Wheel failure after refurb
 

I had my standard blobeye wrx wheels refurbished about 2 months ago and was very happy with the job done. I paid £240 for it and the work was guaranteed for 12 months.
Fast forward to last week when I was cleaning the car and noticed a hairline crack on one of the wheels (on the spoke). I emailed the wheel refurb company and they said they had never heard of this happening and that it was probably just the powder coating cracked. I was to take it in they would strip the wheel back and take a look.
So today I removed the wheel and was shocked to find one of the spokes was cracked all the way through to the rear. Now the wheel is 10/11 years old and for it to fail so soon after being refurbed seems a bit sus to me.
The refurb company was closed today so they haven't seen the wheel yet. The wheel is obviously fit for the bin now. Am I right to expect a full refund from the refurb company? I don't have any confidence to continue running on any of these wheels now so need to buy a whole new set and get my tyres fitted to them.

And here is the damage from the inside.

I have a set fitted with nearly new Pirelli p zero Nero tyres for £250, in excellent condition, just minor kerbing, tyres are 2 months old with 500 miles max on them

There have been many reports of alloy wheels failing after being powder coated. The temperatures used in the PC process screw up the temper of the alloy.
Have to say I thought it was mainly after market alloys that were affected though.

They wheels are notorious for failing after a powdercoat.

they are known to be more prone to fail if they are powder coated, a lot are fine, but I've heard of 10+ that have failed on scoobynet

As above, don't get wheels powder-coated and DEFINITELY do NOT get WRX wheels done:(

I'd say all factors weigh in
How the wheel is stripped back & prepped
& baking 2 hot or 2 long are more likely 2 be the cause

Yep powder coating alloys = bad idea.

It can be done but from what I hear there are many companies out there that don't fully understand how it needs to be done.

Like a lot of things in life, just because you have the equipment, doesn't mean you're any good at it. ;)

I'd bin the lot and have a look around for a decent set of wheels that haven't been powder coated, and chalk this one up to experience.

My wife is dropping the wheel off at the refurbishing company later today so will see what they say. Am I being unreasonable expecting a full refund?

I wont be getting wheels powder coated again.

Unless you can prove beyond reasonable doubt that their process caused the failure, and that it wasn't a crack caused previously by something like hitting a pot hole, then I don't think you have any chance of a refund.

As said, chalk it up to experience and console yourself with the thought that things could have been a lot worse if the wheel had come apart at speed. Tough one I know, but sh!t happens. Plenty of affordable 2nd hand wheels out there. :thumb:

Were these wheels the silver bug eye or gold blob eye wheels before powder coating?

They were gold blobeye wheels.

As said above, there have been sooooo many horror stories of wheels failing after powder coating. It's not somehting I'd ever do again.

Just do a quick google and you will find all sorts of images like this.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sco...440c4e07a4.jpg

https://www.scoobynet.com/wheels-tyr...-children.html

Bloody glad I bought a set of aftermarket alloys now. I was just about to send mine you the powder coaters for a colour change!

It's not just OEM wheels that fail. This is a picture of a Hyper Zero wheel from a time attack car that failed after powder coating.

Attachment 39671

I've had 3 sets of wheels powder coated, oem Enkei, speedline turini's and a set of OZ's and all have been fine, i guess as mentioned above it depends on who does them or have i just been lucky. :wonder:

Who do you use out of interest? I am in West Yorks and might get mine done soon. Cheers, Ian.

I use Midas Touch in Castleford mate, always done a top job, a good few of my friends have had theirs done there as well and no complaints, only thing is you got to drop the wheels off, can't leave your car there as it's only a small place, if i remember it's £170 for a set of 18"s, tyres removed, wheels refurbed, tyres back on and balanced. :thumb:

Aftermarket 19"s. I'm pretty sure its overbaking and too high a temp that causes a lot of failures. When mine were done, i know the guy was rushed that day, so he more than likely raised the temp to shortern the baking time.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sco...a10781ca33.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sco...ef4673dc89.jpg

ˆˆˆThis

I had my 17" WRX wheels powder-coated about 12 months ago now with no signs of cracking. The guys who did it are family friends who have been in the business decades. I believe mine were bead blasted and baked, not sure if that makes a difference??

As above, I reckon its down to incorrect heat or duration that causes the wheels to fail. I work at a place that makes fasteners, and most of our high tensile stuff gets heat treated to specific grades. The higher grades tend to be more brittle but are 'harder' if that makes sense! When applied to an alloy wheel, a harder wheel would surely be more susceptible to shock damage from something like a pothole and more likely to fracture.

I Could be wrong? Just my 2p :thumb:

I have all my wheels on my rally cars powder coated , and have never had a problem , and they have a very hard life , as mentioned , if they are done properly I don't see there being any issues.
But the wheels have got to be good to start with , the cracks in the OP's wheels could have been cracked before they were powder coated
Cheers Ian

The refurb company stripped the wheels back to bare metal and check them for defects before powder coating them, they weren't (and they have confirmed this) damaged prior to being refurbished.
They have the wheel at the moment and have sent me a photo showing the wheel has a flat spot opposite the cracked spokes. They say that this must have been caused by hitting a pothole and this is what has cracked the spokes. My argument is that this may not have happened had the wheels not been powdercoated and baked in an oven but at this stage we are at an impasse.
Anyway, I have now bought a new set of wheels (from a 2007 wrx) from a subaru club on facebook so I can draw a line under this and move on.
Here is the photo showing the flatspot if anybody is interested.

Powder on wheels is fine if done by someone whos aware of the problem as theyre careful with temp and cure time.

Problem comes from the issue that the surface finish and quality goes up with higher temps and duration and this is undoubtably going to be the priority for the coaters if they don't know about the alloy heat issue.

last time I had a set done the guys ran over the coated (prebaked) exterior surface with a hot air gun. Id never heard of this trick before but he was of the opinion it gets the surface quality up without having to overbake.

Judging by the amount of weights on the rim its quite possible the wheel had this flat spot prior to coating.

Rattle cans for me ;) looking at some of the pictures this is all a bit scary :eek:

I was debating getting my wheels sand blasted as they are corroding quite a bit, think i'll just get them repaired and painted