fpb111

This year when I pulled my summer tires out, mounted on 10J 18 ET65 Porsche (BBS) wheels, I found a crack in one of the rears.

The crack is on the inside lip of the rim. It runs from the edge towards the center all of the way to the bead seat. I have been calling wrecking yards trying to find a wheel. I've been told that these wheels are harder to find because this cracking at the lip is not uncommon with this type of wheel.???

Has anyone else heard this?

Marc Gelefsky

wow, that sucks!

fpb111

After I posted this Dave at Wheel Enhancements called me to tell me he did not have a wheel for me either.
I told him that the crack wasn't near any external damage and asked his opinion. He said they see more left wheels crack then right. Wha..?? They see more left side cracks because when folks take the car through a car wash the rollers that drive the car through are tapered to keep the wheel against the steel guide bar. This creates stress risers and wear on the inside of the rim that facillate the cracks.

springgeyser

If you don't track on the rim, it might be repairable.

philooo

Sorry to hear about your problem.

what do you guys advise ? try to find an expensive OEM ? or the knock off replicas on ebay will do just fine ? The price difference is huge, anybody can comment on the Knockoff porsche wheels ?

alpine003

I was comparing OEM to Knockoffs and especially for this wheel, there was a noticeable weight difference

Graufuchs

Theres a noticable weight difference...but my 5 spoke reps were still much lighter than the OEM sport designs I had on the car. Some people tend to flip-out regarding replica wheels...If I crack a wheel here in NY...it costs me 120 bucks instead of 1200. If I was in your boat Id sell the remaining 3 for a profit and pick up a set of replicas. Then put the remaining cash into an upgrade or two.

HERE Ordered mine on friday and had them by wed. Had them for a few thousand miles and have zero complaints.

alpine003

Do you know how much these weigh? IIRC, the ones off Ebay were quoted to be close to mid 20's but I gotta check my messages again from awhile ago.

Graufuchs

No clue how much they weigh but I was very pleasantly surprised they were substantially lighter that the OEM sport designs I had.

fpb111

I agree with FTY's thoughts that the replicas are probably fine for road use only. I have a set of replica twists for my snows. One of the fronts took a pothole hit that blew the tire and it did not bend and one of the rears took a pretty good curb rash hit on ice without cracking or bending.
What got me about the stock wheel cracking was that it had not been tracked or hit. What I find more disturbing is that the crack is on the inside where the wheel is thicker with an extra lip. Granted that the "barrel" of the wheel is cantilevered out pretty far from the front face where the spokes are attached but one would not expect Porsche to design wheels so close to the edge for street use.

Graufuchs

I just made an impulsive purchase and picked up a new set of wheels for the 996(i dont think anyone here has these wheels)...pictures will follow in a few weeks when I recieve them.....but I will be selling the set of brand new replica wheels with tires. Tires have 70% tread left on them good for a couple seasons at the least. Willing to let them go for 650 picked up...new wheels have about 1k miles on them. They come with centercaps.