So I am driving along the road and I hear a very odd grinding noise. I pulled over and 2 of my spokes on my Kineses f110 wheel are cracked all the way through the spokes! I was amazed as I thought these were bullet proof strong wheels! So I have the car flat bedded away to a near by shop. The tire guy comes back to me and says that they have been welded up recently! I just bought these a month ago from a well known forum member on here that told me they were "just re-painted because of some minor scratches." I am pretty pissed at this point for not only being f*cked over for buying welded up wheels but this could have killed myself or others on the road!!! Imagine if I was driving the car hard and it busted completely!

*EDIT: THESE WERE PREVIOUSLY REPAIRED (WELDED TOGETHER) WHEELS* THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH KINESIS WHEELS*

The seller who I will refrain from mentioning names tells me to contact the place were HE bought them from and maybe they can get me a credit or something

You can see the welds on the back side were the cracks are if you look closely.

Let me know what you guys think....

 

Wow, that's messed up!!! It's hard to imagine how careless someone could be to sell something so flawed, to recoup their losses, when life could be at risk. They could've sold you a ticking bomb with the same result instead!

I'd also like to know how they cracked in the first place.

 

Don,
Those are the Kinesis F110's, same rims I had on my car. They are a one piece wheel and are SUPER strong. It is what I run day to day on my car. Not sure exactly how the spokes could have been welded unless they were cracked behind the spokes and it didn't make it all the way through before they welded them up.

I would def. get some close up pics of the cracks in the spokes because I'd be interested to see if they broke due to a manufacturing defect (which scares me as well!)

Regardless I hope everything gets figured out for sure!

 

Thanks Powell, I spoke to the guys who "painted" them and they told me that the one was just "re-in-forced to make it stronger." I specifically asked if it was welded up due to cracking and was told no.

You can tell that every spoke on the back side has been welded together.

 

wow, that is bad.....

 

Why did they decide it needed making stronger? I'd like to hear the answer from them to that.

Any business that is prepared to do that should be named and shamed. They deserve to go bust.

 

Don I thought you had Forgestar?

 

Interesting. Why would you reinforce a wheel that had no issues unless it already had a problem?

Also, I remember reading sometime back on a broken HRE one piece that HRE did not honor a warranty on a recoated wheel as it can affect the factory heat treatment making it weaker, thereby causing failure.

 

They were done at a shop in LA who is also a sponsor. I have been looking at some of their used wheels for sale that looked new after repainting. But will now stay away from them if this is all true.

 

properly welding steel is hard enough, but welding aluminum for reinforcement? The heat required for the weld can and will affect the Heat treat of the wheel. Go ask HRE, or any other mfg of wheels what they feel about someone welding reinforcement on their wheels..

but this is no laughing matter, someone could have been seriously hurt or killed.

 

I'd get restitution from the seller or name names if that doesn't happen. The wheels were misrepresented plain and simple, no?

Edit: I see you outed him in the FS section already

 

So true. I you reweld a aluminum head you need to heat treat it to return the strength or normal use will turn the weld pasty and push the weld out.

 

buying used parts is like rolling dice sometimes.. thank god that your ok.

its a really sticky situation, but as others have stated this item is not as described and not fit for purpose.

mike

 

Original seller that sold these wheels refinished:
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...-19x8-5-a.html

 

Thank God nothing happened.

I would be so mad I wouldn't be responsible for my behavior.