OE Wheels

[The_Bishop]

Well, after chasing my ass for a long time with an off balance wheel feeling on my car, I have finally narrowed it down to one of the OEWheels C6 Replica wheels in Hyper Black on my car. It had about .036" runout.

Good news is that OE Wheels is going to cover it under warranty. Bad news is that they don't make that wheel anymore; and the only replacement they have is a returned wheel that has "a very tiny blemish that you won't notice once the tires are mounted" according to the rep that is handling the return. I'm waiting for it to come in, and in the mean time I only have 3 wheels on my car. :sad:

[sweetbmxrider]

You think that's bad? You should try changing a thermostat on an exploder!

[LTb1ow]

Drive on three wheels, I do not see the issue here?

[The_Bishop]

Sweet - Bahaha. Yeah, thanks.

LTb1ow - I would but it's rough on the brake rotor.

[LTb1ow]

Hmn, well you know you could run on all four brake rotors for even wear patterns.



:lol:
Did you ask for pics of this blemish you won't see?

[The_Bishop]

Nope. A slight blemish is better than a crooked wheel. Besides, if I don't like it they'll work out a deal in regards to swapping the rear wheels out for 18's... But then I'd need tires.

[LTb1ow]

Nope. A slight blemish is better than a crooked wheel. Besides, if I don't like it they'll work out a deal in regards to swapping the rear wheels out for 18's... But then I'd need tires.

18s means baller though.

[The_Bishop]

Yeah... Baller. Probably the *last* word anyone would use to describe me. :laugh:

[transmaro93]

i had a slightly bent oe wheel on my car once but i never felt so to just left it... must be a problem with them... but cheap wheels.. what you expect i guess... good luck hope new wheel is decent for ya

[MyFirstZ]

No chance on getting the bend fixed ?

I couldn't tell you how many wheels we get fixed at BMW. We have a guy come Almost every day and sadly our wheels are anything but cheap, just soft with a mix of an unforgiving runflat tire. Generally a stock wheel starts at 350$ for a 16" think an alpina b7 wheel was 1000-1250$ ea.

If you wanted we coukd road force and measure rim runout with the balancer I have at work. It's incredible what that machine can do to minimize a vibration from a bent wheel, shifted belt or just unbalanced tire. Will almost pin point the issue and spot

If you get it back and still feel it and want to go over all the wheels and tires thoroughly let me know

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

Yeah... Baller. Probably the *last* word anyone would use to describe me. :laugh:

:mrgreen:

[The_Bishop]

MyFirstZ, thanks. I'll keep that in mind.

The wheel isn't bent, it's actually machined .036 off center. As a result, has a .072" hop up and down. What pisses me off is that I bought them with tires, balanced and 'ready to go'. How the hell the tech that mounted and balanced them didn't spot it is beyond me.

[MyFirstZ]

Oh I understand now, never saw/heard anything like that before a

[NJ Torque]

At least theyre making right...

[The_Bishop]

Provided that the slight blemish isn't a huge gouge or curb rash, yeah they are.

[The_Bishop]

Well, looks like I was right on the first count. The 'slight blemish' is actually a good sized gouge and bent lip on the back of the wheel. They had to ship it like that, too, as the box didn't have exterior damage that would have corresponded with the damage to the wheel. I am less than happy right now. I sent an email with pics of the damage and the unboxing to the OE rep, no reply yet. I'll be calling in the morning.

[Jersey Mike]

Post a picture here ;)

[sweetbmxrider]

Slight blemish they said. Won't notice with tire mounted they said.

[LTb1ow]

Slight blemish they said. Won't notice with tire mounted they said.

Obviously you mount em with the blemish facing in, duh

[The_Bishop]

Yeah, I won't notice it right until I drive the damned thing:

http://home.comcast.net/~The_Bishop/camaro/box8.jpg

[LTb1ow]

Yea, ship that back and yell/scream till you get money, a new wheel, or hell, shoot for a new set of C6 ZR1 rims :drool:

[MyFirstZ]

That actually shouldn't be noticeable. Most bend are only felt when it is bent where the bead is actually seated.

But still not acceptable for a new wheel for a replacement that was there fault.

[The_Bishop]

Where that gouge is, the lip is bent inwards roughly 1/4 of an inch. I wouldn't trust the bead seating correctly there at all.

[sweetbmxrider]

I would not rock that :|

[The_Bishop]

Man, **** OE WHEELS. Called them today, talked to the rep I dealt with. His response? "Yeah, I saw your e-mail yesterday with the pics. I was trying to track down another, but we're all out of them. Nothing we can do." So I mentioned that I was in the market for wheels then, as 3 does nothing for me. I got a 'good luck with that' out of them. The fact that they have 'lifetime on the structure' really means they have a lifetime on the structure only as long as they make the wheel.

[The_Bishop]

Here's what I'll be posting on LS1 Tech. If I cost them even one sale it'll be worth it.

-=-=-

I'm less than happy with my dealings in regards to OE wheels. I ordered a set of C06 17x9.5 in hyper black with Nexen tires, mounted and balanced. The wheels looked great, but I always had a wheel hop/out of balance issue. Took the wheels to be rebalanced, only to discover that one of the wheels was machined crooked.

I contacted Scott at OE wheels, who asked me to have the wheel checked on a hunter machine to do a bare wheel runout. I had that done, which cost me out of pocket. The wheel had .036 runout, which was causing a very visible up and down 'hop' when the wheel was spun bare on the balancer.

I returned the info to Scott, who told me that the wheel/finish I ordered was discontinued and they only had one in stock that had "a small blemish." Now, keep in mind that when they sold me the wheels I was not informed that I was receiving a discontinued item

Here's the unboxing of what they sent:

http://home.comcast.net/~The_Bishop/camaro/box1.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~The_Bishop/camaro/box2.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~The_Bishop/camaro/box3.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~The_Bishop/camaro/box4.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~The_Bishop/camaro/box5.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~The_Bishop/camaro/box6.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~The_Bishop/camaro/box7.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~The_Bishop/camaro/box8.jpg

Upon contacting Scott in regards to the condition of the wheel, I was more or less told, "Hey; that's too bad. Well, good luck!"

I'm now stuck with 3 straight wheels, one crooked wheel, and one with a gouge on the backside that makes it unsafe to use.

My advice? Run far, far away from OE wheels. The junk is all made in china, and their 'warranty' is only good if they still make the wheels. I'm now stuck with a car on jackstands and no wheels, and you can bet your ass I won't be giving any more of my money to OE wheels.

[WayFast84]

Post this on tech. They have a huge market on there and will end up making it right.

[The_Bishop]

Already done. I just hate having my car stuck on jackstands, and I'm looking to correct this soon.

[WayFast84]

I saw the thread and posted in it. I actually was gonna buy some wheels from them soon. Someone's gotta have some stock wheel's they'd let you borrow.

[The_Bishop]

I'm just looking to get my car back on the road.

[MyFirstZ]

Maybe its just the angle I see it then.

[The_Bishop]

Here's a better view:

http://home.comcast.net/~The_Bishop/camaro/box9.jpg

It's bent enough that there seems to be a very faint distortion in the bead area.

[MyFirstZ]

Yeah that's a different story. Didn't seem that bad

[B4C]

I wonder if a wheel shop could fix it? Send the bill to the place you bought them from?

[The_Bishop]

I sent pics to a wheel repair place, waiting on a quote.

[greenformula92]

Thats a little more than a blemish. That guy is either blind or he was just looking to get rid of you

[The_Bishop]

Well, long story told short, I'm getting a new set of wheels very cheap. It took a little public prodding, but they stepped up and made things right.

[Jersey Mike]

Well, long story told short, I'm getting a new set of wheels very cheap. It took a little public prodding, but they stepped up and made things right.

Not seeing a thread over there. Link?

[The_Bishop]

Part of the 'agreement' was that I pull my negative experience review.

[Jersey Mike]

I figured as much, but was hoping some traces still remained. I was curious to see what the peanut gallery had to say, and if OE tried defending their moves at all publicly.

[greenformula92]

well at least they are doing right

[The_Bishop]

Mike: On the phone the rep said, "We'll have to viciously defend our reputation." I asked him if he really thought that would solve anything, as online pissing matches invariably ended up damaging both parties, and I really didn't have much to lose. I also reminded him that I could back up everything I had posted with pictures and facts.

Things calmed down a bunch not too long after that.

Yes, they are making right. But I don't think it should come to this sort of thing, and they need to remove/modify that 'lifetime warranty on the structure of the wheel' paragraph on the web page, because if they don't make the wheel any more (And they do discontinue/change styles rather frequently) that you'll probably be SOOL.

[Jersey Mike]

Mike: On the phone the rep said, "We'll have to viciously defend our reputation." I asked him if he really thought that would solve anything, as online pissing matches invariably ended up damaging both parties, and I really didn't have much to lose. I also reminded him that I could back up everything I had posted with pictures and facts.

Things calmed down a bunch not too long after that.


That's pathetic.