allang

So today I noticed that my left rear tire was extremely low on air. I proceeded to fill it back up and bring it down to my service dept. (I work for a Porsche Dealer) and see what may have made contact with my tire. We put the car on the lift and thouroughly checked the tire, and to my surprise the tire is fine.

Now we inspect the rim and guess what I found, a hair line crack about an inch long going from the inner lip towards the inside of the barrel. I was extremely surprised knowing the high quality of their products. Now I realize that the wheels were originally purchased 4 years ago, but come on when you pay that sort of money for something you do expect it to last.

I immediately called Fikse and spoke with Matt who was quite surprised of my dilemma. He immediately faxed me a return authorization so that they can inspect the wheel and determine what may have caused the fracture.

Hopefully they will find a way to repair it at no charge, but I find that to be quite unlikely. I've read that some members have had issues with centers showing signs of cracking, but anyone ever had any issues with an inner half?

Just another minor hickup in my quest of owning an 8 year old car that I still enjoy?

Alan C.

The world of metallurgy is not a perfect one. A vacuum melted ingot with post electro-slag re-melt followed by forging may still have imperfections. I hate to tell you this but that process is used for rotating parts in jet engines.

The good news is that Fikse has a very good reputation when it comes to failures and making it right with the owner. Even when the current owner is the second in line.

ceboyd

this happened to my Fikse's early this season.... The 2 rear ones actually... and Matt Fikse sounded very surprised with me as well... they were covered under warranty... FWIW

My only expense was the $35 cost to ship the wheels to them...


Fikse seems to be very good about taking care of their customers!

Mark in Baltimore

Metal can and will fatigue, especially with lightweight wheels. I'd be surprised if Fikse didn't do you some sort of solid. Others have had positive experiences with them, this being the reason I chose their product

Anir

allang,

I had the same problem with one of my Fikse FM-10's, and it was repaired at no charge under warranty. My car had seen regular track use before the fracture.

GrantG

Do you think that some other brands resist these problems more (like BBS)?

Jim Morton

Grant:

Not in my experience. I used to use a lot of BBS wheels. Love 'em. I would still use them if they were price comptetitive and made getting custom offsets easier.

While using the BBS, I had a few cases of rim lip split...

$0.02, I don't think any forged or spun heat treated rim will hold up indefinately.

Regards

akolodesh

Love the way Fikses look but as a happy Forgeline customer, I aways like to recommend them. No failure issues to date and responsive customer service, No affiliation, etc.....

Chaos

My kinesis did something similar and it was not covered ! $300.00 plus shipping !

ceboyd

...yet another reason I love Fikse... I've heard the same thing about HRE (not covering it)...

GG Allin

I bet I'll never hear those words strung together again.

Alan C.

Never say never

Bull

I have seen 4 cases of wheel failure on tracked cars in the past 2+ seasons. three Fikses and 1 Kenesis. All were second hand wheels. All were covered by the manufacturer. All were rear wheels.
There is a reason pro race teams buy new wheels every year (and sell the used wheels).

Flachbau

HRE's have a reputation for cracking!

ceboyd

In my case, I was the original owner of my Fikse's.. but it was indeed both rear wheels and I had them for 4 years of track duty..

..although my Fikse's are now someone else's 2nd hand wheels as I never put new tires on them once getting them fixed up good as new....