Wheel failure

[Redfuzzbutt]

TLDR; Wheel failure after new tires installed, pictures attached. Bad luck or damage from shop?

XXR 521 Wheels 20x10.5
Old tires: Nitto NT555 G2 305/30
New tires: Atturo AZ850 305/30

The other day I had my tires replaced with the Atturo tires, needed something decent without breaking the bank, anticipating getting new wheels next spring. Large tire chain that sold the tires are also the ones that did the dismount/install.

I took the wheels off of my car and brought them in to the store in the morning, came back later that day and picked them up to take home and put back on the car. I noticed that one of the wheels had a fair amounts of weights on the inside for balancing but also noticed that there were additional clip on weights on the inner rim. Odd but whatever.

Drove the car approx 100 miles that weekend and when going 40-50mph, right rear wheel left the chat. It's possible I got off the side of the road where the asphalt was broken, but definitely not far enough past the shoulder to hit any rocks/debris (mountain road).

Drove another ~200 yards to get off the highway so I could pull off. Wheel was split in half, inner portion bouncing all around and the outter still on the hub. Got it all removed for another wheel to get put on and noticed two significant dents on the inner portion of the rim, exactly 180° across from each other.

The question: just pure dumb luck that the poor wheel hit two different hard objects in its life, one of them here recently, and they just happened to be on the opposite end? Or is it possible that shop damaged wheel when dismounting/mounting the tires and used a bunch of weights to balance it out?

Pictures attached, can zoom in on top pic to see both pieces of the wheel. Last pic is all the weights I could find when walking the road back from where it happened.

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[AZ_Ryan]

Sounds like you had a defective wheel. All the extra weights should have tipped off the tire monkeys.

 

[Jvpn]

Yeah, I second the defective wheel vote. Maybe the manufacturer will replace it.

 

[robvas]

Cheapest wheel and cheapest tire possible hrmmm

 

[Redfuzzbutt]

To clarify, I've had the wheel for several years. I'm good with asking the manufacture if they would be willing/able to do something about it.

For those who have had experience with dismounting and mounting tires, are there any processes that could bend the rim inwards?

 

[WildHorse]

For those who have had experience with dismounting and mounting tires, are there any processes that could bend the rim inwards?

If they used a bar and the rim as a fulcrum, sure. I'm guessing the failure process began at the tire shop.

 

[K4fxd]

For those who have had experience with dismounting and mounting tires, are there any processes that could bend the rim inwards?

Anything is possible but I can't think of any way to bend a rim mounting a tire with a modern tire machine.

The fact they let the tire go out of the shop with all that weight tells me that whoever balanced it is very new or just doesn't give a shit.

That looks to be a pound of weight, there was most likely a defect in the tire and that along with all the weight shook the rim apart.

Some of this is on you, you should have gone to the manager when you saw all the weights on the wheel. The shop should have said we can't balance the tire and left it off the wheel.

Good luck

 

[MAGS1]

Is it possible the tire shop damaged it? Sure, anything is possible. Also possible that when the wheel let go, it hit something on the way out and dented it too. Like others said, if they needed that many weights, something was off to start with and they should’ve at least notified you.

It also could be that the wheel was starting to fail prior to taking it to the tire shop (again, the weights seem to be an indicator something was amiss) and it finally said out. Scary stuff

 

[Redfuzzbutt]

That looks to be a pound of weight, there was most likely a defect in the tire and that along with all the weight shook the rim apart.

Some of this is on you, you should have gone to the manager when you saw all the weights on the wheel. The shop should have said we can't balance the tire and left it off the wheel.

I agree, I should've been more proactive when I saw the weights.

I'll likely get a hold of the shop this week and see if there is some middle ground they're willing to meet at. If not, nothing lost.

 

[S550HPP]

That QTY of weights is totally unacceptable I would go back to the shop and ask to see the CCTV of the install or demand compensation that should have never been released.

At least you were planning on new wheels classifies have some. ..

 

[Redfuzzbutt]

Went to big chain store where tires were purchased from and they did the install. Manager will be filing a claim, their corporate will review/investigate and we will see where it goes from there.

Thanks to those who responded with options and advice. Will update with the outcome.

 

[Cobra Jet]

Wow…. Jumped here from your link to read the “how it happened”.

How many weights were installed onto the other (3) wheels?

Whatever you do, do NOT settle for their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd offer for compensation. Find ALL of the damage that you can from the failure - this means go over the entire car and find any damages that resulted to the car from the rim failure. Then you let them know the damages and cost to repair back to pre-failure condition of the car AND the rim. If they balk at your total monetary figure of claim, you then calmly state you’ll file with an attorney. Then you state their negligence could have resulted in far more damages, injury or possibly death had that failure occurred at a higher rate of highway speed and if the location of the failure and subsequent loss of control happened in a more densely populated region with other traffic/people/property.

I’m not being “sue happy” all I’m saying is - damn, look at the BIGGER picture of what could have happened….and you have to make that point in your claim of what you deem as a fair settlement.

I had to go through something similar years ago when I had my prior 2016… Big Box store, had a good promotion going on BFG’s at the time. Shop said they could do the R&R of the tires off the factory black PP rims “no problem”. I go to pick up the car and all freaking 4 rims are severely damaged around the outer edges of the face of the rim, gouged right down to the metal…. I filed a claim, had to deal with the Corp BS of “we’ll only give you this $x”, and I said “nope” and would not settle until I received retail cost for the replacement of (4) new rims. I did win the compensation I wanted. It took me a few months, but I settled me vs. them and no attorney involvement. What REALLY helped my situation was that I took quite a few pics of the car and wheels on their lot with the building and their signage in the background showing condition of the car and rims BEFORE they were worked on… and unfortunately had taken pics afterwards. Found out later they were destroyed by their equipment which was older and was not appropriate for dealing with newer larger (19”+) and factory black rims coming on the modern vehicles….

So don’t just settle, you’re the consumer, you got screwed and the result of your failure could have been really, really worse than what it was for sure.

 

[Nightmonkey]

If there had already been a tear, the tire would have been deflated.

If the rim had already been out of round before, they should have noticed this when fitting the new tires if they did it right.
At first they should run the rim on the balancing machine to see where the heaviest point is and then match the tire with its heaviest point against it. This way you need less weights.

By the way that are not many weights (if lead free) for cheap rims and tires!
The OEM do need more in many cases!

Of course, the rims may still have had an unnoticed defect.
The small wash out in the road may have been the last bit that was missing to failure.

Do you have pictures of the wash out / pot hole?

Conclusion: I don't see the tire shop to blame with the informations we have, but give it a try, asking is for free.

 

[robvas]

Edit

 

[Redfuzzbutt]

How many weights were installed onto the other (3) wheels?

Thx for response. I haven't looked at the other three wheels but will check them out by this weekend and report back.

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