Cheap winter steel wheels - a love/hate story

[D.J.]

Last night - hit a pothole on my way home - unavoidable I suppose. It was camouflaged by a shallow puddle of recently melted snow

Drive home - Minor vibrations as if I lost a wheel weight. - no loss of pressure. for the remaining ~30 minutes drive. Park car and forget all about it.

Next day - today - drive to work - about 0.8 kms into my drive - car beeps and tells me - low pressure in one tire (24 psi)
As I am turning around to go back home - 20psi
then 18psi
then 12psi
then 4psi



Made it back to my driveway
Inspect - arrgghhhh




Pull the wheel off and inspect the inside of the rim - arrgghhhhh




Start with a 5lb sledge and a very beefy drift
Something like this (not my image)



Soon after - escalate to a 10lb sledge
40 to 60 not so delicate, but reasonably accurate, impacts later - I have some something that resembles round again

Inside lip



Outside



Lets try this again - cold pressures



As tire warms up - 8 kms into my drive - pressure holding



After my 70 km drive to work - Pressure = good



Comparisons





I do believe these cheap steel rims are not as strong as alloy - but certainly more easily repairable.
Would an alloy wheel have been damaged over the same pothole - I will never know.

I'll paint them later!

 

[MerlintheMad]

Glad that you added that last line, I was just going to say, "Now, paint it."

 

[Devin]

Steel: ugly but malleable. Nice repair.

 

[RogueIV]

Man, they didn't put a very good coat of paint on those wheels new huh?

 

[D.J.]

Man, they didn't put a very good coat of paint on those wheels new huh?

These particular steelies are the cheepest I have ever seen - in terms of both quality and price.

But they FIT over the Brembos.

I have not seen even one other brand of steels that fits.

This is their 3rd year of harsh winters - I expected the paint to hold up better! (And I expected the steel to be stronger).

They looked better when new

 

[MerlintheMad]

These particular steelies are the cheepest I have ever seen - in terms of both quality and price.

But they FIT over the Brembos.

I have not seen even one other brand of steels that fits.

This is their 3rd year of harsh winters - I expected the paint to hold up better! (And I expected the steel to be stronger).

They looked better when new
View attachment 67961View attachment 67962

Oo, shiny. I would just hate driving my Stinger with ugly wheels. H.A.T.E. it.

 

[D.J.]

Oo, shiny. I would just hate driving my Stinger with ugly wheels. H.A.T.E. it.

I get that...

If I had "nice" rims... It would be quite a challenge keeping them "nice"

The pothole incident happened on Feb 16th
This video is the day after - Feb 17th

The winter driving conditions are "poor" in my neck of the woods

https://imgur.com/a/HTf0Uo2

 

[MerlintheMad]

That is mesmerizing and scary. Even not speeded up it would look dicey to say the least.

I appreciate the reasoning behind your choice, I just could never do it and enjoy the Stinger. Now, a Jeep Gladiator in Bill Murray Orange, that would make me a happy winter driver.

 

[celwin]

I do believe these cheap steel rims are not as strong as alloy - but certainly more easily repairable.
Would an alloy wheel have been damaged over the same pothole - I will never know.

I'll paint them later!

My local tire guy schooled me in why winter steel rims are inferior to most alloy wheels in terms of strength. Most people think steel wheels are superior but in reality they are not. Until my wheel guy showed me a demonstration, I did not believe it for years prior.

 

[D.J.]

My local tire guy schooled me in why winter steel rims are inferior to most alloy wheels in terms of strength. Most people think steel wheels are superior but in reality they are not. Until my wheel guy showed me a demonstration, I did not believe it for years prior.

I'm not arguing steel are superior in strength - however maybe superior in "at home reparability"

I am not a steel wheel saleman.

I cracked 2 alloy non-OEM wheels on my old Mazda 3 in winter driving - and I was unable to repair either of them.
Whatever floats your boat - or holds your car up!

Alloys certainly look better - not gonna get any pushback on that.