Bent rim? WTF!

[JHew84]

well, i bought my MSP at the end of last summer, i picked it up from NC and drove it back to MI, fun times (mountains, YAY!), and it has always had a slight vibration above 75 mph, no biggie, right? WRONG ... i go to take the protege out of storage for an upcoming meet, my friend who dropped me off is following me back to my house and a few miles down the road gives me a call... "Dude, your left rear tire is wobbling a lot, no, your whole wheel is wobbling a lot"... i'm thinking damnit, the lugs are loose or some stupid s***, yet i can't feel any other vibrations or anything weird, no clunking, nothing, hm... its only a mile or so to my house so i just keep going, get home, jack up the ass end, spin the driver side tire, sure nuff, wobbles pretty good, awesome!!! i'm convinced its a bent rim, but i call my roomate to see what he thinks, he throws out bent hub, and that the lubs might be torqued incorrectly (all of them were tight), so i figure i'll throw on my FD's and give them a spin, if they wobble, its not the rim, if they dont wobble, it is the rim, well, they dont wobble, so now i know its not the hub, but it COULD have been incorrect torque put down on each lug, so i pull the passenger side RH, throw the wobbly wheel on, torque each lug to 100ft/lbs, jack it back up, WOBBLE, damnit ... there are light curb rash marks all around the lip, is it possible to hit the rim hard enough to bend it, but not leave a sizable mark on it? because they all look like the guy i bought it from just ever so lightly rubbed a couple curbs...

i dunno, i am pist, but at the same time, i was gonna run my FD's this season anyway, so it just makes me put them on sooner, i just can't beleive i've been driving on it this whole time like that, there isn't any weird wear marks on the tire, and it doesn't vibrate unless your doing 75+... so thats the story, i'm a little upset about it, but oh well, time to look for a spare rim, but i'm sure i'll end up buying a complete set ...

- James

 

[KpaBap]

there are light curb rash marks all around the lip, is it possible to hit the rim hard enough to bend it, but not leave a sizable mark on it?

Yes.

Next time post just that part.

 

[Dr.Sound]

haha, my rims were not bent after the car flipped 12 times.
might be a factory defect.....?

 

[Dr.Sound]

to bend a rim like ours u have to have curb rash 1/4 inch deep.

 

[FunkyBuddha]

^^aluminum alloy is pretty stiff. you never know though, weird things do happen. When you lay the wheel flat on the ground..does it wobble as well?

 

[JHew84]

^^aluminum alloy is pretty stiff. you never know though, weird things do happen. When you lay the wheel flat on the ground..does it wobble as well?

didn't even try it, i just swapped my FD's onto the rear and did a couple quick 80mph runs, no more vibrations, came back, jacked it up, wheels still spun perfectly straight, when i'm over at my moms tomorow i'll do that though, i doubt they will wobble much, if at all though, i mean it can't be THAT bent if i wasn't even feeling it until above 75mph, but it did wobble about 1/4 - 1/2 inch, kinda scary... but sometime next week/weekend i'm gonna take it to the local alignment shop and have them throw it on their balancing machine, we'll know damn quick just how ****** up it truly is then haha...

Quote:
there are light curb rash marks all around the lip, is it possible to hit the rim hard enough to bend it, but not leave a sizable mark on it?



Yes.

Next time post just that part.

??? i know the thing is bent, i'm not asking people what the problem is, i already KNOW what the problem is, i was more or less just telling a story about how a nice afternoon of backroad driving was cut short because i had to figure out why my rim looked like it was gonna fall off, i wasn't sure if the minor (VERY minor) curb rash could have been the same damage that bent the rim, or if the guy had maybe hit a speed bump to hard or something, i dunno, but i certainly know that the rim is bent so i dont need any help with the diagnosis...


Dr. Sound, that sounds (haha, no pun intended ) like a pretty knarly ride, i was thinking that from the minimal damage my rims have it would be pretty hard to truly bend them in the fassion needed to produce this amount of dis-function, but hell i haven't the slightest knowledge of exactly how tough specific metals are, seems feasable to me but again, i have no idea... i'll get some pictures of the damage and see what everyone thinks of that, and off hand i beleive this is the only rim with any damage, the rest are all but perfect aside from the stupid discoloration from wheel weights ...

 

[JHew84]

side note that i thought was funny, when i went on my test drive i kept hearing a soft squeaking noise (not the susp ) sometimes, at first i thought it was from bumps, then i realized that everytime i was straining to hear the noise i'd let off the gas and it was the bpv making a soft noise that when i wasn't really paying attn sounded like a tire rubbing on the strut or something, made me feel smart ... i still need to get used to this whole turbo thing, it is very foreign to me (lol)