How long do you keep your rims/wheels?

[alberto_mg]

So, I was wondering how you guys keep your rims?
Do you automatically "retire" them after x amount of seasons?
Or do you just keep them till an incident forces you to change?

A newbie wants to know.

Thanks.

[iambhooper]

never thought of it? i'm using panasports, and the car has about 25 weekends on it... no telling how old the rims are, but they still look great.

i would imagine, that rims actually experience a low fatigue rate... unless you hit something or bend them.

hooper

[irondragon]

I don't know of any wheel manufacturer that will define the working life of a racing wheel. Too many variables.

Some wheels last forever. Don't reject a wheel just because of its age.
Others fail - sometimes for no obvious reason.
It's just not predictable - particularly with Mag/Al alloys which have dreadful fatigue characteristics.

So -
Inspect - Inspect!! Particularly after any wheel impact.
With wheels on the car, jack up, and spin the wheels to reveal anything out of true.
If a wheel is bent, then send it to the junk man. Very hard to straighten an alloy wheel and be sure that no parts of it have been stressed beyond the yield point. (Others may disagree - they can have my bent wheels).

Every time you have a wheel off the car -look for radial cracks around the stud holes. Look for any imperfections in the metal surface.
If you see something new that might be a crack, then do a dye penetration test.
Look in places where spokes get thin.
Look at tight corners where stresses will concentrate.

And if after all the vigilance, you get a wheel vibration while driving, get into the pit and check it out.

Best regards Bill Miskoe

[MMiskoe]

We had a set of Borbett (sp?) that cracked at the spokes after many hours of use. Sift around here, you may find a topic started by me on it. One was badly cracked, then soon after we found several more with smaller cracks. Out of 12 wheels I think 5 we junked.

Inspection is key. Clean them so you can see the surface, avoid dark colored finishes, they hid cracks too much.

I think there are too many different types of wheels to be able to put a finite lifespan on them. Some are tougher than others.

[alberto_mg]

I don't know of any wheel manufacturer that will define the working life of a racing wheel. Too many variables.

Some wheels last forever. Don't reject a wheel just because of its age.
Others fail - sometimes for no obvious reason.
It's just not predictable - particularly with Mag/Al alloys which have dreadful fatigue characteristics.

So -
Inspect - Inspect!! Particularly after any wheel impact.
With wheels on the car, jack up, and spin the wheels to reveal anything out of true.
If a wheel is bent, then send it to the junk man. Very hard to straighten an alloy wheel and be sure that no parts of it have been stressed beyond the yield point. (Others may disagree - they can have my bent wheels).

Every time you have a wheel off the car -look for radial cracks around the stud holes. Look for any imperfections in the metal surface.
If you see something new that might be a crack, then do a dye penetration test.
Look in places where spokes get thin.
Look at tight corners where stresses will concentrate.

And if after all the vigilance, you get a wheel vibration while driving, get into the pit and check it out.

Best regards Bill Miskoe

Thank you all.

Very insightful.

What is a "dye penetration test"?

Edit - Info on the test here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dye_penetrant_inspection

Where does one get the materials and how does one do this in the garage?

[RedMisted]

I use Ford Mustang Cobra wheels that are tough as nails. One of my sets is 8 years old and good as new. Now, some of the fancy flyweight aftermarket wheels? I'd assume there is a life span for these... Faster, $$$$, but not always durable...

[John Herman]

http://www.mcmaster.com/#crack-detectors/=59q6ne Scroll down the page a bit and you'll see the dye kit. We use McMaster-Carr for a lot of work stuff. I've order personal stuff through them myself and never had a problem with them. You may be able to find just the cleaner/dye/penetrant in individual containters at other production supply houses (or maybe just do a more thorough search in McMaster-Carr). One container of each would likely do all the wheels you'll ever want. You use it like you would a can of spray paint, pretty simple. Depending on how much you race/abuse the wheels, I'd recommend checking the wheels every couple of years.

[joeg]

They are not consummables, but you certainly need to pay attention to them!

My solution is to buy in quantity and keep cycling them so all get the same amount of use. On FWD, the fronts will need more cycling and inspections.

[PDoane]

The only thing I didn't hear above was CLEAN YOUR RIMS, regularly, so you see if any cracks have started.

[alberto_mg]

http://www.mcmaster.com/#crack-detectors/=59q6ne Scroll down the page a bit and you'll see the dye kit. We use McMaster-Carr for a lot of work stuff. I've order personal stuff through them myself and never had a problem with them. You may be able to find just the cleaner/dye/penetrant in individual containters at other production supply houses (or maybe just do a more thorough search in McMaster-Carr). One container of each would likely do all the wheels you'll ever want. You use it like you would a can of spray paint, pretty simple. Depending on how much you race/abuse the wheels, I'd recommend checking the wheels every couple of years.

Thanks very much for the education :026:

[mustanghammer]

One more reason, beyond all of the excellent ones that have already been given, is that "brake dust" has a lot of cast iron dust in it from the rotors. If you add water to this you'll have rust that is really hard to get off. This happened to my rain wheels and ever since then I clean my wheels after every track session. Just takes a second with a little Simple Green and some paper towels.

[jimbbski]

One more reason, beyond all of the excellent ones that have already been given, is that "brake dust" has a lot of cast iron dust in it from the rotors. If you add water to this you'll have rust that is really hard to get off. This happened to my rain wheels and ever since then I clean my wheels after every track session. Just takes a second with a little Simple Green and some paper towels.

I have done this as well. On my first race car I had white wheels and they looked like crap when dirty so after each race they got washed. Same with my 95 R wheels on my 93 Mustang. You can see if anything is wrong. I found problems earlier then I would have when I noticed something on one wheel not on the others. Clean wheels are also nicer to remove/install and to carry around when loading/unloading. And when it comes time to dismount/mount tires or balance them the tire tech will appreciate it as well.

[Matt93SE]

A bit late, but I'll share my $0.02 anyway...

I use takeoff tires, so I usually wind up going through 2-3 sets in a season. Every time I take the wheels to the shop to get tires mounted, I clean them up and check them over on the outside. Once the first set of tires are dismounted, I inspect the inside of the wheel while the tire guy is working on the next one. it takes the tire guy just a bit longer to run through the set since they have to mount/dismount each wheel an additional time, but if you're nice end explain what you're doing, they're always willing to help out.

Checking the inside of the wheels like that actually saved my butt last year. I had a 5Zigen wheel that cracked on the inside edge of the rim, but it wasn't visible during my regular driveway inspection due to the thick powdercoat on the shiny side of the wheel. I could only see it on the inside part while the tire was off.

FYI, those wheels were ~5 years old and haven't seen any major excitement, but they have spent a little bit of time sliding through the grass at the local tracks. Nothing out of the ordinary for wear and tear.