Mercedes-Benz collaborated with General Motors’ Holden division in Australia to demonstrate the safety hazards of using a non-genuine, non-OEM wheel.

Read the rest on the MBWorld homepage. >>

 

Great info and all for those that don't realize these things BUT, where they say they ran the same test again hitting the pothole at the spoke, rather than in between, clearly shows the same exact footage.

 

Nth Degree shared this with me the other day, and I cannot agree enough. Buying EuroSport MB-8 wheels picture in my signature, which were AMG replicas, was possibly the worst decision I've made for my car so far. I am now on some TSW Mugellos (which have been very strong) for winter and looking for a new summer set of wheels because of how bad these wheels have been. If you're looking to run 19s or 20s with very low profile tires and the roads where you live are "average" or worse, budget for replacement wheels if you can even get them.

Even trying to avoid potholes, all 4 EuroSport wheels ended up getting bent (not dented, just oblong instead of round) just from divots in the road and normal wear and tear on these pretty bad Colorado roads. IMMEDIATELY after I got very stiff side walled tires (Bridgestone Potenza RE760s), I hit a larger than normal expansion joint in the road and the wheel cracked on the inner lip. I got the wheel professionally repaired already knowing this was a ticking time bomb and looking for winter wheels to buy. A few days after, 120 degrees around the inside of the wheel from the repair site, another crack began to form. Again, I didn't hit any potholes or anything out of the ordinary. This was a result of the wheels being too brittle and the aluminum casting not dense enough.

These were about $800 wheels... my advice, always go with a major company like TSW, VMR, Niche or on the higher end Vorsteiner, HRE, ADV.1 (though they're known for shoddy workmanship too), or stay OEM. Spend at least $1,000 if you're going for 18s and its from a reputable company. The problem is many of these cheap wheels are gravity cast, the cheapest kind of casting. Most decent cast wheels and OEMs are usually low pressure cast, making the wheel stronger and denser.

If you can afford it and plan to go aftermarket, try to go rotary forged/flow formed. Or, if you have a deep wallet like a lot of the guys on here that have a passion for cars and understanding wives, go with a fully forged wheel. Any eBay wheels you see that look nice are probably absolute crap and brittle as hell, and then you'll be in the same position I was in where one of my wheels was basically collapsing in on itself. I honestly didn't know when I was 16 and had just bought this car and needed new wheels. Luckily I had the time/funds/foresight to change these wheels out a few days after the failure appeared.

 

I bent two so called forged wheels in a year..... However I have also bent 3 "fake" wheels (Niche) in a year as well. Oh yeah I also bent 2 OEM wheels in 6 months......

Granted all the above were over a period of 10+ years so take it as you may

 

Bending is typical of forged wheels if you hit something hard enough, cracking is what should concern you. Not sure if Niche is considered a "fake" wheel or not, although I have heard of bending issues with them quite a bit.

My original set of OEMs were bent by the previous owner, my fake Eurosports 3 were bent and one was cracked, and these TSWs have been good so far...