Nissan sold as an option, chrome rims. Based on the price you mentioned in your other thread, that sounds like those.

A lot of people chromed the OEM painted rims or had the OEM chromed rims re-chromed by shops and those had a tendency to develope cracks.

 

If your wheels look like the top one here they were factory chrome.

 

chrome wont get you home: https://my350z.com/forum/wheels-tire...-disaster.html

 

+1 Up till today I see no letter.

 

Well the gov't closed their investigation in Aug '08 so if you haven't gotten a letter yet, I wouldn't be expecting one.

 

Oh man, I'm kind of worried, hit a tiny pothole at 35 mph last month on accident. Gonna go check my rims after work.

 

The study is over. It concerned 05 thru 07 wheels that had been chromed using processes that weakened the wheel. Nobody killed, but one hurt. I talked to him today. He's an engineer and knows metal characteristics. The links below lead to the report and pics of the cracked/broken wheel:
Bill Beamon 06 350ZR

Bill:

Per our conversation again I cannot personally recommend repairing
wheels.

Our website will give you more information on the Nissan 350Z
investigation.

The web site for our recall database is:
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/
And you can search on this page:
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...fectsearch.cfm

The LA times article which you asked about is below. This is not any
official response but it gives an interesting summary of repairing
aluminum alloy wheels:
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan...os/hy-wheels31

Kind regards,
Michael Packard

 

"...cracks in wheels are the least of worries..."

 

this is nutz... I read every post in this thread twice... this is so ashame cause I LOVE LOVE LOVE the look of the skinny 5 spoke chrome wheel... but now If i get them used somewhere I have no way of determining if they are factory chrome or aftermarket chomr.. and also no way to know if they prone to crack, correct? or is there a way? .. thanks

 

hi guys
i replaced the wheels on my 2006 z today with some 19 inch wheels....when i inspected my STD 06 wheels (not chrome) off the car i noticed one of my front rims had 2 cracks on 2 separate spokes of the wheel...here is some pix not real clear but you can see what i am talking about...i will contact the dealer tomorrow as this wheel is in absolutely unmarked condition...only 32000 km old..i would recommend you have a good look at yours if you have these wheels fitted...

 

gee im gonna have mine checked

 

I took my 350z to the dealer where i purchased it ,I have a extended warrenty was told it did not cover wheels or tires. said I could buy a new set for $638 ea. I was own my way to buy a new set of wheels elsewhere when my right front wheel broke off. My car has $7500 worth of damage, just lucky I was only going 30mph. my wheel which fail looks just like the pic's, also my car was from calif. and the wheel are chromed.....

 

The cast alloy wheels for the 350Z are made in Thailand by TSW, this isnt their first wheel that fractured, they made the wheels for the Xterra's that were prone to crackign also.

http://www.automotix.net/autorepair/.../21740-recall/

 

damn this sucks

 

I say Nissan needs to step up and replace it for FREE. Shitty PRODUCT

 

yeah rite man nissan doesnt give a rats @ss about anybody... been dealing w them for 2 long. lemon law this crappy car.

 

Unfortunantly i think it will go as high up NHTSA/DOT before you will get a free wheels out of it if you are out of warranty. Whenever safety is concerned you bet your *** the NHTSA/DOT is getting involved to reasearch these problems.

 

I updated post #3 in this thread to include the link to the NHTSA file on the problem. The conclusion of their report was that the wheel design was not to blame, it was caused by aftermarket chroming of the wheels.

 

I agree with the fact that Nissan doesn't care. I kept a "journal" of my dealings with them trying to get my wheels replaced. I can post it if anyone wants to take the time to read it, afer I remove the names of the people involved at my local dealer of course.

 

True, but there are non chrome people cracking oem wheels starting to surface now too...