MaxLTV

I had a minor incident - lightly touched wheels with another car while driving side by side. I cannot emphasize enough how light the contact was - imagine two cars driving in parallel side by side and gradually coming closer until their wheels touch. Luckily no body damage beyond rubber marks on PPF for me and minor fender dent for the other car.

But my wheels are a different story. The other car's wheels have just a handful of superficial scratches, most not even through to the metal, and no structural damage. Mine look like I drove over a mine. WTF?

My front wheel cracked, losing all the air, from a very light impact. First, is disturbing because the wheels barely touched - I hit curbs stronger (in other cars) with no cracking or even bending. Of course, the wheels were spinning, so the spinning motion could have caused the damage. But look at the other car's wheels - they almost look like nothing happened. Second, the cracking instead of bending is bad. Modern mags should not be prone to cracking and should bend instead. Forged mag wheels on race cars usually bend when they touch. This shattered like it's ceramic. Interestingly, the crack does look like ceramic - it's powdery white with no metallic sheen, like painted with primer. I wonder why. Does magnesium alloy oxidize so fast?

I could see an excuse for the shattering. Maybe a protruding spoke of the other wheel hit the edge of my rim just right to shatter my wheel with the force of its spinning - slim chance but possible.

But WTF is going on with that paint? It comes off like it's not adhering to the wheel. Or rather it's actually not adhering to the wheel at all but is just a shell over it, like an eggshell. I could peel almost the entire wheel with a fingernail starting from one of the edges. This is not how paint is supposed to be, is it?

Anyway, I'm super disappointed and regret getting these wheels. If my insurance does not replace the wheels, I will switch to an aftermarket set.

CarManDSL

The paint flaking off is very concerning. Like no bonding at all. Looks like too much time lapsed between the bonding primer and red finish, so there is no chemical bonding between the layers.

Unfortunately, magnesium wheels shatter rather than bend if they are a purer magnesium alloy. An Al-Mag blend, though slightly heavier than pure magnesium, is a better material for this application.

I recall so many years ago a Carrera GT in Vancouver taking a slide into a curb and shattered the magnesium wheels.

Though my 992 RS with WP is due any day now, I will not be tracking with the mag wheels and have a set of forged 6061 currently in production.

December 12, 2004

Bucketlistx911

In my opinion not a good cost/ value/ performance/ durability tradeoff. These cars need to be beat up and keep on. Too damn fragile….

3-Pedals

I’m afraid to ask but how did your wheels touch another car wheels? Was this a road accident or was it some sort of demonstration?

mooty

^ am sure max is on the race track doing DE

rk-d

Magnesium wheels are more brittle is my understanding and can be problematic for road wheels. I do think the design of the wheels relative to the BMW matters - the Porsche has a high sharp ridge whereas the BMW is relatively flat with rolled edges.

Touching wheels at speed, I am not remotely surprised that the Mg wheels exploded.

sechsgang

zero shock with the wheels reacting like that to hitting something while rotating at all...

GrantG

No doubt - these wheels aren’t meant for NASCAR-style bumping

MaxLTV

The other car's wheel looks like nothing happened. I'm not new to touching wheels in race cars - in prototype racing it's not uncommon because there is no body damage or other consequences from it. And it usually takes a massive hit that causes whiplash to brake a wheel this way. This was just a nudge. I was hoping for much stronger wheels, at least half as strong as a <$500 cast BMW wheel. Anyway, I can see that being a design choice by Porsche, and Porsche compromising strength for weight. So this is more of a warning to others than a complaint. I would not have gotten these mag wheels if I knew.

But what's the deal with paint not being attached to the wheel? It's very thick and tough paint, but it flakes off with barely any effort, literally like peeling an egg. How is it going to fare in the long run?

TOporschefan

lI feel bad for the original poster but seriously......

M3Inline6

That’s some crazy damage.

Falcon01

That BMW rim is likely $1300+.

BMW doesn't really cheap rims anymore. The rims on my 540 were very expensive...

Strange things happen during impacts. Just be happy that your body is ok. Did you buy tire and wheel? You can likely get this fixed with a tire and wheel claim lol. Were the police called? If so, you need to go for diminished value.

Angryinch

Should have got the diamond or titanium wheels, then you could have shredded his.

MaxLTV

LOL, it's not anything like that. I don't think I'm getting across how light the contact was - you could barely feel it, it was like someone just closed the door without slamming or like brushing against a curb so lightly you wouldn't be sure if there is any curb rash at all (except it was another car's wheels). No other damage or danger. I don't see any diminished value when I replace the wheels. It looks like something big happened if you look at my wheels, but the BMW wheel looks more appropriate for what happened - a nothing burger. The state of my wheels is utterly inconsistent with how minimal the contact was. That's why I'm so surprised. That was the whole point of the original post. I had MUCH stronger wheel-to-wheel contact multiple times in my race cars and no repairs were ever needed.

supershaft

it’s not. That looks like a m2 and those wheels are cast.