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[Riick]

Originally Posted by tcphoto

It’s time for a square setup whether VMR helps or not.

I don't know what to do, I can't keep the 19x9.5's on the car anymore they're dangerous and unsafe. Last night we had a huge cold snap it dropped almost 40 degrees overnight from 70s to low 40s. Made it about 3 miles down a perfectly flat zero bump road and it cracked.

VMR has made zero effort to help me in the past other than charging me $250 for a used rim. I'm slapping the OEM rims on and trading the car in, it's not economical to spend another couple thousand for rims that don't want to kill me on an 8 year old car with 150k miles.

[tcphoto]

You're going to lose thousands on trading the car in order to save a couple hundred on tires and wheels?

[Riick]

Originally Posted by tcphoto

You're going to lose thousands on trading the car in order to save a couple hundred on tires and wheels?

Replacing the rear with VMR 19x8.5 rims will cost $1100 with new tires and shipping. Replacing all 4 rims with something else will cost thousands. Tossing on the factory rims is free and trading it in before the cooling system takes a dump (still OEM cooling pump) is saving money.

My 2010 328i with 151k miles is only worth maybe 4k trade in. It makes no sense to invest a quarter the value of the car with crappy rims that keep breaking on the hope the 1in thinner ones won't crack on the rear. That's not even guaranteed. I've never cracked an 19x8.5 on the front but still. That's a $1000 gamble.

What if I spend $1000 on rims today and next month the water pump blows? That's over $2500 invested on a car worth not even twice that. That $2500 is a year of car payments.

[lab_rat]

While I can understand the level of frustration with the situation, I think if you take a step back and think logically (not emotionally), you might see that selling your car due to issues w/aftermarket wheels & a 'possible/pending cooling system failure' may not be the best move forward.

Emotionally based decisions often create the worst possible outcome - financially or otherwise.

I will say the decision reverting to OEM wheels was most likely the best move you could have made thus far.

My opinion of VMR's handling of the situation is that they seem to have been very accommodating.

After all, they replaced the initial wheel at a steep discount (how long is the warranty?). VMR also followed up in this thread with a thorough explanation of not only how they handled this specific situation, but of their engineering processes to create/certify their wheels.

An additional point: towing the jet-ski may cause additional load bearing stress on the rear wheels...as load is increased on the rear suspension, it compresses and makes the wheels gain negative camber, correct? This means more of the load is carried constantly on the inside of the wheel barrel during towing. Could this be a possible reason for continual failure?

[Riick]

The tongue weight is about 60lb, so no. It's very light it doesn't even affect my fuel consumption.

VMR would be very accommodating if they sold rims that don't randomly break. Obviously it's not my driving or the roads since the 19x8.5s in front are flawless after 70k miles. One would assume if I was hitting pot holes and cracked 5+ rear rims I would be cracking front rims as well.

[Wolf 335]

So I guess you won't be picking up a set of VMRs for your new car?

[Riick]

Originally Posted by Wolf 335

So I guess you won't be picking up a set of VMRs for your new car?

New car will be a 2013+ X3. Bone stock. No mods.

[68vert]

Sorry to hear about your problems Riick. It sucks.

I'm no advocate for VMR but at least they took your rim in for eval and were responsive. Plus polite about it. I had similar problems with fitment issues that caused metal cracks on suspension parts related to my truck. The manufacturer never replied to calls or email and when I posted on the Tacoma Forums to see if any others had similar issues, they just flamed me for being incompetent. A couple years later they released a new P/N of the same assembly because so many people were experiencing the same issue. I'll never buy crapburg again.

[JoeyBananaz18]

Regarding your post from 1-2-18, did you get a crack on a new wheel or a wheel that was previously welded?

[Everling]

I've had a VMR setup since 2010, now with 135k on the car; about 80k miles on the setup. I did have an issue with one wheel developing a crack in the middle, not near the edge without other bends in the wheel. VMR replaced it including taking care of mounting/balancing without a fuss. Since then, i haven't had any other issues with leaks or cracks. The finish however has definitely shown signs of wear.

[Riick]

Just traded the car in for a fully optioned white with Nevada (black) interior 2013 X3 M Sport with 34k miles. Problem solved.

I did NOT trade it in with the rims though. They're going to be someone on Craigslist's problem. The tires are all brand new Hankook EVO2.

[6ixSpd]

I mean, there isn't much to expect from extremely cheap shitty random aftermarket wheels... This is why it's always better to save up and do it once, and do it right. Stick with quality name brand wheel manufacturers (BBS, Volk, Work, Rays, etc), not these Flea Market (VMR/AG/bla bla bla) wheels.

[AllBlackBimmer]

Uh.. you do realize 30 profile tires is next to nothing and almost as low profile of a tire as you can get? That means zero protection for your wheels.
This comes with running 19s... I run 19s and love the look, but here in pa, cracks and bends happen. Period. Doesn’t matter if it’s vmr, bbs, hre, pepboys rims, or oem bmw rims... they crack/bend. Better that than your suspension. Do you want super strong wheels and then bend a control arm instead?

Stop repairing them.. if you truly repaired them that much, they are a safety hazard, any wheel repaired that many times is not safe, especially with your past experiences.
Go get a set of 18s or pay for forged 19s.

[VMRWheels]

This case is definitely unfortunate, we never want to see a customer with damaged wheels, regardless of circumstances. We appreciate the community feedback in this thread. Just going to leave some final notes after reading the follow-up convo:

03/2014 - Original set purchased.
09/2015 - Customer filed warranty claim for a wheel with a “crack” on the lip. Inspection found the “crack” was actually a deep scratch in the paint. We found no structural damage to this wheel, despite our best efforts. We still swapped out this wheel for the customer free of charge as a good faith gesture, including covering round-trip shipping.
06/2016 - Customer notified us of a cracked inner lip. This time we were able to confirm it via photo. We sold a replacement at $150, this is $190 off the normal $340 price tag. This was some years ago so I don’t fault OP for recalling $250, but the selling price was $150 per invoice & accounting records.
11/2017 - Customer posts this thread. Had OP reached out we would have offered some form of assistance as we did in the past, but we did not hear from him, presumably due to his frustration with the brand.

According to this thread OP has cracked rear wheels 7 times. That's a lot of re-straightening and re-welding. Flow formed wheels have heat and pressure treated barrels - as explained in our prior post, heating the barrel for repair can negatively affect the structural integrity of wheels. To hear the wheels were welded and straightened and welded and straightened, time and time again, I'm not surprised that the damage came back - repair any sort of wheel over and over and over (or sometimes even just once), and you're weakening the strength, regardless of the manufacturing process. Even wheels forged by Thor’s hammer would have trouble with this sort of damage + repair regimen.

There was mention in this thread about different rim thickness on the 19x8.5” and 19x9.5” V810’s. I had our lead warehouse tech measure the flange thickness on the 19x8.5” and 19x9.5” V810’s – it is the same.

Originally Posted by 68vert

Sorry to hear about your problems Riick. It sucks.

I'm no advocate for VMR but at least they took your rim in for eval and were responsive. Plus polite about it. I had similar problems with fitment issues that caused metal cracks on suspension parts related to my truck. The manufacturer never replied to calls or email and when I posted on the Tacoma Forums to see if any others had similar issues, they just flamed me for being incompetent. A couple years later they released a new P/N of the same assembly because so many people were experiencing the same issue. I'll never buy crapburg again.

This is the sort of thing that I’d like to think helps separate us from the majority of other brands. I appreciate you bringing this to light, and that’s a shame to hear about your past experience with that brand. For the record, when we discover an issue with our recommendations, we cover all associated costs, including shipping. We really are here to help.

Originally Posted by 6ixSpd

I mean, there isn't much to expect from extremely cheap shitty random aftermarket wheels... This is why it's always better to save up and do it once, and do it right. Stick with quality name brand wheel manufacturers (BBS, Volk, Work, Rays, etc), not these Flea Market (VMR/AG/bla bla bla) wheels.

For what it’s worth, you may be surprised with some of the other wheel brands/models coming out of our factory – they are the OE supplier for 3 top Japanese wheel brands on the market. We also have a rather diverse private label program, producing wheels for a variety of other popular brands. We’ve got loads of track addicts on our flow formed series and thousands of VMR’s being daily driven worldwide, we stand by our product to perform as intended, and won’t hesitate to assist in the event of customer issues.

In either case, I respect others' opinions and don't wish to start any sort of 'wheel war' in this thread, just wanted to give some feedback on what may separate us from some of the ‘others’. Part of the beauty of car culture is the subjective nature – different car makes, parts brands, and modification styles mean different things to different people. This diversity is what keeps everything interesting in the aftermarket and helps drive progression, which is good for enthusiasts. We’re coming up on 15 years now and have some exciting projects in the pipeline to hopefully help keep this progression going

[AllBlackBimmer]

Oh, and for the record -
I have the vmr flow formed v710s in 19s... I’ve run them the last two summers and they have held up well. The custom powder coating has also held up well... I don’t use them in the winter though either.
I’m happy with them and felt for the price I paid, got good value. Did I expect forged wheel strength? Nope. Did I expect them to be better than heavy cast wheels? Yes.
... So far so good.
Never did get my vmr care package though my only complaint! Haha.

My wheels:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1300535

[VMRWheels]

Originally Posted by AllBlackBimmer

Oh, and for the record -
I have the vmr flow formed v710s in 19s... I’ve run them the last two summers and they have held up well. The custom powder coating has also held up well... I don’t use them in the winter though either.
I’m happy with them and felt for the price I paid, got great value. Did I expect forged wheel strength? Nope. Did I expect them to be better than heavy cast wheels? Yes. Have they? So far so good.
Never did get my vmr care package though my only complaint! Haha.

My wheels:
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1300535

Let's fix that!! Shoot me your current addy in a PM and watch the mail

[Riick]

Originally Posted by VMRWheels

There was mention in this thread about different rim thickness on the 19x8.5” and 19x9.5” V810’s. I had our lead warehouse tech measure the flange thickness on the 19x8.5” and 19x9.5” V810’s – it is the same.

You would think out of all these years I would have bent or cracked an 8.5 width rim. Nope. They're perfectly straight with zero bends, cracks, or zero issues. I think someone didn't measure correctly.

I've owned cars with aftermarket rims since 1996, and I have never ever bent/broken/cracked a rim ever until I bought those 19x9.5s.

Good luck selling these things to other folks. They're dangerous and shouldn't be allowed on the street.

[techwhiz]

Originally Posted by Riick

I paid $250 for the replacement that I picked up at your shop in Cali while I was in town for work, not $150.

I just cracked another one last week it's ridiculous guys. Two in one month. You have a serious design issue with these 19x9.5s

Apex 19x9 fronts and 19x9.5 in the rear.
No cracks or bends after two years.
I broke or cracked 3 of 4 Forgestars in the same period.

I swear by Apex these days.

[Riick]

Originally Posted by techwhiz

Apex 19x9 fronts and 19x9.5 in the rear.
No cracks or bends after two years.
I broke or cracked 3 of 4 Forgestars in the same period.

I swear by Apex these days.

I had SSR's for over a decade with zero issues as well.

[Isaiah5411]

What you do about the rims is a personal decision...gotta do what feels right and gives you peace about the safety of driving the car.

I'd just like to comment on the worth of a car, because...I was just stunned by looking up the "value" of my car, which is pictured below and is now 10.5 years old and is rapidly approaching 150k miles.

According to comps on Autotrader, my beloved $54,000 MSRP 2008 E93 (loaded) is worth...$6,500! Say whaaa? Knowing what I know about this car, I would buy it at 2-3 times that price. In fact, it is still "worth" $54k to me because that's about what it would take to replace it new.

So...what is a used car really worth?? If we buy into "the system", it's worth the Blue Book value (or less) because that's all most people would pay for it. But...it's really worth something between the Blue Book value and what we paid for it new (or used in my case, $30k), right?

So what if we have to spend money on new rims or tires, drop a grand on an alternator/battery, or replace the water pump, AC compressor or the like. We're still nowhere near the cost of a new one (and the interest we paid on the financing).

Just my $0.02 worth of venting. I hate the used car racket!