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[AWD Addict]

How can any reasonable person expect a set of rims that are priced at...well, a low price be much better than something that costs much more?

Like I said above, plenty of lower cost wheels don't have chipping and peeling issues. This isn't a tradeoff between low and high priced wheels. Rota makes low price wheels that are very durable, don't chip or peel, and are strong and lightweight.

[Chowbow]

Originally Posted by HRC

The same basic rules that apply in most other areas of life apply here, you get what you pay for. How can any reasonable person expect a set of rims that are priced at...well, a low price be much better than something that costs much more? I don't blame the venders 100%, they of course will say what they need to say to move inventory, that's what they do. I do think they go out of their way to convince the buyer, but in the end the choice is with the customer. The buyer(s) have to be the responsible ones and use some common sense. Trusting venders with a blind eye or not using some common sense can result in wasted money (cheaper to do it right the 1st time in most cases), head/heartache, anger/frustration, etc...

Danny

I agree with this... I bought these CSL replicas knowing they were cheap and wouldn't be as high quality, and therefore I am OK with them being lower quality. I don't expect them to balance and have the same kind of craftsmanship as my $4000 Fikses. I just expect them to be as strong as other wheels in the market (like OEM). I'm under the impression that they are, and they at least pass the minimum requirements for safety.

In fact, the tire shop already chipped a bit of paint off, but I really didn't care and it was a great feeling to not have to worry about little nicks and scrapes on these things.

[steaman]

It is also important that we, the E90Post community, report feedback on product that is promoted within the community. When I decided to buy CSL reps from Velocity, I made my decision based on the info I found here. With information like this tread, my decision would have been OEM rims.

[tom @ eas]

Originally Posted by AWD Addict

+1 This is the first I've heard of this. We can't use WHEEL CLEANER on our wheels? That's insanity. Anyone who's cleaned wheels before knows that soap and water do shit to take brake dust and tar off wheels. WTF?

also, I've used replica wheels and copies before (Rota) and they were clear coated, and never chipped, cracked, or had issues with the finish or types of wheel cleaner used. This isn't what's expected out of inexpensive wheels, it's what's expected out of CHEAP wheels.

I was all but sold on these, and now I don't know what to do!

Let's be realistic here. You should treat the finish as if it was your BMW's paint - wheel cleaners can be very acidic and damage a wheel instantly. And yes - Simple Green is included in this.

Here's a wheel that met its demise on Meguiars Hot Rims according to the OP:



Certain brake pads can cause damage as well, there's a certain type of track pad (shall remain nameless) that instantly forms a shell and bonds to the wheel when sprayed with water, it needs to be wiped clean first. Street pads won't see this.

Simply put - if you feel you need need wheel cleaners, you're not cleaning your wheels enough. Nothing other than soap and water should be used, and a wash mitt in order to retain the finish. WheelWax will make washing easier and protect the finish, but needs to be applied every 4-6 weeks.

If you wouldn't spray it on your BMW's paint, it shouldn't be used on your wheels.

[HRC]

Sounds to me like the same rule applies, just that ROTA seems to be an exception to the rule...a cheap rim that holds up above average compared to other rims in the price range. I have a different point of view than you, I expect that lower cost (cheap) wheels would have or delvelop "issues" whereas you don't.

Danny

Originally Posted by AWD Addict

Like I said above, plenty of lower cost wheels don't have chipping and peeling issues. This isn't a tradeoff between low and high priced wheels. Rota makes low price wheels that are very durable, don't chip or peel, and are strong and lightweight.

[bimmerchild]

oh my - I guess I am sticking to oem wheels - that pic looks awefull - I use wheel cleaner on oem and never had a problem...

[tom @ eas]

Originally Posted by bimmerchild

oh my - I guess I am sticking to oem wheels - that pic looks awefull - I use wheel cleaner on oem and never had a problem...

This was a bit extreme as an example and shows that pure laziness and relying only wheel cleaners only will ruin the finish in an instant.

Weekly washes will keep your wheels looking like the day they were purchased. Here's an example of the Gunmetals on our e46 M3:



Wheels are only cleaned with soap/water weekly and look like they are still new.

[steaman]

Originally Posted by HRC

Sounds to me like the same rule applies, just that ROTA seems to be an exception to the rule...a cheap rim that holds up above average compared to other rims in the price range. I have a different point of view than you, I expect that lower cost (cheap) wheels would have or delvelop "issues" whereas you don't.

Danny

I don't agree with your statement that price and quality always go hand in hand. A large part of the OEM price relate to Design and Brand!

[HRC]

I never said ALWAYS. You can believe what you want, heck, isn't the earth flat?

Danny

Originally Posted by steaman

I don't agree with your statement that price and quality always go hand in hand. A large part of the OEM price relate to Design and Brand!

[RMRC]

Originally Posted by AWD Addict

Can you please clarify this? I can't figure out what this means....

Funny guy. Left the thread, came back to add to the entry and didn't proofread before hitting submit. Perhaps this helps: Too bad the offsets of the OEM ZCP wheels don't work on the e9x.

[Fraggy]

Originally Posted by AWD Addict

+1 This is the first I've heard of this. We can't use WHEEL CLEANER on our wheels? That's insanity. Anyone who's cleaned wheels before knows that soap and water do shit to take brake dust and tar off wheels. WTF?

also, I've used replica wheels and copies before (Rota) and they were clear coated, and never chipped, cracked, or had issues with the finish or types of wheel cleaner used. This isn't what's expected out of inexpensive wheels, it's what's expected out of CHEAP wheels.

I was all but sold on these, and now I don't know what to do!

Beyerns rock bro. Ive had mine for over 20000 miles and they are fine, even going thru car washes from time to time and what ever they use to clean the wheels. They might be a tad more expensive, but I think in the end worth it, at least for me.

[AWD Addict]

Originally Posted by tom @ eas

Let's be realistic here. You should treat the finish as if it was your BMW's paint

I've now had 6 sets of clear coated painted wheels, OE and aftermarket, and never ever heard of such nonsense. I've used Mothers and other wheels cleaners on every one of them, and never seen a problem like peeling clear coats or paint.

Soap and water doesn't remove brake dust and tar.

It sounds to me that these wheels are just poorly made. Whether Rota is the exception or not (they're not) is moot. Inexpensive wheels does not equal crappy quality and peeling coatings.

If those wheels were mine, (that picture you psoted) even after a year, I'd be sending them back for a full refund. That's obnoxious!

[Chowbow]

FYI, brake dust (from any pad) + water = acidic solution. Certain brands and types of brake pads will form a more acidic solution but all types of brake dust when mixed with water can be harmful to wheels. It shouldn't be a huge issue though if the clearcoat of the wheel doesn't get eaten through easily. Time will tell on mine. I use a crappy wheel brush and regular car wash suds left over from the body cleaning...

[MarioKart]

Wheels look great and the offsets are perfect. I have two issues with the wheels:
1. the paint and clear is super thin (Gun Metal). I have chips all over in less than two days.
2. My wheels had to be balanced 4 times and 3 different shops. I was lucky to have Supreme Power Parts balance them on a weekend to finally get it right. These wheels need tons of weights inside and outside. One of my wheels has a flat spot from when it was molded.

Overall great price and look but these wheels aren't going to stay on my car long. I will be getting HRE, IForged or DPE's

[Chowbow]

Hmm..... maybe I'll have my body shop re-clear them real quick.... I'm pretty close with them and they'll do it for darn near nothing.

Lots of bad rap coming about these now. Wonder why no one had bitched before?

[AWD Addict]

Originally Posted by MarioKart

Wheels look great and the offsets are perfect. I have two issues with the wheels:
1. the paint and clear is super thin (Gun Metal). I have chips all over in less than two days.
2. My wheels had to be balanced 4 times and 3 different shops. I was lucky to have Supreme Power Parts balance them on a weekend to finally get it right. These wheels need tons of weights inside and outside. One of my wheels has a flat spot from when it was molded.

Overall great price and look but these wheels aren't going to stay on my car long. I will be getting HRE, IForged or DPE's

Yikes.

Are they Miro or VMR? Are the same issues happening with both manufacturers?

[MarioKart]

Originally Posted by AWD Addict

Yikes.

Are they Miro or VMR? Are the same issues happening with both manufacturers?

They are VMR sold by EAS with their own Gunmetal color.

[tom @ eas]

Originally Posted by MarioKart

Wheels look great and the offsets are perfect. I have two issues with the wheels:
1. the paint and clear is super thin (Gun Metal). I have chips all over in less than two days.
2. My wheels had to be balanced 4 times and 3 different shops. I was lucky to have Supreme Power Parts balance them on a weekend to finally get it right. These wheels need tons of weights inside and outside. One of my wheels has a flat spot from when it was molded.

Overall great price and look but these wheels aren't going to stay on my car long. I will be getting HRE, IForged or DPE's

Were you able to send pictures like we talked about over the phone? If this is a warranty issue, we'll make sure its covered.

None of the other things you are stating were mentioned during the phone call.

[MarioKart]

Originally Posted by tom @ eas

Were you able to send pictures like we talked about over the phone? If this is a warranty issue, we'll make sure its covered.

Thanks Tom, I love the wheels and much better than Miro's design. I don't expect them to be the best because I didn't pay $4000.

[1WickedE90]

What concerns me the most is the fact that it takes a good amount of wheel weights to balance the wheel with the tire. This seems to be an issue with how the wheel is cast - supposedly, the VMR CSL reps are made using low-pressure casting method.

The VMR CSL replica wheel set sells for about $900, give or take. I've owned a number of wheels in the similar price range (Rota, MSW, reps made in Italy, etc) and they never had a problem with balancing (or rather needing an excessive amount of wheel weights to balance properly), finish peeling/chipping, etc.

I disagree with the opnion that a car's wheels should be treated like the car's paint. A wheel goes through a lot more than a car's paint and whatever coating/paint/etc it's finished with should be able to withstand those factors. To only use soap & water to clean the wheels is possible but let's be realistic: your wheels pick up a lot crap from the roads, brake dust, etc while in use and may need something stronger than soap & water to clean it off. I use P21s http://www.p21s.com/products/bis_wc1.html to clean wheels, in both strengths, regular & gel formula. Does that mean that using P21s to clean my VMR wheels is not recommended because the solution is lot stronger than car wash soap & water?

[VMRWheels]

Cleaners

As mentioned before, we recommend cleaning on a regular basis. If done on a regular basis, we see no reason to use anything but soap and water as this is the safest method to preserve the finish of the wheel. As all of you probably already know, the brake pads on BMWs create a lot of dust. If left on the wheels for too long the brake dust will begin adhering to the finish of the wheel because of the heat created from driving and braking. This is why we recommend regular cleaning.

We do not recommend any wheel cleaners because many wheel cleaners are acid based and very caustic. This is not to say wheel cleaners will not work, we just don’t know which ones will not damage the finish. Again we find water and soap works very well on our personal cars and is overall the safest method of cleaning the wheels.


Wheel balancing

As far as balancing is concerned, there are many factors when it comes to balancing wheels. To begin, the installer must have the proper equipment if they are trying to minimize the use of weights. The tire being mounted is very rarely perfectly balanced to begin with. The lightest portion of the tire should be matched with the heaviest portion of the wheel to minimize road force feedback and the use of balancing weights. We here at Velocity Motoring use a Hunter GSP9700 Road Force balancer to road force balance every one of our wheel and tire package for this very reason. Road force balancing will minimize the amount of road force feedback and use the least amount of balancing weights. Also, the quality of the tire will affect how many balancing weights will be needed to balance the wheel.

For this very reason, one must carefully choose who mounts and balances their wheels. Since an overwhelming majority of E90/92 owners use 19” wheels, they must remember these are generally more difficult to mount. Tire shops that do not deal with larger diameter aftermarket wheels that use low profile tires on a regular basis may have more trouble properly mounting and balancing aftermarket 19” wheels. Moreover, many wheel and tire shops do not have a wheel balancer that measures road force, so they will be unable to match the high and low spots of the wheel with the high low spots of the tire. This will result in the use of more wheel weights.


Wheel finishes issues

Many of these chips and flakes result from the use of improper mounting machines and the like. Since we’ve mounted thousands of wheel and tire packages, we’ve found that certain balancing clamps will be much more prone to damaging the wheel’s finish. Since the clamp needs to be very tight on the wheel for the wheel to be balanced, the mating surface must disperse the pressure to avoid damaging the wheels surface. I’ve attached pictures to illustrate what I mean.





As far as chipping during regular use, one has to take into consideration the design of the VB3 wheel. The spokes do jut outward a bit and as a result, the leading edge of the spokes will very likely take the damage from rocks and debris being flung up toward the wheels. Chips such as these are just normal occurrences from normal use. Just like when one drive’s their BMW, rocks and other associated road debris may chip the bottom of your bumper and side skirts, but I highly doubt one would blame BMW the paint isn’t up to par. It’s inevitable, if you drive your car, chips and nicks will eventually happen. If you do have chips or any sort of damage you feel is not due in part to negligence, please contact me and we will address each issue individually to see if there’s a valid warranty claim. It’s somewhat disconcerting to see people on this thread trying to convince everyone that the finish on our wheels are sub par when there are thousands of satisfied customers who have found no problems with the finishes. Either way, we will continue to do our best to provide quality wheels and strong customer support.

Again, please contact me directly via PM, email, or phone @ 714-442-7916 x108 if you have any issues or questions about VMR wheels or even offset questions. I'll be happy to assist you.

[1WickedE90]

Originally Posted by VMRWheels

Either way, we will continue to do our best to provide quality wheels and strong customer support.

Again, please contact me directly via PM, email, or phone @ 714-442-7916 x108 if you have any issues or questions about VMR wheels or even offset questions. I'll be happy to assist you.

I'll be the first to say that, as a prospective buyer, I'm very happy with how Ty has answered my questions - always in a timely manner and lots of good information. VMR is lucky to have someone like him on their staff