Bad quality wheel from www.radical-z.com or www.eurowheelspro.com

I post earlier here earlier on why I was having steering wheels vibrations on the highway. It turns out the aftermarket wheel was the problem. The tire shop said it's the wheel, there's a hop to it. It's just unbelievable, I didn't hit anything, the wheel is perfect, you can not tell there's any bent or scatch on the wheel either you have to look at it when its spinning on the balance machine. All I did was jack up the car (both front tires) lower it, and it sat for a day or two then that's how the wheel changed shape. The force from jacking up/lowering is different than the force on the road. the force comes from the side more plus letting it sit for 2 days is not helping. They are real soft, I was complimenting on how light these wheels are too.

I got them from ebay which was shipped by radical-z.com and I did some research they also operate under the names PowerWheelsPro.com and also for BMW Wheels eurowheelspro.com. Ebay seller id: vrad713

My problem is right now I have no idea what I am going to do with these wheels, I bought the wheels back in March, mounted and balanced them in May, they still look brand new today, not a scratch on any of the wheels. I try contacting them to see if they have more stock of the wheels and they don't, I offer to buy another set as spare. Then I notice they have warranty on their wheels for 2 years and they say they stand behind their product. so I email them to see if they really do stand behind their product. Its obviously a structural problem with the wheel.


update:
I heard back from them today 9/6/2012, they said they only warranty the finish and guarantee for manufacturing defect and shipping damage. but isn't this a case of manufacturing defect? they must be thinking that i bent the wheel and asking for compensation. it's obvious that wheel is weaker than the others.

they also say that i been driving the wheels for 6 months, (nope just 2-3 months) so chances are that i don't have manufacturing defect. well i don't know about that.

The bottom line: Just because it looks nice and cheap doesn't me its worth it. now i am stuck with a set of wheels/tires in the boiler room.

link to my mysterious steering wheel vibration:
http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthr...010&highlight=
another guy with bad wheels from them:
http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20388

pictures of the out of round wheel, can you guys spot a bent anywhere?

Wheels and brakes are some of the things that shouldn't be generic. the performance and safety of these items are heavily dependent on strict quality control

ALSO i'm not a balancing expert, but by the looks of it, that appears to be a crappy balance. it looks as if though its balanced for aesthetics rather than properly. The wheel weights are hidden behind the spokes and placed on extreme ends. A proper machine has weights in random places at random depths.

Originally Posted by E46Mango

ALSO i'm not a balancing expert, but by the looks of it, that appears to be a crappy balance. it looks as if though its balanced for aesthetics rather than properly. The wheel weights are hidden behind the spokes and placed on extreme ends. A proper machine has weights in random places at random depths.

it only had like 2 weights at the begining and i went back to get it rebalance and they just moved the big weight on the edge on the rim a little bit. i still got the vibration so i went back again and they added more weights. they forgot to tell me there was a hop on the wheel at first and they show me the second time.

this was done at Kenwood Tire in West Bridgewater, MA. I did some research before I went to them. they have great feedbacks.

Lol that balance job is a JOKE. Take it to someone who knows what they're doing. Who uses bang on and stick on weights? And places them for aesthetic purposes? Wheel weights serve a purpose, no sense in trying to hide them.

They forgot to tell you that the wheel was bent? That's a pretty big "oopsies."

I'm surprised that your wheel got bent like that just from jacking up the car. That's crazy. Imagine if you hit a big pothole with them. I honestly think you have fairly unsafe wheels on your car. Return the other three, salvage what money you can get, and go obtain some OEM wheels (or quality replicas) from Modbargains.com.

Maybe you should try somewhere else to get them balanced?

Originally Posted by makecopies

Maybe you should try somewhere else to get them balanced?

Try somewhere else. See if they say the same thing. Just because a shop has a good rep doesn't mean you didn't get the new guy who ate glue as a kid on the day you went in.

When they spin the wheel on the machine you can SEE if it is out of round. The 18s on my MINI looked perfect but when one of them was spun....you could clearly see the defect....

there is a slight hop to it when she show me, i didn't think it was causing this much vibration. i also spun it at home with the wheels up in the air, it does seem like it. Not alot of hop but you can tell it's there. she said when you are going 50mph and up it will cause the vibrations. i can get another confirmation from another shop but i think it might be a waste.

The girl in the shop balance the tires for me. she's there the first time i had the tires mounted there. i think she know what she's doing, they had a youtube video of her balancing the tires too so i think she knows what she's doing.

Seemingly small imperfections in your wheel will cause large issues at high speed. Think about how fast your wheel is turning and the centripetal force being generated. That's why your wheel weights are so small. They don't look like they'd make a difference, but they certainly do.

F = MV^2/R

If you've got an 18" rim (0.2286 meters) with, a 10-gram wheel weight (0.01kg) and you're traveling at 70mph (31.29 m/s), then you're generating 42 newtons of force alone on that weight! That's about 9lbs of force from that teeny tiny little weight.

This is also why it is important to do high-speed balancing. Force increases with the square of velocity, so the smoothest ride and most accurate balance will be achieved with a high-speed balancer.

I mean, if the shop was doing it right... What do you expect when buying an aftermarket wheel from a non-reputable company off of Ebay? You can blame the company but really I'm sure the amount you spent on the wheels and tires would have been comparable to what you spent from a sponsor here, or a place where others have gotten their wheels and been happy.

Originally Posted by mbnz230

there is a slight hop to it when she show me, i didn't think it was causing this much vibration. i also spun it at home with the wheels up in the air, it does seem like it. Not alot of hop but you can tell it's there. she said when you are going 50mph and up it will cause the vibrations. i can get another confirmation from another shop but i think it might be a waste.

The girl in the shop balance the tires for me. she's there the first time i had the tires mounted there. i think she know what she's doing, they had a youtube video of her balancing the tires too so i think she knows what she's doing.

I can tell you right now she doesn't know what she's doing.

Originally Posted by E46Mango

I can tell you right now she doesn't know what she's doing.

Exactly what I tried to tell him.

Lol @ some the posts ITT.

eBay wheels, BS weights, youtube videos being proof of knowledge. Hahahaha.

those weights are a joke

I bet you can go to a different tire shop and get a different result. That girl does not know what she is doing!

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so how did this end because im considering a set.