check these out-Sportmax wheel failure

[phans784]

i got a call from the shop that was putting my new ka in at and it went like this.. " Your engine is in but your wheel disintergrated when one of our guys was driving it."

he wasnt kidding apparently, he said he was just going around a turn on the highway (the owner of the shop is a family friend) and bang the wheel exploded. I had a hard time beleiving that but then i saw it in person. the tire was still on the wheel holding the broken section together. the tire was not damaged at all.

luckly he had an extra set of se-r wheels laying around so i could drive it home

so who knows that the real story is but im very curious to see if anyone else has had something similer happen with their sportmax wheels.


Modified by phans784 at 11:39 PM 12/17/2007

[BrianHarte]

Sportmax......

posts like this are great.

well, i mean, that is crappy what happened to your car.

but i mean, it gives visual proof to the price/quality situation.

[RCCC_DRiFteR]

Wow thats all i got to say. i've never seen or heard about anything like that before. Good lukc with figureing it out

[ILikeMy240sx]

if the wheel would just "explode" while driving, it would have to start from a tiny crack that would eventually propagate through out the wheel from fatigue. That kind of crack doesn't look like fatigue cracking too me.

It looks like it's been dropped/hit

If the rim was a quality material, it would start to yield and start to show plastic deformation at the point of impact. It seems like your SportsMax was very brittle and whatever hit it just took a huge chunk out of it.

[le_ryan]

id be giving sportmax a call .... DAMN

[phans784]

i agree with you 240 but i saw the tire still on the wheel and you would think a force great enough to destroy that part of the wheel would at the very least leave a mark of some kind on the tire, there was none.

[mchkc240]

I mean it cant be like that. A rim cant really go from no crack at all to missing a fat chunk

[ILikeMy240sx]

It's possible that the quality of the wheel is very chitty causing the metal to be extremely brittle. I've seen WheelMax wheels that went through the same scenario as yours. It went over a small pothole and the rim shattered into pieces due to it being very weak and brittle. No sign of damage on the tire.

Most likely whoever was driving it hit a small pothole and the brittle + weak wheel just shattered like that.

The wheel shows no sign of yielding... it went through what we'd call a catastrophic failure.. Happens when the material is very brittle.

[phans784]

yea i forgot to mention that there were peices that the tire was holding together and once we took the tire off they snapped without any effort hence leaving the huge gap

[1wayIsSideways]

WOW. i have these rims on my coupe. no problems yet. very strange

[Florida240sx]

We drifted into a curb.... then broke it as a coverup storyThey are cheaply made but no real problems, a smany as they sell there is ogign to be a problem ever once in a while But still shouldn't be like this.Could of been a hole you hit, then he hit a small hole ifnishing it off.

[s14tan]

I read another post that was like that He left his car at a shop and some one tried to drift it and ran into something and messed up the fender.

Makes me want to reconsider sportmax... Sorry to hear what happened just be glad you weren't making your "occasional" 120+ mph high way run when it happened.

[240sxvaj]

damn this suckz BAD!

[kornaz]

Lol @ Sportmax.

[adrianfromthecastle]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...stion

[s14tan]

^

[7x13xRPS13]

what was once unexplained is now explained.

thank you wikipedia

[Clawhammer]

Am I the only one that wasn't suprised to see it was a Sportmax?

[240sxvaj]

Am I the only one that wasn't suprised to see it was a Sportmax?

YUP! .......i think

[Duce40sx]

Well, the guy who drove it around probably hit something. Maybe a big azz pot hole???

Pot hole is the most likely reason. I mean the sheer force of hitting a pot hole is the only explanation that is plausible. Hittle a curb or something of that matter is less likely.

The guys are just not admitting the truth.

How can this happen if they are "driving on a straight road" no matter how bad the quality is, this shouldn't happen. You can roll around with T-Fal pots and pans and will not even get this bad.

Someone hit Something.

[Invalid Zero]

You can roll around with T-Fal pots and pans and will not even get this bad.

[GoSideways5]

Sooo glad I got rid of my Sportmaxes now...

[Dattebayo]

The guys are just not admitting the truth.

I am inclined to agree...

But I think a different reason. Have you ever seen some auto techs and how they treat a wheel when they remove them while the car is on the lift? Some guys will pull the wheel off the studs only to let it drop and spiral on its edges to a stop.

I have seen wheel lips bent from similar treatment (visually inspected on a balance machine before and after) on stock alloys, why wouldn't a cast wheel such as yours break when treated the same way?

You need to corner the guy and ask him to own up before he makes a bad business decision.

[White Comet]

wow that sucks big time, good luck w/ getting new wheels, it didnt damage anything else?

I read another post that was like that He left his car at a shop and some one tried to drift it and ran into something and messed up the fender.

i think u need to reread that thread, lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...stion

i didnt read the article so it might have mentioned this, but its more common among women

[srpowered240sx]

bummer man, call up sportmax, they will send you a new one right out. it does look like your wheel curbed something either before or during the accident as well. ive sold tons of sportmaxes, and have had them on my cars for the last 3 years, and have never had a problem. that wheel took an impact. shouldnt be a problem to get a new one though.

[94_240sx]

So, the wheel couldn't take the air pressure or something??? I'd like to see the reaction of Sportmax.

[White Comet]

So, the wheel couldn't take the air pressure or something??? I'd like to see the reaction of Sportmax.

i doubt thats it. theyd have to be made out of tin foil to be that bad

[aymaeid]

dosnt teddy have those rims too

[White Comet]

yep

[silnismo]

I am inclined to agree...

But I think a different reason. Have you ever seen some auto techs and how they treat a wheel when they remove them while the car is on the lift? Some guys will pull the wheel off the studs only to let it drop and spiral on its edges to a stop.

I have seen wheel lips bent from similar treatment (visually inspected on a balance machine before and after) on stock alloys, why wouldn't a cast wheel such as yours break when treated the same way?

You need to corner the guy and ask him to own up before he makes a bad business decision.

somthing is defnetly fishy, ive been AUTO-x my sportmax for a year and no problems.

Ive heard of ROTAS going bad but this is a first for Sportmax.

Just by looking at it looks as if somthing hit it, My friend ran over a large pothole and took a chunk of the rim with it and looks very similar....