3 out of 4 wheels have these small cracks (1-2 per wheel). As near as I can tell this looks like just a crack like in the sort of surface finish/I can't feel it with fingernail in the bolt hole itself - though that is of course painted black so yeah it could be under that, but I thought I'd see if anyone else has seen this, if it's indeed Bad or what.
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Factory wheel question (Austins) - cracks from bolt holes - not great, but how bad is this?
- Thread starter TimCv1
- Start date
GTI Jake
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Charlotte, NC
From a structural standpoint that’s gotta be in the “zero tolerance for defects” zone. If it’s cracked there I’ll bet the crack runs down the bore to the lug hole.
I’m guessing they were way over torqued with zero regard for proper torque sequence.
Anyway, good find. Scrap those, inspect the hubs.
"Bore to lug hole" yeah that's kind of what I'm feeling too. Bleah. I need to pull them and see what they look like from the back now that you say that...yeah....
Over-torqued etc - well it's within the realm of possibility I guess but it's always been Discount Tire or me doing the torquing. At DT they use torque wrenches, though I do suspect just for show - I have had them be pretty tight (I always undo and redo when I get home from there actually) - but not so much so I went "damn those are way too tight." Hmmm.
"I'm fuzzy on this whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, 'bad'?"
"Try to imagine your wheels coming apart at 60(+) MPH and all the pieces going different directions simultaneously at the speed of light."
GTI Jake
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Charlotte, NC
Sorry that’s just machinist speak for the lug nut hole.
If you can see that crack from the back side you just narrowly missed catastrophic failure. Over/improper torque is the only probable cause I can think of, since having three of them with manufacturing defects is almost impossible statistically.
Nice paraphrasing of one of my favorite movie lines.
Update: FWIW, the cracks are definitely not all the way thru to the back. Obviously it's hard to tell what they ARE doing under the black paint (need mag flux for that), but at least it's not SUPER BAD....
I will have car in shop for some stuff next week and see what they say on seeing them.
Update 2: They said they've not seen cracking here before and think it looks like surface scratches of some kind. I'm not totally convinced but I guess it would take mag flux to tell for sure... for now I will be monitoring as they don't seem to be actually growing but new wheels are hopefully the plan soon anyway....
I will have car in shop for some stuff next week and see what they say on seeing them.
Update 2: They said they've not seen cracking here before and think it looks like surface scratches of some kind. I'm not totally convinced but I guess it would take mag flux to tell for sure... for now I will be monitoring as they don't seem to be actually growing but new wheels are hopefully the plan soon anyway....
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