Heico Wheel Questions

Re: (imaqt823)


Wheel repair is a touchy subject, regardless of whether the wheel is forged or not.

The VOLUTION X.'s are load-rated up to XC90 and pass all TUV testing for that vehicle, which includes impact testing, vibration testing, and a bunch off different tests that measure how hard you have to hit the wheel/tire to break the bead and have the tire leak. Consequently, you should have a higher margin of safety than you might with some other wheels, but you can certainly bend them if you hit something deep/hard/fast enough.

Short answer is, if it's a very minor bend you may be able to get a wheel repair facility to repair the wheel.

Forged wheels can be repaired if they are multi-piece...one piece forged wheels are basically a throw-out if bent. Multi-piece wheels have the advantage of having a spun drum and lip (separate if 3 piece, one big piece if 2 piece). So, you can take a multi-piece wheel apart, replace the lip, and rebuild it.

Whether you can or not, this is not something we recommend from a safety perspective. Most wheel repair processes (not all) re-heat the wheel to get the bends out. If you have a major bend, you can get this back in-round using this process, but the whole area you just repaired will be extremely brittle. If you ever hit that part of the wheel again, the wheel could crack in that spot, causing a major failure. Lotus Cars, for example, issued a campaign covering this on the Esprits a few years ago for this reason..."no heating wheels over X degree" (I can't remember what the limit was, but it wasn't very high).

Rule of thumb: if you can see the bend with the naked eye...I'd think twice before repairing it. If the wheel has lost air, definitely do not attempt a repair. If you're getting a wobble on the balancing machine, but there's no obvious damage, it may be ok to have this wheel worked on.

Wheel repair tends to work well as a way to repair curb-rash and cosmetic damage, but rolling out bends is dicey (I know a zillion people do this every day and wheels are not flying off of cars in pieces, but this doesn't mean it's a good idea if it can be avoided).

"Can you repair a cast wheel"? Yes....there's nothing about the HEICO wheel that makes this any easier or any harder than any other wheel. "Should you"? Not if you can help it, in our opinion.

We offer a 40% crash replacement program with all of our wheels. If you purchase the wheels through an authorized agent and damage a wheel, we are authorized to sell you another one, two, ten wheels at a 40% discount. Part of the rationale is to add some value to your purchase, but part of it is our making an effort to keep damaged wheels off the street...we'd rather have our customers rolling on safe wheels.

Hope this answers your question.

Re: ([email protected] SPORTIV NA)

Here are a few shots of one of the 8 different types of machines used during TUV testing.

This may help address you're pothole question:

In this test the wheel and tire must hold air after having a weight dropped on the lip (the mass of which varies, based on the car being tested...on XC90 they test with a 1000kg weight, I'm told...so VOLUTION X's would all pass this test). This test simulates contact with the wheel at about 20mph.

Again, I'm not suggesting you can't bend the wheel (this test certainly does), but it does speak to how strong they are.