squarehat

I took my 1996 ES to the dealer this morning for the 95K service. For about the past month, I had been experiencing a steering wheel vibration, so I asked to have my tires rebalanced. Perhaps I lost a wheel weight, and I figured a rebalance would be cheaper than an unnecessary alignment. Tech comes back about 20 minutes later, tells me my two passenger side rims are badly bent. They are aftermarket 17's, (Mille Miglia Action I), wrapped in 215/50-17 Sumitomos. The wheels/tires were purchased in May, and have about 9000 miles on them. They were rotated twice (90K and 95K services). I remember people warning me that Mille Miglias were prone to bending, but these comments were all coming from SC430 owners (who have a much heavier car with lower-profile rubber) or people who think anything that isn't 3-piece, forged, and handmade to spec in either Japan or California only belongs on old Civics and old Caddies. I'm very carefully with the wheels, but I have hit some monster potholes near the curb during rainstorms, especially in the dark. It's hard to detect potholes under an inch and a half of murky water :C

The way I see it, I basically have 5 different courses of action. I'd like to get your opinion on what I should do.


Option I: Leave wheels as is. The rebalancing managed to greatly reduce the intensity of the vibration. Are there any safety risks with this? I don't want to risk a blowout at highway speeds!

Option II: Send rims for repair. I'm not sure if the shipping and labor is worth it on cheap one-piece, cast rims.

Option III: Purchase two identical replacements. If Mille Miglias are prone to bending, I risk bending the two new rims (or the two good rims) the next time I drive at night through the rain.

Option IV: Purchase 4 new rims that fit both my car ('96 ES) and my existing 215/50-17s. What strong rims can be purchased at reasonable prices? Are Lexus OEM rims pretty rugged? Which ones would fit a 215 section width tire besides the IS300 wheels? I'm guessing the GS 17 x 8 are too wide for a 215, not to mention the offset issue. Perhaps the 17 x 7.5s for the 01-03 LS430 that I see all the time on eBay? Other brands that look good for the price are the 1-piece SSR and some of the OZs. Feel free to suggest others.

Option V: Put the stock 15's back on. However, two of them leak about 5PSI/week, yet dunk tests showed no air bubbles (perhaps bad valve stems?) The frustration with these is why I justified my "upgrade" to the 17s to myself. I could have the valvestems replaced on all four as a precaution, then run these until the spring. However, I remember the misery of constantly re-inflating the tires in sub-zero weather.

Thanks for your input, guys!

PHML

iTrader: (33)

Square -

Sorry to hear about your wheels. I have a question.....Did you buy the Mille wheels brand new or used. What's the normal tire pressure do you keep on these? With 50 series....I'm guessing it must have been on the low side to bend the wheels.

For the time being, I would slap them stockers back on. Even w/ the slow leak, it may be more safe than running on bent wheels.

I would get estimates to repair the wheels first...then decide whether to repair, buy 2 new ones, or buy a new whole set.

Good luck.

Pete

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

You could do something like I did when I bent all FOUR of my rims. I bought two new ones (one front, one rear), then shipped out the two worst rims to get fixed. When they came back I shipped out the last two to get fixed... now I have a spare set of rims in case one gets damaged (one front, one rear).

For you - you could buy one new wheel like your old ones and ship one off to get fixed. Then replace the bent one with the fixed one when it comes back. If you choose to, you could keep the bent one as your spare or get it fixed (or trash it).

RNM GS3

DaveGS4,

Im looking for a shop that fixes rims....Can u tell me where did u get ur rims fixed and were u happy with their service? Thanks.

DaveGS4

iTrader: (2)

Got them fixed at this place http://www.wheelcollision.com/

They did a great job and were fairly reasonable (think about $80 - $100 per rim depending on bend). Fast turnaround. They'll want pictures to quote you an estimate.

Here's the link to my post when I bent them that has some other options from other members as well.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...highlight=bent

squarehat

A bit more info: I bought the wheels/tires brand new in mid-May. When I first got the tires, I was pretty obsessive with making sure they ran at 32 PSI. Last time I checked the air (about a month ago), they were at 27 PSI (I know a tad low) front/29 rear (which is low for performance tires but matches the factory specs), but this was during a period of rapidly fluctuating temps (it was about 35 degrees out, the day before had been 65). A couple of weeks after I had the rims installed, btw, I hit a submerged pothole so hard that I split the front right CV boot and damaged the caliper piston, leading to a replacement of the halfshaft/boot and brake caliper. I guess if I have them inflated rock-hard (32 PSI), the front end of the car (CV boot/brake caliper) gets punished, but slightly under-inflated (27), the rim takes the impact and bends...

This is why I'm hesistant to buy two more identical rims, but on the other hand, I have the investment of 4 almost-new tires and two other rims. I'm going to get a second opinion from the local shop that had the wheels drop-shipped from the Tire Rack for me. If I do decide to order two more MM's, I'll have them shipped to the shop where they can be mounted/balanced for me. I also want to make sure that the other two rims are indeed unscathed...if all four turn out to be bent, even slightly, this will definitely affect my opinion. I plan on keeping the car until July 2006, so I want some rims that I don't have to worry about on less-than-perfect roads. I saw a set of 17 x 7.5 LS430 OEM rims (the dish wheels from the 01-03) on eBay for less than $600. From what I can tell on the Tire Rack site, 215's can be mounted on a 7.5 rim, but I'm unable to find an offset on the LS rims. I'm thinking if the offset is between +40 and +45 it should work on the ES. I'm wondering if these rims are more durable (haven't seen too many reports of bent OEM rims outside of the SC430).

Thanks for the input guys, keep the suggestions coming. I'm just about to search for your thread, Dave, on the bent rims and the where/how long/how much of repairing them (I vaguely remember the story about being forced to off-road to get around an accident scene)

Edit: Update--I found Dave's thread, https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...s&pagenumber=1 and read it thoroughly. I'm going out to garage right now to get a better look. A DIY job may be in order, at least for the short term. Bends are on the inside lip (there is no visible lip from the outside of the car), which means cosmetics aren't an issue.

squarehat

Here's an update:

This afternoon I took the car to the tire/wheel shop that installed the wheels. Luckily, the assistant manager and the tech that I have become buddies with were both working. They quickly put the car on a lift and pulled the wheels. They showed me (unlike the pompous dealer) where the damage on the wheels were, and even hand-spun them on the balancer to demonstrate the wobble. Interestingly, unlike most of the pictures I've seen, my rims were more "out of round" than sharply bent. The bends were very slight, very even, very gradual, but about 6 inches long. Furthermore, the bends on both rims were almost identical.

They rebalanced them for free (I can't believe I was stupid enough to pay the dealer $45 when I knew this shop 5 minutes away would have done it for free )and put both bent ones in the rear (where it's less noticeable, as at least it's not causing the steering wheel to shake any more). The tech wanted to know why I didn't just throw my stock 15's back on for the winter, given the salt and potholes that are all part of the Cleveland winter wonderland. I told him I would have done that for the winter anyway (even without having bent rims) except for the aforementioned phantom pressure loss, he told me to bring them in, he'd clean the beads and remount them, and make sure the valvestems are perfect. So, later in the week, I'll have my stock 15's, with their almost new Michelin MXV4 Plus's, put back on.

This gives me until the spring to decide whether to repair the Mille Miglias, order two identical replacements, or go to another brand of 17" wheel...