Hey guys, that came RIGHT off their site, http://www.wheeldynamics.com/, catch it before they "CHANGE" the site too. HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA LMFAO!!!!!

 

This wheel failure occurred at the common point of maximum stress in most wheels. The metal breaks because it is overstressed to the point of fatigue. There is simply no way to weld this part and restore its structural integrity. The alloy will still be fatigued, no matter how many times you weld it.
Furthermore, it is impossible to weld such a part with enough penetration to guarantee structural integrity.
Finally, the use of heat in this area, from a source like a welder, is like treating a water leak with a power drill. No matter what you try, the alloy will get weaker and weaker.
Of course, it is possible to create a welded COSMETIC repair, grind off the welding tracks and repaint. This will simply create a time bomb for failure that will be annoying and expensive if one is lucky, and quite tragic if one is not so lucky.
It is our unequivocal recommendation that no repair be even attempted on any wheel, cast or forged, that experiences a failure of this type.

 

Hmm, maybe they should listen to 'others'....???

http://www.fastforwardwheels.com/

 

The post on Twitter seems to be wrongly labelled..
States: "Fikse F110 Wheels Cracked" see link..

http://twitter.com/6spdonline/status...76592866185216

After reading the article was actually Kinesis Wheels that cracked...

Please make necessary changes to post on Twitter.

Thanks
Chris
Director Fikse Wheels

 

After seeing this, I'm considering replacing my wheels as I bought the car used and dont know the full history.

 

Hello Chris,

tweet deleted. It was the original poster who mis-titles his post with your companies name.

cheers,
robb

 

I agree 100%.
That's why i asked.
I would not buy this wheel if i had seen the photo prior to making a deal.

Craig

 

Uninformed wheel shop could have caused some serious injury or deaths if this wheel failure didn't happen they way it did. You can't weld wheels or anything forged(frames,axles ect...)in stress areas, and expect it to hold when put underloads. VeryLucky!!!!

 

I would like to offer my hopefully constructive advice to WD. As someone who has been involved with online automotive forums since the late '90s, I have bear witness to too many similar incidents. They always seem to end badly for the vendors.

Many will recall the incident of a dealership listing a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo without reserve price on eBay and refused to honor the deal when the final bid was below their expectation. I believe just about every automotive forum banded together to support the bid winner with phone calls, e-mails, petitions to the dealership. It may have even reached couple news media if I recall correctly. End result? The dealership offered the Evo to the bid winner for the price of the final bid. Something they could have done from day 1 by honoring a binding contract, but now their rep is damaged.

Or how about the incident of a certain SoCal BMW dealer that took a customer's e46 M3 on a joy ride and wrecked it (I believe the owner is also a 6speed member). Again, massive amounts of support from the online car enthusiast communities and the dealership ended up having to pay up regardless. However, if they did the right thing from the start, they wouldn't have to go through all that grief. See a trend?

WD, I agree that all companies, big or small get on the hot seat. After all, no one is perfect. But what distinguishes a company with longevity versus ones that fade away is how a crisis is handled. Like the aforementioned examples, this will go viral and damage to the reputation, credibility and future business of your company will not be limited to just 6Speed.

Car guys are funny people. We might bench race and have these silly Mustang v. Camaro, STi v. Evo, GT-R v. 911 Turbo, import v. domestic rivalries, but when a fellow car enthusiast appears to get the shaft, we all band together. Seems like it is already happening judging by the progression of this thread.

While your customer base is predominately Porsche owners, don't forget that people cross shop. Just look at the signature of some of the members here. Someone who might be from a Mercedes forum today might be buying a Porsche tomorrow and become your potential customer.

Let's go back to the M3 incident. To this day, I still get friends here in SoCal who refuses to frequent that dealership because of how they handled the situation. It takes years to build a solid reputation, but just a mishandled incident to take down the empire. This is not limited to auto industry, I've seen it in too many other market sectors.

I think if I were in the shoes of WD, I would make Don whole. The loss of future business, credibility and reputation just isn't worth the couple thousand dollars.

Just my observation and it isn't meant to be an attack. Hope I don't get a neg rep for this.

 

Unfortunately Eli is probably correct about 'no publicity is bad publicity'

You've all read the DecorMyEyes story, right? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/bu.../28borker.html

Guess we have yet to see if Google's new algorithm will fix it: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/...s-bad-for.html

also, First Post. Visiting from planet-9

 

First off, I would like to thank everyone on the board for the overwhelming support with the dilemma. I have been PM'd by many members offering advice, support, and even sets of wheels!

I would like to let the board know that I have messaged Eli today letting him know that my original offer stands. He has my contact info, it is up to him if he would like to settle or continue on this saga.

Eli, this is your opportunity to make good as requested by everyone on the board.



And by the way, I also recieved a neg rep saying "you fail"?

 

FWIW....on a 3 peice or two piece wheel, or any wheel with a center section forged from 6061 inget, once sheared, that center section is pretty much useless and the molecular lattice structure of the metal upon forging will not regain it's integrity with a welded or otherwise bonded repair.

This said, the rim halves which are spun for the most part ussually (rear barrel and front half on a 3 piece wheel or simply rim section on a 2 peice wheel) can be repaired and are often fixed from things like bends, dents, minor cracks etc...often times one of the advantages of having multi-piece wheels is that these rim sections can be replaced if they are severely damaged. Race teams will do this as well as alter the rim halves for offset and the like.

 

I wonder if this thread going viral will prompt those who were injured or lost friends or relatives in a car accident to review whether wheel failure might have been the cause…and if so, why that wheel failed. Given the apparent volume of the wheel repair business done by WD and others, and the apparent inherent danger in using certain "repaired" wheels, there might be a significant number of instances of injury or death resulting from catastrophic failure of negligently "repaired" wheels…and not just to the driver and passengers of that car. Assuming it is true that no forged wheel spokes can be safely repaired, as Mike Burroughs said in Post 128 in this thread, if I had bought "repaired" wheels I would sure as hell be wondering where I was going to get my wheels inspected and, if necessary, how I was going to get my money back. So you wonder whether publicity arising from the shockingly callous attitude of WD toward the safety of its customers as shown in this thread and the interest that attitude has generated in our community might be enough to prompt an enterprising class action attorney into doing the research to bring such an action. It sure sounds like this is a problem that extends a lot farther than the single instance recounted by dgreen.

 

The original seller of the wheels (Joe -mrdeezy), should provide a full refund, including mounting and return shipping costs to dgreen. The wheels were flawed, and the seller knew it. And has admitted his error. His ability to pay is irrelevent to the argument. Its unfair for dgreen to directly pursue a refund from the wheel repair company because they potentially have the ability to pay where Joe claims he does not.

Then the original seller (Joe) should deal with wheel dynamics regarding a refund on the repair he had done. We don't know what qualifications or warranties were offered between Wheel Dynamics and Joe. I personally am unqualified to judge whether the repair was safe. For all I know they repaired the wheels for display use only.

At that point we as a community can pass judgement on Wheel Dynamics, based on the outcome of their negotation with their customer (Joe - mrdeezy). (I have already passed my judgement on Joe, and its not favourable)

Regards,

Kirk

 

If I was WD, I would give the guy a brand new set of wheels, it will be a whole lot cheaper in the end.