Rims: Do Aftermarket Rims Have Any Certifications?

[Spurshot]

I haven't dabbled in the aftermarket rim arena in many yrs. Many yrs ago SEMA (specialty equipment manufacturers association) had some basic standards for wheels that were voluntarily met and labeled.

 

Is there any NHTSA or other safety standards that aftermarket wheels have to meet today? With all the Chinese and other foreign junk that is coming in, I'd be worried about buying wheels that I didn't have some way of knowing were (1) properly engineered, (2) tested, (3) met some kind of quality standards.

 

Anyone else worry about going 90 mph on wheels made by Mi fook utoo?

[Spurshot]

I found this site on the JWL logo and what this means on a wheel.

 

http://www.cartype.com/pages/2101/jwl_stamp_on_alloy_wheels

[Spurshot]

I ran across this on a MPVClub.com site.

 

The following is a Los Angeles Times article addressing safety and alloy wheels. I am putting it on the Problems section because it cites a 2000 MPV as an example of a vehicle that has had a problem, and because some MPV owners have complained of vibrations--though they were typically on fairly new vehicles and this article refers to vehicles(wheels) that have been around for a while and probably taken some abuse.

 

Interestingly, they refer to alloys in cold weather having trouble keeping air. I was under the impression that it wasn't the cold that caused the problem, but corrosion from road salt that made it more difficult to have a good seal between tire and rim. My father has sworn off alloy wheels due to too many problems with slow leaks.

 

Anyhow, I figure if you understand the (potential) drawbacks of the components of your vehicle, you're that much ahead of the game.

 

 

YOUR WHEELS

 

Alloys Raise Safety Concerns

 

By RALPH VARTABEDIAN

TIMES STAFF WRITER

 

September 11 2002

 

If you are one of those drivers who makes a practice of bashing into curbs while parking, you might not want to invest in an

expensive set of alloys.

 

Some experts are less than enthusiastic about the longevity of alloys in general, and they voice concern about their tendency to

sustain damage from abrasion and their problems holding air pressure in tires.

 

An equally great concern involves the efficacy of repairing damaged alloy wheels.

 

Replacing a damaged or defective alloy wheel with a new one can be expensive. They can range from about $100 apiece for a

really basic model to well over $500 for a complex design. Alloys come as standard equipment on about 60% of new cars.

 

Many companies, large and small, sell repaired alloys, taking your damaged wheel in exchange and later repairing and reselling it. In many cases, these repair businesses are providing replacements that had only cosmetic damage, such as scuff marks. But they also sell wheels that have been repaired after being cracked or bent.

 

A consumer has no way to know how much damage a remanufactured rim had sustained.

 

Whether it is safe to repair a bent rim is questionable.

 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has little to offer. The agency's Web site could not locate a single

document dealing with the issue. It does not have standards governing either the manufacturing or the repair of alloys.

 

"In general, we do not regulate repairs," a spokesman said. Consumers basically are on their own.

 

Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, said alloy wheels generally lack consistent quality and often

are subject to fractures. Ditlow said the center has received reports of alloy wheels that are unable to retain air pressure. In

cold climates, tires mounted on alloys with a poor seal can lose significant pressure in as little as one week.

 

Millions of damaged alloys are repaired each year at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, industry sources say. Insurance

companies, for instance, often will specify that body shops use repaired alloy wheels, rather than new ones, when doing

collision repairs.

 

But most consumers' problems with alloys result from road damage from potholes, curbs or debris.

 

A typical complaint came to Your Wheels from a Tustin couple, who wrote that their 2000 Mazda MPV minivan began

vibrating at high speeds. After some unnecessary repairs, including an alignment, the vibration was traced to a dent in an alloy wheel.

 

A major national tire chain estimated the wheel would cost $400 to replace. A smaller tire dealer offered to repair it for $250.

Finally, the couple had the wheel fixed by an independent repair operation for $100.

 

The repair industry includes small shops that do little more than sand scuff marks off wheels and very large corporations that

operate factories that perform major repairs.

 

Transwheel Corp., which describes itself as the largest vendor of repaired alloy wheels in the country, annually repairs about

150,000 of them, according to Jim Devlin, general manager of operations.

 

Devlin said the company does repair cracks and dents, but within strict limits, and has developed its own internal standards to

determine the severity of damage that can be safety repaired. Devin said the company removes up to 20 thousandths of an inch of metal in some resurfacing operations, using computer-controlled machines.

 

Independent tests, he said, have shown that wheels repaired to such standards meet requirements set by car makers and by

the Society of Automotive Engineers. But such assurances do not satisfy everyone.

 

Ken Zion, owner of Automotive Collision Consultants, a private accident investigation company in Long Beach, expressed

concerns about the use of repaired alloy wheels. In some cases, remanufacturing companies have taken excessive amounts of

aluminum off the wheels when resurfacing them, leading to failures, he said.

 

Zion also said he has had many tire-leak experiences with alloy wheels, though none with steel wheels. In general, Zion said he

would not recommend purchasing repaired alloy wheels without knowing the history of the wheel and the identity of the repair

company.

 

Although many motorists think about tire safety in these post-Firestone recall days, wheel safety isn't such a hot topic. Still, alloy wheels can and do fail, resulting in a loss of control just as severe, if not more so, as if a tire had blown out.

[Spurshot]

Apparently SAE has some standards for design and testing wheels. I'll bet few aftermarket companies are aware of the standard and fewer comply.

 

http://www.sae.org/images/books/toc_pdfs/HS3300_2006.pdf

[97SierraGMC]

if you stick with a good brand, you shouldnt have issues

[Spurshot]

if you stick with a good brand, you shouldnt have issues

 

Sounds like "good brand" could be about anybody not having a bad rep. Firestone was a "good brand" of tire until the rollover problem. Meeting a real standard gives me more confidence than one that doesn't. Example: Ultra wheels (like Daddy's) meet the SAE standard (voluntary) and Pro-Comp doesn't seem to mention meeting any standard, but gives a "lifetime warranty". If the wheel failure kills you, I guess "lifetime" is over. Yeah, yeah, I know standards don't guarranty anything, but they do help provide some assurances, depending on how good the standard is.

[lawheelsdirect]

The sad reality is that even OEM wheels come from overseas. Much of the issue adressed above with leaking wheels is that many oem wheels were clearcoated over aluminum, this is a bad mix when salt is involved. The salt seperates the clearcoat causing a leaky bead mess.

[Spurshot]

Todd,

Salt and aluminum aren't a good combination no matter whether it's wheels or airplanes (I'm an airplane eng). Coming from overseas isn't damning in itself. Many components in major airplane models are built overseas. It's more a question of good design and quality control. I know that the big 3 us auto makers were buying alum wheels from a CA located company and now either they moved that company's facilities to Mexico or GM is buying from a different company in Mexico.

[spikesputnik]

Yea, I used to think that OEM/GM was a "good brand". Here's my wheels certification stamp