For your safety, as well as others on the road, DO NOT buy cheap wheels!

This happened to a buddy of mine as he was in the parking lot of his work. They are 22" Estrella brand wheels. They're not my cup of tea, but that's what he liked, and he definitely didn't think they were a cheap brand when he bought them last year considering he paid $3000 installed.

He called me up kind of shook up saying his wheel "broke off". I didn't really know what he meant, I thought maybe the studs snapped off or something. I told him I'd be right there with a jack and tools. This is what I saw:





Never really seen anything like that before. He also said the barrel of the wheel took off and ended up across the street. Thankfully nobody was driving or walking by at the time, imagine the damage a runaway 22" wheel could do...

He got the estimate from the dealership to fix everything (Fender, some body work on the passenger side where the wheel scraped after it bounced off, control arm, rotor, headliner, airbag etc.) and it was $5600.

This is what it looked like:



Pretty crazy, eh?

 

So he was just driving along and it snapped off like that???

I wonder if the fact it's a 22" wheel it's more prone to breaking than say an 18" or 19" wheel?

 

That was the parking lot of his work, he was coming around a corner (it's a tight parking lot) and he said it felt like the whole truck fell to the ground. He also said he had NO brakes as the ABS was prevent him from stopping. He had to crank the emergency brake to get it stopped.

 

Wow, that is crazy! He contact the wheel company yet?

 

Damn dude that's crazy. Yeah cheap rims are crap, I've seen some dude buy like some racing rims and the brand wasn't the greatest. After a day of circuit racing and what not the rims were sooo bent it was crazy.

 

I'll be the punk and say it.





Glad that no one was hurt.

 

I'm not sure what's going to happen with who's covering the damages, but I told him be very thankful he wasn't on the highway when this happened...

 

and I smell lawsuit!

 

That what happens when you buy a Ridgeline..... jk

 

holy mother...

 

Whoa....scary stuff.



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Chrome wheels FTL! glad he's ok.

 

Danggg......

 

that happened to one of my wheels before too...but i was in a 4000 pound caddy going sideways at about 60km/h finally hitting a curb with my wheel

 

22's on trucks make baby Jesus cry.

 

That will buff right out..

jokes aside, good to hear no one was hurt..

 

No one was hurt, and the only real damage is the truck. So I hope the wheel company sees this and is good about the situation. Unless that wheel was not meant for a truck (but at that size, what else would it fit?).

 

i feel like somethings missing here.. even the cheapest of wheels have to pass safety standards... wheels that break like that are usually under some kind of unusual circumstance... ie: striking something. under extreme pressure...

just thinking out loud though.

 

Why did he put those hideous rims on the car in the first place????

 

with a rim like that with its stress points, i am not surprised.

the tensil strength must have been too low or too high, maybe that was a monday or friday rim.

 

Show us picks of the rest of the rim.
How the hell did the side airbags inflate?
I'm thinking he's not telling you the entire story.
How fast was he going around that corner?

Maybe he was trying to drift around a corner?

 

whoa. are you sure he didn't slam a curb?

 

x2

this is what i was thinking... wheels dont break on all spokes clean like that unless they are under stress...

somethings fishy about the friends story...

 

No curb contact; I wish I would have taken more pictures. You can see the scrape mark from the rotor, it was no where near any curbs when it came off. There aren't any curbs within the parking lot either. The scrape mark followed the exact path you'd take if you were leaving normally.

I didn't take any pictures of the rest of the wheel, but I'll ask him to send me some. He had his digital camera there and was taking pictures of everything.

And don't ask me why he put those wheels on, I never liked them but never said anything about it because it's his money and his truck

 

probably just a shitty casting. Tell your friend to get some taste though. "Street" SUV's are weak sauce.

 

Wow, glad nobody got hurt.

 

Probably from that corner of the truck slamming to the ground. I'm sure the rotor/control arm hit the ground HARD.

 

Here's a few more pictures:

 

I don't know whether to feel mad or laugh, but I do feel bad for him. Either way, at least it didn't happen when he was on the freeway or something

Is he gonna call the company and tell get a replacement or refund?

Lot's of crying baby jebuses around here...

 

Sue, SUE! I am sure that his back hurts now.

 

That is just awful. If he was just in a parking lot minding his own business when this happened, he has a claim he can present to the wheel maker for damages.

 

Well, he sure had to pay a lot for those cheap wheels in the end. Glad to hear your friend's not hurt though.

 

I believe the Ridgeline has a rollover sensor which will deploy the side curtains if it senses a rollover is about to happen. I would imagine when a 22" rim goes missing in the blink of an eye and the corner of the car drops like that that you may trigger the rollover sensor.

Just speculation though. Like I said, I believe the Ridgeline has it, I know the MDX/RDX/ZDX/Pilot do.

 

I'm going to forward this to my buddy who wants to get some cheap knock-offs for his BMW. Scary stuff.

 

 

Honestly given their proven quality, unless they were going to refund my money for the other 3 I sure wouldn't want another 1. I wouldn't touch those with a 10ft pole. If they wouldnt reimburse the entire amount i'd get a new one and sell them on craigslist to get them off my car.

 

looks like in this pic the part of the rim that holds the bead of the tire has also cracked

 

yea, i didn't want to say it but those are terrible. Still no reason for them to break like that tho. Is he riding with three 22s and a stock rim now? I hope he removed them all but...

 

That's strange it just gave up the ghost like that. I've seen photos of other cheap wheels, namely Rota, break in that manner. Usually it's under high load situations like auto-x or road racing.

 

Airbag came out and control arm is screwed. No way he's driving it like that.

When I got there I jacked it up and took off what was left of the wheel and put a stock one back on. That way it was easier to load onto the tow truck.

...and yes, he's now going back to the stock wheels, for good...