Recently bought a WRX Bugeye wagon 52 plate and the owner before me put some NASTY chrome bk racing alloys on it. Anyway I bought some standard bugeye wrx wheels and had them powered coated metalic dark gray (MINT). After driving around for last few weeks I`d noticed a noise from front N/S I had a look myself to find out what it was but couldnt see anything obvious (looked at suspension,drop links,shocker mounts etc etc) So having found nothing wrong I thought I`d send it to garage for them to have a look. I got a call shortly afterwards and had some bad news...... BOTH front alloys had cracked all the way round about 1.5" above studs all the way through so the noise was the wheels splitting (lucky I didnt die trying to find out what the noise was)

Just wanted to know if anyone on here had EVER come accross anything like this before and if so do they have any idea what caused it ??

Just to let you know I do drive it a lil faster than I should at times I shouldnt lol but I`m very carefull with potholes and kerbs and havnt once kerbed it or hit a bad pothole since refurb.

Ideas anyone ???

 

The cracked ones are the BK or the OEM alloys?

 

OME alloys, the bk alloys are back on while the new wheels ive just bought are been powder coated.

 

Funny one.......I've been on SN for a good while and the OEM Bugeye wheels seem to pretty robust. Unlike fome PFF7 copies.

Did you buy these ?

http://content0-foto.inbox.lv/albums.../rims/khg8.jpg

Shaun

 

yep those are the ones fella, the n/s/f was worst than the o/s/f, the n/s looks like the centre would have popped out on any harsh corner the o/s has only just stated to crack. propa has me confused dont know if its somethings thats caused it or if i`m just real unlucky anf have 2 faulty wheels.......

 

and this happened after the powder coating did it mate,because id go back and ask how hot they baked the alloys off during the process,sounds like it could be down to that to me mate.

 

As said, i think alloy wheels have to be baked at a lower temperature or there prone to cracking.

 

It did yes about a month or so afterwards but the back 2 ar perfect no probs at all.
The first thing I did was take the wheels back and they said they`d neva had any probs with other customers and they coat 100s of wheels a month. They have offered to coat new ones for free but didnt want to put them on until I knew if it was something wrong with the car that caused it.

 

never heard of anything on the vehicle causing cracking other than incorrect fitting but u'd feel aloose 1 so id say it could only be the powder coating,bit of a coincidence if not mate.

 

cheers I thought as much but with the back ones not cracking I wasnt sure if something could have been wrong on the front end causing them to crack. Lets hope the wheels that are been coated at the moment dont crack as well coz i wont be happy with the powder coating company if they do.
Thanks for your thoughts Fella

 

if it was due to excessive heat during powdercoating, you have to bear in mind, front wheels absorb way more sideways force than rears moreso at low speeds due to the fact that steering makes the fronts oblique to the car. So the rears could be equally brittle, but not cracked as they are not subjected to the same forces as the fronts were. either way, i would make sure these wheels get destroyed, just in case after you remove them, they find their way onto someone elses car, and who knows what could be the result.

 

+1

 

I've seen this before, twice, and both were members of the WYIOC, PM me with details of who did the coating and I'll confirm !

I used LSN in Castleford for mine and they are still fine, even after a few hard trackdays and the odd "jump" in the Pennines too

dunx

P.S. https://www.scoobynet.com/west-yorks...el-needed.html

 

Hi mate. Do you need to get hold of two replacement wheels then ? If you are interested I have a set of those wheels which I am looking to get rid of. I bought them to have them refurbed but never got around to it. I am in Manchester. PM me if you want details.

Cheers,

Paul.

 

Gallios, thank you for your thoughts on the subject I`ve had the rears checked and they seem fine according to garage, the fronts have been taken to a scrap yard so they are now no more.
Wilky Boy, Ive got a couple off my bro he had a some spare after his scoobt blew up. but out of interest how much do you want for em ?

 

Not sure I'd trust the rears now

Shaun

 

Was looking for £25 per wheel mate. I bought them from e-bay and paid £118 for them plus £40 postage !!!!! When they arrived they were a bit tattier than I would have liked but I was always going to have them refurbed anyway so I wasn't too bothered. Then I spotted a real bargain and bought another set with tyres from a guy on Scoobynet. My original wheels have been sent away to be powder coated too ! So by next weekend I will have a refurbed powder coated set on my car, a decent set with tyres in the garage and four rims with no tyres in the shed. My Mrs is going mad !!!!!