I'm a huge fan of HRE wheels and have put them on every nice car I've had since I was ale to afford them. This Mercedes is my 4th set, 2 of which I bought new and 2 I bought secondhand including this set.

These are M40 monoblok which should hold the weight of my 3950ish lb E55 sufficiently, and as some of you have given me a hard time over, I run a little thicker tire than others choose to, (35 series)so that I don't have issues bending wheels.

So the other night I was out putting miles on the car giving some use to the new Evosport rotors I just installed, and I hit a pothole fairly hard. I instantly freaked out and pulled over thinking I bent a wheel so I jacked up the front left corner and spun the wheel, perfect. No bend at all. However as I start driving I hear a clicking noise not unlike a big screw in the tire that increases in frequency with speed. S I pull over and jack up, spin again.. No screw. Perfect tire.

As I continue to drive I hear the clicking, and it's getting louder. Then I realize that my car is starting to pull to the left and see that the tire is low on air. So I air up at a 711 and I can hear air leaking, only to find out when I get home that the wheel has cracked in two places without being bent!

This was a first for me, having been around high end custom cars my whole life seen plenty of messed up wheels, but never one crack with no bend.

Are the 1 wheels more prone to crack instead of bend? This is my first set of monobloks, all the other HREs I've had were 3 piece.

 

So here's part 2.

I take the wheel to a very well known repair place here in Orlando. They have fixed wheels for plenty of my friends and shops in town, and they do all the dealership work. This guy tells me 60$ and come get it tomorrow. I tip him $20 to take care of the chrome face and cover it with blue tape so there are no scratches in view.

I go back today and the owner and one of his guys are messing with it, He's telling me that they're having a hell of a time with it that the wheel is rusting and he's chasing the weld all over. To my horror he's got a ****** chips ahoy size glob of weld all around where the crack used to be, says it won't stop leaking and he has to keep chasing it. He's trying to convince me that the wheel is bad, it's made of bad aluminum and that's why he's having trouble with it and I'm boiling because I know he just doesn't want to own up to a mistake.

I have to grit my teeth and take some deep breaths because I see the ****** Miller 200 MIG with a spool gun he's using to weld it with, and the wheel is warped in that area now where he's been heating the hell out of it. I personally can TIG very well, and had I known these clowns were welding my $1500 wheel with a damn spool gun MIG I would have fixed it myself, and just had them put it on their lathe to grind the bead area smooth.

Now I'm not sure what to do. He's got this huge glob of $h1t weld on my wheel, and going to smear silicone all over it to make it not leak. I don't want this piece of $h1t wheel anywhere near my car, but I can't even take my car off the lift at my buddies shop because the stock wheels won't fit over the 390mm brakes I just put on it, and we tossed the old rotors!!!

I get really pissy and moody over stuff like this, I have other cars and don't need this one.. I feel like putting the set of wheels on eBay for 1$ with no reserve and the same thing with the car.

Input? I'm sure this wheel will hold air when he's done with it but it's destroyed IMO, bit have little faith in getting anything from the shop or their insurance. I don't think they have any idea what that wheel costs.

 

Looks like that shop is filled with idiots... I've never seen anyone weld a wheel with the tire still mounted on it. I think the wheel is pretty much done at this point. Going after their insurance would not be an option at this point as that wheel was pretty far gone to begin with(this is most likely what the ins. Co. Would argue).

Have you contacted hre to see what they have to say? They might offer a discount on a replacement wheel and ask you to send that one in so they can inspect it and see why it cracked(although seeimg that weld effort I doubt there is anything left to look at).

Good luck and let us know if hre offers any assistance.

 

Terribly sorry to hear about this, but if you were serious about selling... I get dibs. Paypal ready.

 

Dude im a HRE nut like you but i cant understand why you would not send it to HRE to begin with to fix it.

I would also speculate a 3 pc barrell would have cracked just like the monoblock you have.
Ask Loungn14 or myself. We have both cracked a barrel. Ive come to the conclusion that 3pc wheels dont offer any advantage over a monoblock. You brake a barrel, it will still cost you over $500 to fix. You cant weld a barrel. A monoblock would be easier to repair but it might have to be replaced which would be more than the barrel itself. I dont know HREs policy on rims developing cracks.

Get a hold of Lon who is a vendor on this board and see what he can do for you.

 

Aren't you supposed to weld the inside and not the outside of the rim?

When I had a minor crack the Mexicans would put tar on it and it would last for 6 months.
Unfortunately, they don't do it anymore

 

damn sorry to hear what you are going through. i'd be hesitant putting it back on and driving with it.

 

Wow, who in their right mind does that and think it is alright.

Good luck getting it resolved.

Aaron

 

They did dismount the tire when welding it, they welded it both inside and out but kept getting air leaks( no doubt due to welding Forged aluminum with a MIG, though they do this all the time) and kept chasing the leaks with more weld.

I wouldn't dare bitc* to HRE about it because I 1. Bought this set secondhand, and 2. Had a third party fix them.

The cracks before were very fine, starting at the inner edge and going in towards the face of the wheel about an inch or two.

The reason I didn't send it back to HRE is because my car is on a li at my buddies shop and is stuck there until I get the wheel back, and this place does it in one day in town. Charge it to the game I guess, but the repair was SO minor compared to the train wrecks I've seems these guys fix before.

 

What you interested in, the wheels? The car? The Weistec I have on the way for it? ( JK if I get bitc*y and sell the car I'll just send that back)

 

To properly fix a crack one needs to drill a hole at the end to prevent further spreading, then weld it, grind, etc. That just appears to be excessive though. I have welded wheels in the past using my Lincoln and Miller is just as good if not better. Key here is skill, material, prep, etc. Cracked wheel will never look the same as new, but yes, to point, that is a lot of material on the one repair. Aluminum being very tricky for starters. Sorry your going through this.

 

You are correct. I've fixed cracks in wheels before with no problem back in the day, but never used a huge latche like these guys have to straighten them or sand the bead area perfect. Drill the apex of the crack , carve a V to fill with 4043 rod, and sand it smooth with roloc discs. These people fix lots of wheels, and we're bitc*ing about this one.. I wonder if it was just a noob working on it or if there was a real problem?

 

This.

 

I recently cracked a rim from two places going over a pothole and took them to a local Mechanic shop , he said I can take it to a local shop , that does welding but I was iffy about it so what he did was:

1. Took the tire off and put it on a machine that holds the rim
2. Stretched the crack minutely and then sanded it down with a sand gun
3. Put some sorta of material that upon contact with Aluminum solidifies (similar to what plumbers use to fix leak in this case it was for Aluminum) forgot the name
4. Let it dry , and then sand that down to a fine level
5. Put some black material on the whole rim before putting the tire on
6. Checked it and all well done.

Told me that he did the same thing with his buddy's BMW and it is still in tip top condition. I've done 3,500 miles on them and still running strong (knock on the wood). Also mine was stock AMG rim.

 

Yep. Hate it when my ***** is used to train a new guy.

 

It sucks that they could not do a better job fixing your rim, but the fact is the rim was destroyed when you brought it to them....Just get a new rim and call it a day.

FWIW - This is one of the reasons I think 18s with a larger side wall tire are better than 19s or 20s...

 

Ha! I was waiting for you to take your jab I know, I accept the blame for both the choice in wheels and for navigating the wheel into a hazard. But a 255/35/20 is practically a tractor trailer tire compared to what some of these guys run...

Damn, imagine what would have happened to this guy's wheels!
https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...1-e63-wow.html

I can't exactly just get a new wheel, it's gonna be at least a month, probably 2 to get another one in chrome. I've either gotta get another set of 19"+ wheels in the interim, or just park it for a while..

 

Sorry, it was not meant to be a jab at all....You know a lot about cars, so you know bending 20" rims is just going to happen from time to time...Nonetheless it sucks, but I would not think about selling a car due to a bent rim.

 

No worries, I'm as thick skinned as they come