dam. thats some crazy ish. +1 on counting you're lucky stars. go buy lotto right now.

 

Yikes, I knew powder coating weakens the rim but not to this extent. Glad you made it out safe though.....things couldn't been worse.

 

nasty stuff! glad rest of car and you are ok.

 

haha. yea. but they were nice while they lasted. i wonder if powder coating really was the cause of this...

 

Usually, they blast the old paint before powder coating. I've never heard of a shop "baking off" the old paint before powder coating. And to think, I'm about to set an appointment to powder coat my 5Zigen wheels.

 

Damn!
That's all I can say, sorry.

 

For the longest time, all I wanted to do was blame the powdercoater. However, personally knowing three sets of these wheels cracking (all from different powdercoaters), and the research into these wheels, I've decided it's a POS wheel, and any heat treament, be it powdercoat or chrome, will degrage the integrity of the wheel and lead to this unforunate circumstance.

I've got three cracked wheels sitting in my garage. Waiting until we go out for target practice and bringing them with. 3/5 of my OEM (Yes, I bought one and had it powdercoated thinking I hit something somehow) cracked. Another friend in Vegas cracked one during an autocross (after I discovered I cracked TWO at the same event), so between us 4/9 cracks.

Please please please please put your stock OEMs back on. I've got some spare MB Motoring wheels in the garage if you're in a bing to replace. That's what I did until I came across my new set of AMEs, which have been abused 10x more than my OEM ever were, and they're doing/looking great still.

I'm really am sorry to hear. I personally think they LOOK fantastic, but fawk this sucks.

 

Ouch!!

 

holy mother..

 

I would **** bricks

 

Glad to hear that you are ok!!!

I can only imagine all the potential bad scenarios.

Either way you and Istan need to bring this up with Nissan to make sure that more people don't powdercoat their wheels if that is what they are saying is causing the cracks. You could save lives.

Also make sure the powdercoaters know.

Thanks to you and Istan for posting your experiences with the other forum members!

 

Holy ****.

 

You are correct, our wheels should never be in the bake off oven. But, thats the bread and butter of many PC shops, fleet work. And alot of trucks will have steel wheels. Not really a problem there. The guy that actually does your wheel may not really be thinking there is a difference and pop it in there. It isnt safe for any Al wheel, forged or cast..

if you have media blasted a wheel, it will have to be outgassed before PC-ing or you will have small bubbles/orange peel like finish. This process is sometimes done at high temps... or at the very least it is another heat cycle on your wheels.

I'm not a PC-er, I just did way too much research and asked alot of questions before doing the work I've had done. If any PC-er wants to fill in the blanks on my comments, please do.

As istan said, the reports of cracks are not limited to one PC shop.. and reports of chromed failures are coming in too, backed up by the bulletin.

I think it's fairly obvious that these processes do have some negative affects on Al wheels. Some of them are strong enough to never break. But I have a set of wheels I'm stripping right now, I'm going to look into painting them. Although, damn, PCing would be so much more convenient and durable.

 

im glad your ok, and no further damages happened to your car.

 

That sucks man. Im glad your ok. Now im going to check mine every day.

 

+11111, just glad to here you made it out alive. wow..

 

thats some scary sh*t, im glad ur able to talk about it and not in a body cast or worse

 

thanks everyone for all your concern! ill be driving on the seventeen inch stockers until i can be in the market for new wheels. like istan said, i think it would be safe to take precautions when using any powder coated wheel. not worth the risk imo. i just got lucky with timing.

 

I'm curious as to how you got the remnants of the rim off along the side of the road. Doesn't that piece just spin when you try and loosen it? I'm assuming that you just had the factory hand tools with you when this happened.

 

Whats curious to me is that what I read, from a technical standpoint, the heat actually ages the wheel. It would seem to me that a few years from now, those 5 spokers may just start doing that (w/o PC or chrome). I just completely pulled that out of my butt and its not a prediction or anything, but its a thought.