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There is no way a perfectly straight crack on the rim isn’t a defect. Don’t get me wrong I love the looks and performance of the c7 vets, but GM’s complete disregard to their best customers is disturbing at best. I’ve owned a lot of nice cars and never seen this type of attitude or lack of responsiveness from a major manufacturer. Paint, wheels, overheating etc..
This man understands the nature of my post perfectly and very succinctly!!! Thank you sir for your vindication. Now I'm going to take a nap.
Last edited by rectifyer2000; 12-05-2023 at 11:53 AM.
Myself and my friends bought the 5 year tire & wheel insurance. They have had rims replaced and all of us get a new tire if we get a nail (not sure how I always get them in the rears). It’s been a god scent. Another option, since rims are so finicky no matter which you get, good luck.
More often than not these cracked wheels are linked back to user error, I’ve actually seen people driving their Vette up onto 6” planter curbs and then dropping back off the edge onto the pavement full force. If you don’t want to crack your rims stop off roading your cars...
More often than not these cracked wheels are linked back to user error, I’ve actually seen people driving their Vette up onto 6” planter curbs and then dropping back off the edge onto the pavement full force. If you don’t want to crack your rims stop off roading your cars...
Thanks for your valuable contribution to the world. Your mother must be very proud of you.
I have a 2017 grand sport and I thought I had a nail in my right rear tire, when I took the car to the dealer they showed me the cracks and only gave me an option to purchase a new rim at the cost of over $800 installed. I chose to online order a replacement at a better price. Once the original rim was removed and inspected you can see that there were several cracks with zero impact Mark's which indicates to me that the item failed to meet the requirements of use. I will attach pics .
HEY CHEVY, time to chime in here an quit ignoring this SAFETY ISSUE because that is exactly what it is. Just reading this thread makes me physically ill! Many of us are hardcore Corvette people and adore these cars. We buy them because we want the performance in what we hope is a safe vehicle. Makes me very nervous to know that my high end 100K+ performance car may have unsafe cracked wheels. I just do not want to crawl under the car every time I go for a spin to make sure the wheels are OK.
It’s time you start supporting us. I guess nothing will be done until someone gets hurt and the law suites start flying. This is seriously LAME!
I've read through this entire thread and what I see is a whole bunch of guys who have had problems with these wheels and a few who chime in and pontificate that they should just suck it up, stop whining, accept it as somehow normal. I currently have a 2016 ZO6 with three cracked and bent rims with under 10k miles. The car has never been tracked, raced or driven hard. Like one of the other posters, I've been driving for over 50 years, logged a few million miles, owned over a 100 cars, including multiple Vettes and never had a rim problem until this ZO6. To suggest that it's acceptable that a $100k car has this kind of garbage for wheels is just plain stupid. The fact is that the OEM's are cast and are inherently a bad set up for these cars; they should be factory equipped with forged wheels as a matter of course. Some of the responders on this thread seem to be more interested in defending the honor of GM and Corvette than empathizing with the victims of this problem. These are great cars with a serious flaw and the evidence is overwhelming when it comes to the OEM wheels and it's underscored by the fact that GM is now rejecting replacements; if it was a once in awhile issue they'd pony up and take care of the few problem cars. Refusing to face the issue clearly shows it's too big to admit because the cost would be huge. Perhaps a class action suit would wake them up.
all 4 of mine were bent. Wheel and tire insurance replaced them all after they tried to straighten them, with no luck. They wasted 800 dollars trying to straighten bent cast aluminum wheels that are a foot wide... not the smartest cats, but not my problem. New wheels in the end. I wish they would let me upgrade to forged wheels. Maybe next time.
Hi Mike, Thanks for your input. I'm currently researched a good fix for the problem. I stopped by Wheel Wizard today and talked at some length with Irving. He told me quite honestly that most of the straightening’s on the OEM Vette wheels doesn’t hold up for long because they have to be heated in order to do it and that often compromises the strength even more. He told me I’d probably end up doing it again in less than a year and recommended new stronger rims, likely forged ones, through somebody like Butler Tire. He also mentioned that Gran Turismo does straightening and they are a good shop but probably ends up with similar results. Short term fix at best.
Bottom line from these folks and the many, many guys on the Forum with the same problem: the consensus is that the stock cast wheels suck. Dealers, although reluctant to do anything about them, have been getting GM to replace them on warranty up until about 6 months ago when GM started refusing to do so anymore. Pretty shabby customer service for a $100k flagship car to have such a serious and widespread flaw. From a good source, the stock wheels are apparently from China, by the way. It’s stamped on the inside of the rim but hidden by the mounted tire, of course.
You can get top quality Vossen and Niche forged wheels for $1k+ apiece but only if you’re willing to wait for 8 weeks or more for them to build them.
I visited Butler in Alpharetta, GA. and they recommended Cray’s forged ones which are made in the USA only for Corvettes including the ZO6’s. Price about $2200 out the door with the original tires and valve/senders remounted. This seems like the most reasonable fix although I have no idea yet about how decent the Cray’s really are…Given the low price for forged wheels concerns me.
there is different levels of forged... roll forged is not good. they are probably roll forged.
Mike,
One thing's pretty clear...this topic is one without a real clear solution. It seems like one needs to be a tire expert and metallurgist and have a large pocket book to make the right move. What bothers me is that a lot of guys have spent lots of $ in good faith attempts to solve the same problem with varying results. If I could be sure that spending $2-3 K on wheels to really cure the problem, I'd do it in a heart beat. Problem is it seems akin to a roll of the dice.
if you want roll forged wheels, i suggest the zr1 wheels from house of wheels, those are roll forged and can be had for about 2000 bucks a set... and hey... you look like a zr1. not so bad.
I've read through this entire thread and what I see is a whole bunch of guys who have had problems with these wheels and a few who chime in and pontificate that they should just suck it up, stop whining, accept it as somehow normal. I currently have a 2016 ZO6 with three cracked and bent rims with under 10k miles. The car has never been tracked, raced or driven hard. Like one of the other posters, I've been driving for over 50 years, logged a few million miles, owned over a 100 cars, including multiple Vettes and never had a rim problem until this ZO6. To suggest that it's acceptable that a $100k car has this kind of garbage for wheels is just plain stupid. The fact is that the OEM's are cast and are inherently a bad set up for these cars; they should be factory equipped with forged wheels as a matter of course. Some of the responders on this thread seem to be more interested in defending the honor of GM and Corvette than empathizing with the victims of this problem. These are great cars with a serious flaw and the evidence is overwhelming when it comes to the OEM wheels and it's underscored by the fact that GM is now rejecting replacements; if it was a once in awhile issue they'd pony up and take care of the few problem cars. Refusing to face the issue clearly shows it's too big to admit because the cost would be huge. Perhaps a class action suit would wake them up.
As you mentioned, the evidence is overwhelming, and this is a major safety issue. When someone gets hurt they will start paying attention!
As you mentioned, the evidence is overwhelming, and this is a major safety issue. When someone gets hurt they will start paying attention!
the problem is when someone wrecks because a wheel breaks, they cant prove the wheel broke first unless its on video, instead, the guy was a "bad driver" and the wreck broke his wheel, so i dont even think your statement will be correct... someone will get killed, and we will never know what happened.
Are there any of the Z06 wheels that do not have this cracking problem. I currently have black wheels, do we have the same issue with chrome? Wow, this is a real buzz kill!
the problem is when someone wrecks because a wheel breaks, they cant prove the wheel broke first unless its on video, instead, the guy was a "bad driver" and the wreck broke his wheel, so i dont even think your statement will be correct... someone will get killed, and we will never know what happened.
I had almost the same exact issue. Got new tires a couple months ago at America's Tire Company so I know the install was professional. Tire warning light came on and the tire was down to 26 PSI. Within a few hours it went to 22 PSI and held. Took it in for a flat repair and they pulled the wheel and found a 2 inch crack from the inside lip of the rim going toward the center. No other visible damage. Just thought I'd share since there were several posts on this same issue. Defect I guess?
By the way, I shopped a lot on the new set of tires. The stock tires performed fine but always broke traction under heavy acceleration even when new. As they wore it was unsafe even with traction control. One vendor tried to sell me the racing version of the tires for better performance but enough other comments recommended against them. I went with the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3 PLUS (that's the all-season version and also run flat). They ARE AWESOME!! You can go full throttle at a stop and barely break traction. I have not tried any other tire but definitely recommend these unless you are a track driver.
The car has a tire/wheel policy from GM...but they blame it on the owner for "hitting" something and causing it yourself. Hope it works better with the aftermarket policy!
06-07-2018, 02:24 PM
