GT350 R - carbon fiber wheel failure

Tomster said:

http://spydercomposites.com/cutting-edge-technology/

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Thanks Tomster, I was referred to Frank @ Spyder by CR. I'll see what the wheel looks like after the tire is dismounted. Hopefully it can be repaired and I can use them at least in the street.

The issue in this case is the wheel will not hold air. I don't know if it's structural, but I would think not. It seems to me that the repair would be simple and worthwhile. I would follow OEM guidance and certainly not chalk this up to a coffee table quite yet.

Update - Frank at Spyder Composites will try to fix it. I need to ship the wheel to them so they can x-ray for an accurate diagnosis.

I'll keep y'all posted on developments. (Wheel won't be shipped out until next week @ the earliest).

good luck man.

Next Phase said:

Update - Frank at Spyder Composites will try to fix it. I need to ship the wheel to them so they can x-ray for an accurate diagnosis.

I'll keep y'all posted on developments. (Wheel won't be shipped out until next week @ the earliest).

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Wow they're going to x-ray it, that's going to take some major radiation to penetrate a carbon fiber rim. I wonder where they do that at I highly doubt they own their own x-ray machine. Probably the best way would be to use a CT scanner

Frank lives close to me, hes fixed some carbon on my fcar. He worked with CR early on, does good work.

Just a quick update, I was able to ship my wheel out to Frank last week... he is working on it now - injected some epoxy yesterday and hopes to have it wrapped up by Friday.

awesome

Halleleuh!

Glad to hear the good news. Was the repair expensive? I ask only because I could very well find myself in your situation someday.

Again, congrats

Tomster said:

Glad to hear the good news. Was the repair expensive? I ask only because I could very well find myself in your situation someday.

Again, congrats

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I was quoted $200-$400... Still waiting to get an update from last week. I spent $200 to ship it Fed Ex Ground with $4k insurance. (Was hoping Fed Ex lost the wheel...haha)

*Edit, $623 was the cost.

*Update:

I received my repaired wheel from Spyder Composites and mounted my street tires (MP4S) last month. It's holding air and appears to be fixed successfully.

Had a track day @ VIR this past weekend. Day 2 was rain so I ran the CF wheels with MP4S for the first session - weather driwd up and ran my CF wheels for 4 sessions.

I was surprised at how much grip the 4S had compared to the BC Forged / Cup 2 set up. Impressed!

I wouldn't be afraid of tracking it.

As an FYI to the original post I also had the same problem with my 2015 GT350R. I only track the car and at 1200 miles I took it on for alignment at my local mechanic. He pointed out to me that a bubble developed where the white ceramic heat coating meets the outside edge of the rim. I then took the card to my Ford dealer and they had no clue what caused this problem so they took a number of pictures and sent them off to Ford warranty department to review. Ford warranty came back and stated that the problem was driver error and the problem was a result of a Stone chip. Go figure a Stone chip on the inside of the rim. After arguing with Ford customer care that my rims have hundreds of stone chips on the inside they refused to back their product. Long story short I showed the wheel to a carbon fiber expert and he told me that tia was an issues with the ceramic coating and Ford was wrong. I had to hire an attorney and ultimately it went through BBB arbitration and I won. Needless to say after attorney fees I didn’t get all of my money back but it was more of a principle thing for me. So if anyone has a problem don’t waste your time with Ford customer care. Take it through the BBB and let it go through arbitration. You don’t need an attorney to do this but chances are very good in your favor.

How is a stone chip considered operator error?