Hi everyone,

I'd like to hear from 3pcs wheels owners experience... how are your wheels treating you? Any problems (reliability issue)?

From my personal experience, I didn't have very good luck with 3 pcs wheels. I find them to be very high maintenance & mostly for show.

I used to have 3pcs OZ Mito Modular on my Stealth TT, and they started to leak from the silicone between the inner & outer lips.

Same thing happened to my IForged Aero on my Lexus IS300... and now today, 1 of my SV1 forged started pissing air from the rivets (coming from the same silicone beads inside the wheels where the outer & inner meets).

Is it just my luck or is this a common problem? Keep in mind I barely drive my car... I only have 4500km after a year, and probably less than 3000 km on the new rims.

I've had Maya, Work, RacingHart and Bose multipiece forged wheels. None of them had a leaking issue. They all had finish peeling issues eventually.
The 3 piece wheels I have now, MC3 wheels have a great finish but had leak issues only when I changed tires.

I really want to find a 1 piece forged with a lip but no one makes them. HRE did but discontinued them.
Problem is 1 piece does not match the look of a multipiece wheel.
I complain but in my heart, I love the look.

3 piece wheels are very high maintenance and are for show. My back complains everytime I have to clean every single bolt on my 3 piece HRE's. I went with 3 piece over 1 piece is due to the fear of cracking the wheel in a huge pothole. With 3 piece, I can just purchase a new inner or outer barrel.

platinum, I totally agree with you... you think I should have learned from my previous 2 set of wheels, but I just love the look of 3pcs wheels.

Jeff, my OZ was strong as hell, but with all the leaking issues I've been having... I'm starting to think all 3pcs wheels are "all show no go".

Anyone knows what type of silicone is needed to reseal the inner & outer barrels?

I'll let you know in a year. Haha. So far, so good. Knock on wood.

Roswell are you going to take them apart and reseal them yourself? Probably not an impossible job but best you find out the exact procedure or I think you may get yourself into more trouble than it is worth. I don't think you can reseal them without a total rebuild.

The leaking problem may be worsened by rough roads. I have never owner 3 piece wheels and from the sounds of this I probably never will. Looks be darned...LOL

Shawn, u got ur wheels powdercoated.. So they must have took the wheels apart... And reseal them?

Mort, my previous 2 set of wheels, the tire shop just applied some kind of black silicone over the original.. And it fixed the problem. I'm not doing it myself, but was just curious to know what is the exact silicone for wheels? What a pain.. You would think high end wheels would be built stronger than this. I used to own Konig, Axis & TSW w/o problems.

Never had any problems with any of my 3pc wheels.

As for cleaning the rivets, you guys need to get yourself a wheel brush.



And some of this magical stuff..

i love the look of a 3-piece wheel and i don't see how they are just for show

as far as resealing goes , you could get a 3rd grader to do it . i recommend a slow drying silicone . apply a bead of silicone in between the barrels and then take a rubber squeegee and flatten out the top of the bead to make sure it fills in properly . the slow drying will fill in the gap a lot better . i have taken apart almost every set of wheels i have ever owned , because i always change my mind about colors , and i have never had any leaking issues .

I think they were originally developed for racing, so not just for show. For racing people sometimes don't mind or just live with doing the extra maintenance required.

Nice to hear they are relatively easy to reseal. Pretty much in the dark about 3 piece wheels myself and **** enough to think they would need a complete rebuild. Livin and learnin....LOL

i learned the hard way with my first set . i powdercoated the lip after taking them apart . when i put the wheel back together and mounted the tire , it wasn't holding air because the heat from the oven melted the old seal . this was my first lesson on taking apart 3-piece wheels . the second lesson was the proper torque for the bolts that hold the face to the barrel , which is 25 ft/lbs.

Its good to learn all the information above as my wheels are coming and they are 3 pcs too! and rosewell, I hope you can get the problem fixed but not causing u too much troubles.

Jacky, thx for the cheers.. I know it's a easy fix, but just time consuming.What wheels are u getting ?

Bad430, thx for the great advice.. It's nice to know it takes 25lbs of torque on the center bolts.

I could do reseal them myself, but the problem is this process is try & error thing. I don't have a tire shop who can mount & dismount my tires for free if the first few attempts failed. So it makes more sense & save me time to let the repair wheel shop seal & test until it's 100% air tight. They told me it should cost from 50$ to 125$ max.

Hey Walter, thx for the cleaning tip.. Soapy water was doing the trick for me w/ a wax once in a while.

I've been told by professionals you can't re-seal without taking them apart. I don't totally believe it but usually, I defer to those with expertise. I don't stress over it since the shop I use charges only $50 to do it.

Yeah, I was quoted 50$ if they seal it right the first time, more $$ if they have to try several times.

It's not necessary to dismantle the whole wheel to seal it.. I've done it on my OZ & Iforged by just cleaning the old silicone & apply new one.

My 3 peice wheels have never leaked. 50k, plus a couple track days. I'm running MHT, which is kind of surprising for how much I got badmouthed by the traditional HRE, Advan, Iforged guys when I originally posted my wheels.

Yup, and the shop I went to have done countless wheels for every make and model. As long as they were taken apart and put together correctly, there should be no leakage. And yes, the torque spec of the rivets are important.

Muskoka, I agree with you about the brand of the wheels have nothing to do with built quality. I've read many high end brand going bad. It's all about our driving habit i guess... but in my case, I only drive my car on Sunday with less than 3000km on these wheels... not acceptable in my opinion.

Shawn, my wheel repair shop told me they can take the wheel apart & powdercoat the centers & lips any color... it's tempting in the near future... any suggestion on a color combo that might look good on my white car?

i find the sonax stuff not really necessary unless you've neglected your wheels and let the brake dust pile on. But when you need it, it IS magical stuff

If they are heavier then stock then they are "for show", lighter then "for go".

The AMG/OZ Aero I three piece are now about thirty years old with available rim widths from 7.5" - 12".
Never a problem with leakage over the many years as long as they were properly sealed during intital assembly.

I use it more for my calipers, and inside barrels. It does a great job getting into all the nooks, and crannies.

I wash my wheels, and car probably 3-4 times a week.

I have HRE 560r 19's. The bolts are hidden in the back of the face so they are easy to clean! I also painted the inside of the barrel flat black to hide brake dust. Wheels are gloss black centers with polished lip.

Great idea Walter, I've been looking for a product to wash my inner barrel for the longest time... it gets nasty back there.