Cracked Rim Repair (the truth)

[Jecs]

first off, welding a wheel will make the vehicle un-roadworthy.



ive had a genuine set of senator signatures since they pretty much came out. they had done roughly 20 thousand K's.

i wanted to make use of them again, but the rears had bad camper wear so i took them to get flipped.

one of the employee rolled a wheel back out and it had the slightest crack on the inner lip. it just ran past the bead but it never lost pressure.

so i took the rims home and started looking for a single rim. only place i could find one was wheel king for $450.

i called up my local holden spare parts and got talking to one of the employees. he told me hes had two sets of rims where one wheel has been cracked and he got them repaired.

he told me hes never had a drama from re-crackin, losing pressure, or buckled from welding.



so i took his word and went down to engineering place that did his wheels. the owner looked at it and told me he could fix it.

he said hes done a few wheels and never had anyone come back from re-cracking.

after 3 days he told me to come pick it up.

(welders can correct me here) he drilled the end of the crack, V'd it, then welded the area.

i took it down to tyre shop and got them to throw some new tyres on it (to try and pro-long the life of the rim) and balance it and go over it and see what the thought.

they were happy with the job he did and it balanced good.



i havent fitted the rim as of yet, im gunna give it a week or two and moniter the pressure and see if it leaks.




ive made this thread as only a rough guide. each rim, weld, road traveled on is different. but ill be updating this thread if anything happens. but this will give people a better idea if they cant afford a new rim that their is a cheaper alternative that can get them by.

the weld it self cost me $99 and the mob that did it are located in Geelong

Robert Lange Engineering
5223 1944
Welcome - Robert Lange Engineering



for the melbourne guys i did give this guy a call. he wasnt confident in the life of the rim after its being a welded but said he could do it for $150
Wheel Fix It
0418 34 34 82
Wheel Fix It Mobile Alloy Wheel Refubishing

 

[showbags]

Jecs, I would have no hesitation in using that rim. Lange engineerings work is top notch. If it wasn't safe, they wouldn't repair it to begin with.

 

[Big-Al]

you life mate. just hope you don't hit me if you have a rim failure.

 

[Immortality]

A properly welded rim should be fine. I've seen it done before, one of the engineering work shops I used at my last job did these sort of repairs, I'm fairly sure if it wasn't safe they wouldn't do it as the liability issue with dodgy repairs just wouldn't make it worth it to do the job.

 

[uniacidz]

I had five cracks on my inner lip on one rim. (appeared after 1.5years)
Managed to get a newer rim.

Guessing it happened when i had a flat tyre and had to roll on the rim for 500metres til i go to a safe place

 

[Jecs]

you life mate. just hope you don't hit me if you have a rim failure.

just going to throw this out there for people who have replies like this.

if the rim does crack again, it will do the same thing a new rim will do, lose air.



any rim can crack, so your life mate, i just hope you dont hit me if one of your rims failures too.

 

[Reaper]

Just looking at the repair, in theory (assuming a competent and experienced welder) it should be as good as if not better than the parent material. The only thing I'd suggest is that the whole rim should be annealed afterwards but the risk of failure is very very low. I'd think it's chances of failing would be no worse than any other wheel (say) hitting an unexpectedly rough railway crossing at speed. The chances of it failing on a normal smooth road would be near zero

 

[ari666]

i dont see the problem with it

 

[Big-Al]

just going to throw this out there for people who have replies like this.

if the rim does crack again, it will do the same thing a new rim will do, lose air.



any rim can crack, so your life mate, i just hope you dont hit me if one of your rims failures too.

mine are made from steel

 

[Wombles]

Sounds like it will be a tough repair.
Drilled to stop the crack going further.
V to get a stronger weld in it.
Happy days.