Conflicting Opinions On Wheel Repair: Please Chime In

[deschodt]

I have a set of 18x10 rear 5 spoke 996 wheels that are - indeed - bent a little. Nothing crazy, it's not even visible unless you spin them on a balancing machine with a guide next to the inner lip, but not totally fixeable just with good balancing either. Most people could live with it but I HATE the smallest of vibrations.

There is a local wheel place that fixes wheels for famous brands, dealers etc, that tells me they can fix them for $65 each, they heat them and use a hydraulic press to restore true roundness... They do it all the time, and according to the guy, on those exact wheels as well...The cheap side of my brain likes this idea...

On the flip side, wheel enhancement (and the rational side of my brain) tells me those are BBS made wheels and are heat treated, so they do not condone repairing them because reheating them destroys the original heat treatment and affect the metallurgy. The wheels can be fixed but they are inherently more fragile afterwards. That said, new ones are $700 a pop, so they're not totally impartial either since they'd like to sell me a set..

I'm curious as to what you guys think - if I have to pay up I will, I just want to be sure I'm not being taken for a ride. I hear people get them repaired all the time, and it's not a huge bend to begin with.... but, I am going to use them on track at speed !

I'm thinking of doing both, buy a new set (ouch) and repair the old one as a spare of sorts. Err on the side of safety and all that...Just wondering if those BBS made wheels are indeed all that much more fragile after a repair....

[Loren]

Talk to these folks too.

See what they think. They do a lot of Porsche wheels as well as race cars.

http://www.wheeltechniques.com/

[nick49]

I have worked with aluminum a bit modifying heat treated aluminum motorcycle frames and swing arms for roadracing. I learned that these items after heating, bending, and welding will go back to their original hardness in time. To keep them plastic and workable we pack them in ice. Even at room temperature the will quickly return to their original hardness.

You may talk to a local metals heat treatment shop to find out more. I have a friend that has heated, straightened, welded broken lips on and remachined wheels on his Porsche Fuchs wheels with very good success. I think it's done all the time. Good luck!

[zegypt]

I had my rear 5 spoke OEM wheels (made by BBS) repaired using the exact same method you indicated (using heat), and they were fixed easily. I hated the vibration caused by the bent rims, but after being fixed, the vibration completely disappeared. I definitely recommend using this method (I paid $100 for the pair so you may want to haggle a bit for a better price...).

[deschodt]

Well, I ordered a new set of rears. I will get the current wheels fixed but then they will be my "spare" or street set. I'll try to find fronts on ebay to have the full deck of wheels ;-)

All the pros I talked to (3 places including wheel enhancement) agreed that they would not recommend a repair nor trust a repaired wheel of that style (the 02 996 5 spoke lightweight) for track duties. I emphasize "of that style" and "for track duties". The heating + hydraulic press repair -does- work but it weakens the affected spot. Apparently that is not so much a problem with Fuchs or modular wheels, but those modern alloys are more fragile - they also said the rear is a pretty deep wheel (10) and the inner lip is not as supported by the spokes as the outer, so this is where it's going to happen more often than not... That also might explain how you bend the rears and not the fronts !

Anyway, a problem at 140 mph on the track is not something I am willing to expose myself to. They all said I was better off driving with an imbalance (unrepaired) or getting new ones from a safety standpoint.

And yeah, the repair is cheaper if I supply them with a rim only, $65 was including dismounting tire, remounting and balancing.... It's $50 with just the rim.

That, incidentally, makes me wonder about all the rims for sale on ebay and how many people are truthful about their condition....

Edited December 29, 2006 by deschodt

[zegypt]

I had the lightweight 2002 five spoke rims, had them fixed (they didn't take off the tires to fix the rims), and I drove upwards of 150 afterwards and nothing happened to the rims. I ended up selling those rims on craigslist (I disclosed that they were fixed) and bought OEM takeoffs from a local Porsche dealer (new set of 2006 five spoke wheels and tires for around $1,150).

To me, the cheapest alternative is to buy OEM takeoffs from a dealer or a private seller....btw, I sold my original rims with bald tires for $1,000, so the entire set of brand new rims and wheels ended up costing me $150. I'll likely do it again once my current tires wear out if the local dealers have any good deals on takeoffs.