I have a GTi Polo and the last week I have had a slow leak.
A week to loos 10 lbs
Couldnt see any marks any where.
They are low profile tyres (40 series) but I havent been smashing into potholes or anything
Anyway - pulled the wheel today, front passenger, and found the rim is cracked.
The car is 2 years old and done 22,000 kms.
Do you reckon it is damage I have done or do you reckon it is a rubbish rim I can claim on warranty
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Rubbish rims 
In my experience, and believe me I,ve seen lots of cracked rims that is an impact fracture.
I bet it came of the front left?
With low profile tyres there is nearly no give in the tyre sidewall so the rim takes all impact, even small ones you don,t even feel.
However the good news is that's an easy repair. A good engineering shop will weld and reroll that for around $100.00 dollars.
Cheers Col
Barry try Morton and May at Liverpool to fix it
Morton & May Wheel Repairs
Wheels & Rims--Automotive - Warwick Farm, NSW
2B El Toro Est Homepride Ave, Warwick Farm NSW 2170, Australia
(02) 9601 7000
Still worth having a word with your local VW dealers. Depending on their general knowledge you could get a new alloy for gratis 
Either way don't continue using as it'll just get bigger but you probably knew that anyway.
| Quote: |
| Originally
posted by Craig Torrens Rubbish rims |
| Quote: |
Nothing wrong with the rims, blame the 40 series rubber on there. Any wheel with a rubber band on it cops an absolute pounding.
Joel, that kind of stuff is why I run 14" rims and 70 series tyres. Much more comfortable and less prone to damage. I can even rub up against kerbs without scratching the rim!
Yeah but they look and handle like crap.
Its the price you pay occasionally for better looks and handling anyway it was no big loss, I payed under $200 for those sets of rims and a good
excuse to get more.
I had 14s on mine back in the 90s with 75 series tyres, that much wall flexes under hard cornering rediculous amounts.
factory fitted tyre, on a factory rim, with no visible damage, and driven on good roads......and its cracked ???
I'd be going down the warranty route.
Anatomy of a crack,stage one you hit a pothole gutter,stick rock etc, this causes a flat spot in the edge of the rim. This in turn causes stress's on
the rim which results in a crack. Most people dont know that they have damaged a rim till the tyre goes flat. The problem with wheels these days are
that they are made for perfect conditions, flat roads and no potholes and as well european wheels are naturally soft so damage easily here. Also tyres
that have no sidewall or give when you run over something.
My suggestion is before confronting dealer, first take the rim and have the tyre removed, while at the tyre place get them to spin up the rim on the
balancer and visually watch the inside edge. The maximum runout, wobble is 1.8mm total. Very rare to have damage on the outside face. Once you have
found there is no damage then take wheel to dealer and go warranty.
Is it a cast or forged alloy rim?
Forged is far less prone to cracking.
Well........................ went to Morton & May to do as has been suggested above.
To get an opinion before going to VW
and.................................................well.......................if you look at the 2nd pic, at about 180 degrees to the crack you can
see a buckle.
Well I can now. Mr Morton (or Mr May??) saw it straight away
Seems I (or wife or #1) has hit a pot hole and done the damage
Now I wont say I have never hit a pot hole, but I am surprised at the damage.
Certainly hit pot holes in the 1303, but that runs 55 series (and Porsche wheels)
On the up side - $125 and it will be good as new.
On the other side - no way would I upgrade to 18" over the 17" now.
Whatever.... live and learn
the End 
| Quote: | |
Originally
posted by Joel
Oh harden up, thats barely a scratch. I've had plenty of properly fucked rims thanks to the shitty roads round here.... |
And do you really expect $2k worth of Alloys to be any better made?
Unless you go old skool names like Borbet, maybe TSW, then they're just gonna be cheap cast rims.
As for QLD roads they were never constructed very well until more recent times so unless the road is completely ripped up and foundations laid from
scratch then the weather here will create potholes very easily. Fact of life in Oz.
| Quote: |
| Originally
posted by vlad01 holy shit, those are as thin as paper. you must be brave or stupid to drive on those things |
no, but I do expect the older forged (Porsche for eg) and aussie made rims to be better.
you havn't seen shit roads til you go to vic, I been to most other states and Vic has been the worst by far, well maybe except sydney
the roads here fall apart every time it rain, especially the Calder freeway.
Just the shapes made when you dent a rim a low is followed by a high and that is the crack.
| Quote: |
| Originally
posted by vlad01 no, but I do expect the older forged (Porsche for eg) and aussie made rims to be better. you havn't seen shit roads til you go to vic, I been to most other states and Vic has been the worst by far, well maybe except sydney the roads here fall apart every time it rain, especially the Calder freeway. |
mate, I been all over oz and drive 1000k a week every week, in sydney as we speak, was in adelaide the sat that just past.
been to europe few times too.
and you tell me I dont go to places? every time you say shit about me its just asumptions, usless asumption about a person you dont even know, so go
fuck your self.
| Quote: | ||
Originally
posted by Joel
Nearly all cars on the road these days have alloys that thickness. They're all coming out with alloy wheels now, steelies are becoming a thing of the past. They can't make them much thicker than that as they end up too heavy. Steelies don;t hold up much better, You should see some of the bent and buckled steel wheels in the scrap pile at the wreckers around here. We have some of the worst potholes around in this area due to the high rainfall and amount of backwater country roads the councils just can;t keep up. There are several about 6"+ deep just along my road at the moment. |
Well I guess that's true, for every 10 shitty roads we have around here there is 1 that is an absolute blast to drive.
Dunno what sort of state the Lions Road is in at the moment but ever since the Yelgun to Chinderah Freeway opened and got the Pacific highway traffic
off Burringbar range its great fun.
Not sure if the Speed cameras are still active but the Cops still troll it constantly as the bike groups and boy racers still use it as a Nurburgring
so gotta be careful.....
Mmmm burringbar range! still one of the best bits of road around! The sidling in tasmania is as good maybe better, Tawonga gap road down here also rates highly, oh and the road from wauchope to the top of the hill, OH YEAH!!!!!!!! Tunnel road between ocean shores and mullum is fun but ROUGH but thats where i cut my teeth!
havent been to tassie but everywhere else. Worst I have found is western qland. I dont rate sydney that bad for potholes. Only for shithouse design, traffic, and number of friggin annoying patchwork joins. Heavy vehicle traffic in wollongong makes the roads worse than sydney. We've got a corrugated freeway.