911Castle

For those on here with Forged wheels I'm sure most know you cannot repair rash type damage correctly. Sometimes a bent wheel can be straightened but that's about it. Unlike an alloy type rim where you can actually weld new material back onto the rim sand, shape, polish and paint, you cannot add material back to a forged wheel. This is all the long winded way of asking the question has anybody had luck with a specific insurer regarding replacing a wheel should damage occur? A single HRE at $3200 let alone a whole set is worth insuring. The dealer wheel and tire would not cover this even remotely and all they do is grind off the roughed up part and spray some clear on there. Regardless these are aftermarket wheels so they don't apply to that program anyway. I've called my insurance company, State Farm and they can't wrap their arms around the concept of the wheel being unrepairable and therefore assure me that they will actually replace the wheel should damage occur.

Bxstr

Can’t comment if an insurer would, but I’d highly recommend against it. Will show up as a “damage report” on your Carfax and you’re going to take a much larger hit than $3k for a new wheel.

911Castle

Good point bsxtr. Guess I was thinking more of info regarding a rider or a separate type plan to cover the wheels. Maybe premium insurer like Chubb??? Probably doesn't exist but I thought I would throw it out to the group anyway.

Denny Swift

Why do you say that forged wheels can’t be repaired?

Also, isn’t wheel insurance akin to having separate insurance for your nose? If you crack your wheels (extremely unlikely), your standard collision insurance would cover them. I’ve always thought that wheel insurance was only for people who also send $30k to needy Arabian princes…

Bxstr

Can't say I have heard of a rider specifically for wheels. There is aftermarket parts coverage on cars, for instance if you had $20k worth of work done, an insurer will add that to the value of your car, but when you make a claim I think it would still come across the same.

Glass coverage may be an exception here as many people claim glass on their insurance and no one seems to be concerned with a damage report from that. But with most things that are a couple thousand of dollars or less, I try and pay myself and not get insurance involved to avoid the possibilities.

Disclaimer, I'm not saying not to disclose damage and to try and keep things off Carfax. I'm simply saying that for something as simple as a damaged wheel, I wouldn't want to see you have a difficult time selling your car or taking a $10k hit due to something that could have been resolved for considerably less.

Scott P

I bought wheel/tire insurance for my 2014 BMW 650 GC and am glad I did. It cost $1500 but paid for itself in short order. First road trip in Illinois on Rte 70 I drove over a highway bridge expansion joint. Always a non-event but it sent a shock through the car (run flats). That non-incident bent the wheel and bubbled the tire. Replaced as covered (~$1000 total) then this happened one more time for a rim (no tire damage) and again (tire damage, no rim damage). I don't know if $2000 in replacement costs would've been covered but I was glad it did. I replaced the tires with non run flats and the wheels with HRE's, no problems for the last 5 years.