Autocross and Road Course Racing - blew up my wheel...

well close enough lol. had an autox today, everything was fine and dandy, got my first 3 morning runs done and parked the car and relaxed a little. went back to my car to check the tire pressure and notice something a little unusual...

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a158/civicexracer/wheel%20paint/IMG_0005-1.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a158/civicexracer/wheel%20paint/IMG_0006-2.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a158/civicexracer/wheel%20paint/IMG_0007-1.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a158/civicexracer/wheel%20paint/IMG_0008-2.jpg

yeeeahhh....wtf?![:@] i don't know how or when it happened. my best guess would be that on the parking lot, there is one area where it kinda sinks in a bit and the cars hit a bit hard there, might have been to much stress and the wheel blew. i know i've put these wheels thru some major temp. changes but i wouldnt think it'd be enough to do that, esp on day like today where the pavement wasnt very hot and temp wasnt high.. luckily the tire is fine, the bead is fine and still holds air, no cracks or anything.

this is also the same wheel that the paint mysteriously flaked off a while back. looks like it could be the same spot, the crack is a little larger than the paint chip.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a158/civicexracer/wheel%20paint/2.jpg

just ordered another one with next day shipping. gena take this wheel to work and take the tire off on monday. hopefully be able to mount/balance and repaint the new one before next sunday because i have a big race that day..

i've looked up Falkens warranty for wheels, only 1 year warranty and i've had these wheels for nearly a year and half. i'm still going to call them up and let them know what happened. dont think they can do anything for me but i just want to inform them, hopefully its not a mass defect..

holy chit monkey balls, it's like peeling a banana, that's sucks, but at least you weren't hurt or anything else. p.s. might want to look into Die forging, lol

those must be some cheap rims. Rims are supposed to be cut out of a block, not put together like a plastic car model lol. You can see where they joined the lip to the actual wheel. stay away

they're made by falken (not awesome, but not a horrible company) and no, not all rims are made from a 'block' of aluminum or steel.

ORIGINAL: inthezoneac

those must be some cheap rims. Rims are supposed to be cut out of a block, not put together like a plastic car model lol. You can see where they joined the lip to the actual wheel. stay away


Falkens a very reputable company. this is the first time ever i've heard of anything like this happening to any of their wheels. of course it just had to happen to me but hey, what can i do...hopefully i can get a hold of them soon and see what the deal is.

dang that is wierd....
ive never seen a wheel bust out like that!

it had to have just been a flaw from the factory expetialy if the paint had flaked off in that same spot before.... id still hit them up and tell them the paint flaked there before and send them pictures if ya can. that doesnt look anything like USER ERROR! tho it could be tire instal error....
you could also try talking to the shop that instaled your tires on the rims.. they might have pryed to hard on the lip trying to seperate the old tire from the tip or use that crow bar to get the tire all the way around.... once the small stress crack is made its only a matter of time before it just gets larger and larger.. just an idea.
a small discount on work on the new wheel is better than nothing. and watch them instal the tire to see if the guys worken the tire to hard or not....

a install error couldn't have been it, they might have scratched it, but nothing more, had to have been factory flaw.

it could...they have a machine to seperate the wheel and tire and well as like a crowbar to get the tire over the lip. could have been a combo. weak spot in the rims lip and the crowbar/machine pressure could have weakened it more.
just a thought..... they tore thru my old tires with the tire machine... i wanted to keep the tires because they were still good just but the tire shop riped 2 of the tires sides right thru! thetires where just alittle larger on my car and rubbed in the front. and yes i was mad... at least i didnt have to pay the stupid recycling fee because i complained about it! :(

i mounted and balanced the tires myself, and every other wheel/tire i currently run on my car. i know for sure i didnt make any mistakes mounting, i've done it countless of times. even so, a mistake made while mounting a tire on awheelwill most likely only affect the tire. u just have to be doing something very very wrong to ruin a wheel like that. at most u can do to a wheel is scratch the lip, which even then is just about impossible with the machine i use.

yeah, i've been mounting tires for a long time (family business) and the only concern you should have is destroying the tire bead and scratching. and yes, the mounting machines today are a lot different than they used to be.

I havn't done low-pro tires (or any tires for that matter) for a while, but its far easier to rip out a bead or scratch the lip on a wheel then to do actual physical damage like that. I agree it is likely a flaw, and hopefully its just the one rim, not in the whole batch they produced. Best of luck dealing with it!

learn to drive:D

^ yeah, that always helps, lol

ORIGINAL: GReddy_Civic

learn to drive:D


guess i need to go back to drivers ed..:(

you're too caught up with autocrossing and high speed turns, you need to go back and learn the basics like parallel parking and 3 point turns, lol