack is at. If you want someone that's really good at Al work call Eric Vaughn. He has a web site (google Eric Vaughn Machine). He's based in Cali, but I'm sure you can call him and send him pics of your crack to give you the best course of action to take on your rim. I'm actually going to have him widden an extra set of speedline WS6's for my 02 to 11" so I can put 315's on the back.

thanks of the info, i'll have to check it out. he sounds like he does good work from what you are having him do for you.

Originally Posted by znasty

a good welder should be able to fix this for you and save you some money

i think that's what i am going to do for the time being until i find a replacement

Originally Posted by Spikito

we need to see the outside of the lip...see if it looks like something struck it our not.

I would venture to say that it could have happened from a temp drop...now that winter has set in.

i'll take a picture of the lip tomorrow and post it up. it didn't happen from a temp. drop, i got the tires back in aug. it was beaded to hold a seal until i figured out what to do with it (held air for the most part). i just finally took it off once i put it in storage, so now i'm tryin to fix it during the off season.

**1fastcamarosss11** · 01-09-2010, 09:47 PM

i just sold one of those rims in good shape for 150 shipped with a tire. deals are out there. just have to really look.
good luck with it and let us now how it turns out.

**F-my-body** · 01-10-2010, 01:50 PM

my brothers 00 TA is leaking air in the front right tire could it be a faulty tire or possbily a cracked rim?
becaues my back right one is dented and i dont have any issues other than an annoying noise

**Train** · 01-10-2010, 07:16 PM

Originally Posted by F-my-body

my brothers 00 TA is leaking air in the front right tire could it be a faulty tire or possbily a cracked rim?
becaues my back right one is dented and i dont have any issues other than an annoying noise

did he just get new tires?..mine started leaking a few weeks after i got new tires and i thought it was a faulty tire but it turned out to be a crack from who knows what. i'd tell him to get the tire off and check out the rim.

Originally Posted by Spikito

we need to see the outside of the lip...see if it looks like something struck it our not.

I would venture to say that it could have happened from a temp drop...now that winter has set in.

here's some pics of the outside lip (cell phone yet again)

the crack doesnt go all the way through though. it stops right at the lip (bottom of washingtons wig). the rest below there is just the stuff from when it was beaded/dirt.

**AKA Speedy** · 01-11-2010, 02:06 PM

Yeah from where it's at I'm almost positive it was a drop. Since it doesn't run all the way down I'm still not to sure how well a weld will hold. One chug hole and you may see yourself back at square one. I checked eBay listings and these same rims are running as low as 50 bucks minimum bid, but you do run the gamble with buying on eBay. Whatever you do keep us posted on how it turns out!

**F-my-body** · 01-11-2010, 03:48 PM

no the tires are kinda old but its only the front right all the others are fine.he filled hs tires not to long ago and he already had to do the front right one esterday

**Train** · 01-11-2010, 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by BrianH.WS6

Yeah from where it's at I'm almost positive it was a drop. Since it doesn't run all the way down I'm still not to sure how well a weld will hold. One chug hole and you may see yourself back at square one. I checked eBay listings and these same rims are running as low as 50 bucks minimum bid, but you do run the gamble with buying on eBay. Whatever you do keep us posted on how it turns out!

thanks for the input/ideas. i will def keep it updated on what i decide to do with it

Originally Posted by F-my-body

no the tires are kinda old but its only the front right all the others are fine.he filled hs tires not to long ago and he already had to do the front right one esterday

well if the tires are old it could be the tire itself. did you or him check the tire to see if there was anything in it (nail, screw ect.)?
if he's hit any pot holes or curbs it could be his rim. if you get the tire off and inspect the rim and find nothing wrong or see anything out of ordinary then it's the tire.

**JaycenK** · 01-12-2010, 11:56 AM

I have a cracked factory rim in the same spot it was from a wreck that happend 3.5 years earlier. It took the stress in the metal almost 3 years to crack and leak air. If some one drops an aluminum wheel it is going to bend before it cracks. If it hits the ground that hard it will leave signs of a fall. Cracks in aluminum like that happen because of stress and then fail because it was a weak point over time and load. My wheel was not on the side of the wreck but had a tie rod break and hit it.

**JaycenK** · 01-12-2010, 11:57 AM

Originally Posted by BrianH.WS6

Yeah from where it's at I'm almost positive it was a drop. Since it doesn't run all the way down I'm still not to sure how well a weld will hold. One chug hole and you may see yourself back at square one. I checked eBay listings and these same rims are running as low as 50 bucks minimum bid, but you do run the gamble with buying on eBay. Whatever you do keep us posted on how it turns out!

If it were droped you would be able to see the damage on the edge

**znasty** · 01-12-2010, 02:31 PM

Originally Posted by JaycenK

I have a cracked factory rim in the same spot it was from a wreck that happend 3.5 years earlier. It took the stress in the metal almost 3 years to crack and leak air. If some one drops an aluminum wheel it is going to bend before it cracks. If it hits the ground that hard it will leave signs of a fall. Cracks in aluminum like that happen because of stress and then fail because it was a weak point over time and load. My wheel was not on the side of the wreck but had a tie rod break and hit it.

Originally Posted by JaycenK

If it were droped you would be able to see the damage on the edge

+1 like he said

**AKA Speedy** · 01-13-2010, 10:05 AM

Originally Posted by JaycenK

If it were droped you would be able to see the damage on the edge

Well If he/she hasn't hit anything how would you explain stress? It appears there is wear on the metal and with the extreme cold temperatures going on right now I would not put it pass the metal to be more brittle than normal. I agree with you that an Aluminum ALLOY would probably bend under normal circumstances, but with the cold and if some one was clumsy enough to hit the rim on a smooth concrete shop floor or even throw the wheel on the rack it can cause a crack.

However I will say that this could have also been caused if the rim has been dropped previously, or if the OP isn't the original owner of the vehicle, the previous owner might have hit a chug whole. Over time with the rim exposed to the different temperature changes the Alloy could have become brittle enough that when they inflated the tires the force of the Air Pressure could have possibly caused the Crack. My deduction was just based off the fact That I read that the OP had no issues before mounting the tires and now has a decent crack on the inner lip of the rim with out even hitting any pot holes.

Bottom line is the OP just wanted to know what steps to take to fix the problem and I believe with all the comments on here He/She should have a few good ideas on what they can do.

**Train** · 01-13-2010, 11:14 AM

There weren't any problems with it until I got the new tires put on. I'm the third owner (w/ 32K) and the guy before me seemed to have babied it too (not to say he couldn't have hit a pot hole or something though). The car has been in Ohio it's whole life, so I'm not sure if the weather had much to do with it unless it was previously stressed. Either way I can't really do much about the crack besides fix it. I was just trying to see possible causes or if the shop guys "reasoning" was accurate.

Thanks for everyones input, I just have to contact a few local guy to set something up for the time being until I can find a replacement for decent price. I will post pics of the weld once it's done.
-Jessica

**AKA Speedy** · 01-13-2010, 12:10 PM

Originally Posted by Train

There weren't any problems with it until I got the new tires put on. I'm the third owner (w/ 32K) and the guy before me seemed to have babied it too (not to say he couldn't have hit a pot hole or something though). The car has been in Ohio it's whole life, so I'm not sure if the weather had much to do with it unless it was previously stressed. Either way I can't really do much about the crack besides fix it. I was just trying to see possible causes or if the shop guys "reasoning" was accurate.

Thanks for everyones input, I just have to contact a few local guy to set something up for the time being until I can find a replacement for decent price. I will post pics of the weld once it's done.
-Jessica

Well I think you were right on with it possibly being dropped or from their tools/machine they use to to put your tires on. I actually have gashes in the outside of my speedline WS6's that were caused by a local ford dealerships tire tool when they attempted to break the bead. I haven't gone back to them since.

lol Input is what I think everyone is here for... Good Luck!

**JaycenK** · 01-13-2010, 10:27 PM

Also Most tire shops don't move the rim after the old tire has been taken off. It usually sits on a mounting machine with a lock on it. They dismount the old and then mount the new one, fill it with air and then take it off the mounting machine and over to the ballancer.