Bent Wheels? Longevity of alloy wheels?

[UG_Passat]

I've had aftermarket 18" wheels with 235/40 tires and never had issues with bent wheels. Likewise stock 17" wheels with 235/45 tires with no issues... just one tire bubble from an unmaintained road.

I had a co-worker with 16" wheels with 205/55 tires and after bending 2 wheels from Orange Co. NY roads, he continued with running steel wheels after winter, and no issues since (until he turn is TDI in from Dieselgate).

 

[Traction]

After spotting hundreds of bent wheels while spinning on my wheel balancer, i doesn't take much a bend at all to be visible watching the rim flange on the back part of the wheel, which the weakest point. It's flexible like the open end of a bucket. I wouldn't safely recommend it, but you could see a bent wheel from the backside with both, or all drive wheels in the air spinning at about 10-15mph. I can see a wheel that's only bent like .030 inches. And if I steadily point a laser at the rim flange, and turn it by hand and find exactly where it's bent, and sometimes even egg shaped in 2 or 3 directions. I've also put bent wheels back on cars explaining options to the customer, but if it's on the rear they usually don't even feel it.

 

[Olas]

steel wheels, tyres with more sidewall, and a bit less spring rate should help you 'glide' over the worst of it

 

[skyactiv]

Tire selection can help prevent wheel bending to a point. This may seem odd, but stronger sidewalls can help prevent wheels from becoming bent.
A tire such as the Bridgestone Potenza RE980AS has a THREE ply sidewall. Very, very few passenger car tires have 3 ply sidewalls. Most have 1, some have 2. The impact on a 3 ply sidewall gets spread over a wider area of the tire lessening the impact shock from going straight to the alloy wheel which can bend it.

 

[Wolf359]

Tire selection can help prevent wheel bending to a point. This may seem odd, but stronger sidewalls can help prevent wheels from becoming bent.
A tire such as the Bridgestone Potenza RE980AS has a THREE ply sidewall. Very, very few passenger car tires have 3 ply sidewalls. Most have 1, some have 2. The impact on a 3 ply sidewall gets spread over a wider area of the tire lessening the impact shock from going straight to the alloy wheel which can bend it.

Always an old thread coming back to life. Probably easy way to tell is the load rating. A higher load rating would probably be a stronger tire than the same size in a lower rating. Only problem is that it will probably ride rougher.

 

[Jetronic]

Almost cast alloy wheel seems prone to bending, and cheaper or fashionable aftermarket wheel often aren't true when new. The bigger the diameter the higher the chance they are out of round.

However, flow formed wheels are much better out of the box, take less weights to get balanced and the flow forming process makes for a barrel and hoop on the inside that are less prone to permanent bending. Forged wheels will be the same or better but at a signicantly higher cost.

 

[Crash Bandicoot]

Never had an issue with Aluminum wheels bending or being a wear item even with my old Honda that lived in Buffalo, NY and Kew Gardens, NY most it’s life. Minimum sidewall I’ve run has been 65. Sounds like narrow sidewall thing claims another victim.

 

[Wylie6G72]

How my wheels get bent?

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Tire Rack says 16 inch wheels will fit your Accord. The tire size would then be 215/60-16, which will give you plenty of sidewall.

 

[Kawiguy454]

If you have low profile tires and have bad roads. when you get new tires adjust the size to get more sidewall. Go up profile from 50/55 60/65 and so on. the extra inch or so you can fit will definitely help the wheels.

 

[Wolf359]

Never had an issue with Aluminum wheels bending or being a wear item even with my old Honda that lived in Buffalo, NY and Kew Gardens, NY most it’s life. Minimum sidewall I’ve run has been 65. Sounds like narrow sidewall thing claims another victim.

Same thing here til I got 17/18 inch rims. Had a few cracked rims with the 18 and just a couple bent ones with the 17. The 18 had 40's series and the 17 had 45 series. Prior to that had 60 series and up and never had a bent rim.

If you have low profile tires and have bad roads. when you get new tires adjust the size to get more sidewall. Go up profile from 50/55 60/65 and so on. the extra inch or so you can fit will definitely help the wheels.

A little tricky to do as the other problem with low profile tires is that the sport suspension these days don't give you a lot of room. Plus you run into the problem of the tire shop not wanting to mount tires that aren't the correct size for the car.

 

[Kawiguy454]

Same thing here til I got 17/18 inch rims. Had a few cracked rims with the 18 and just a couple bent ones with the 17. The 18 had 40's series and the 17 had 45 series. Prior to that had 60 series and up and never had a bent rim.


A little tricky to do as the other problem with low profile tires is that the sport suspension these days don't give you a lot of room. Plus you run into the problem of the tire shop not wanting to mount tires that aren't the correct size for the car.

If you compare specs online what you'll find is that the sidewall/treadwidth ratios are not dramatic so going up one profile still fits inside the fender. Typically trading ~1 inch larger Diameter for <1 inch narrower width or so. Never had a problem i go in and tell them what size to put on and they do it.

 

[benjy]

for sure lower profile tyres with short sidewalls offer less cushion, but be aware its a % of the width so bigger wider 50 series tyres have a taller sidewall + your smaller 225-50's have shorter sidewalls. wheel quality is a issue as well + i even got a bent NEW never installed alum wheel, a cheepie of course. as noted E-Bay or local auto recycler may have replacements for cheep as repairing an alloy wheel is NOT cheep. a search will show various types + quality for alloy wheels. got a nice OE alloy spare for my 2011 frontier to replace the very rusty steel spare that lived or shall i say died mounted under the box living in massachusetts before i bought it.

 

[ecotourist]

I've read online that the wheels simply weaken over time from repeated blows is why I was asking. I do understand that it's an impact that creates the bend.

My tires are 225/50R17, which I didn't think were low-pro but I guess anything 50 or less are considered low-profile after looking it up.

I have 215/50R17 95V tires on my 2007 Accord having original equipment wheels and 180,000 Km. I don't drive on the best of roads and I've hit a few potholes but I've never had a bent rim.

I think wheels are all slightly out of round, and tires aren't absolutely round either. So I wonder if you have a force balance issue. I look for a Hunter RoadForce machine when getting tires installed.

 

[CapriRacer]

Allow me to confirm that ALL wheels and tires have some amount of runout (non-uniformity) and imbalance. It's a matter of how big those are. For some, the amount is too small to measure with conventional equipment, but if you get a very sensitive measuring device, you can always find some amount of variation.

 

[avacado11]

I don’t think I’ve had any 45 or less series tides NOT have a bend on the rim. Some potholes might not look deep but will bend if hit in certain speeds/angles. As long as there isn’t any crack the wheels are fine. Alloys don’t lose rigidity over time.

find a wheel repair shop they can usually straighten stuff like that out for about $80 a wheel. The ones that can’t be straightened are the ones that look bent. Seeing out it took 3 shops and a wheel lathe to find the bend it certainly is only minor.

 

[IndyIan]

Same thing here til I got 17/18 inch rims. Had a few cracked rims with the 18 and just a couple bent ones with the 17. The 18 had 40's series and the 17 had 45 series. Prior to that had 60 series and up and never had a bent rim.


A little tricky to do as the other problem with low profile tires is that the sport suspension these days don't give you a lot of room. Plus you run into the problem of the tire shop not wanting to mount tires that aren't the correct size for the car.

Depends on the car for sure, but with struts usually the spring mount is the closest thing to the tire and you can just put your hand in to feel how much gap their is. I decided to try 195/65R15 from 60 profile on my focus this year and the shop noticed the difference and let me know, but put them on at my request. No downsides I can find yet, got a 3% gearing reduction and bit smoother quieter ride. In theory I think mileage should get a tiny bit better. I came off snowtires so handling is still better than it was and sufficient for everything but autocross.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Everyone says NY roads are the worst. They're wrong - it's PA!

 

[eljefino]

I have my own balancer and do indeed see many bent older rims. I can also visually spot the ones that are way out of whack vs sorta-okay as confirmed by road-testing.

New rims spin true, even $34 generic steelies. Steel rims are slightly more likely to just bend the lip, while the tire bead seating surface stays true. Aluminum might bend closer to the hub. But people are spazzes and can tweak any rim any which way.