Aftermarket Wheel Strength

Yaemish · 04-09-07, 01:27

I bought some cheaper aftermarket wheels and in 2 seasons, 3 of them are bent. I need to replace all of them and was thinking about going after market again. I don't want to have the same problem so I was wondering if some of you in the forums could help.

Are universal wheels weaker?

Has anyone bought Brazen, Avenue Custom, or Alba after market rims? Are they strong?

Should I just go OEM and buy the wheels directly from Cadillac?

Accumulator · 04-09-07, 01:39

I'm not familiar with the brands you listed, but some aftermarket wheels are *better* than OE ones (and some OEM wheels are made by aftermarket wheelmakers anyhow). For some reason I'm inclined to say "go Cadillac" in this case though; AFAIK GM still makes their own wheels for Cadillacs and at least you'd know they're made to work OK for the application.

BigJimZ28 · 04-09-07, 01:52

did you have low profile tires?

BlackElantraGT · 04-09-07, 01:57

I'm gonna take a stab at this:

You mentioned some wheel companies that I'm not familiar with and Cadillac, so I'm guessing these wheels that were bent are for SUVs in the 20" and larger sizes, am I correct?

If that's the case, I'm not surprised that you've bent 3 of them because most of these large SUVs I see on the road with big wheels have wheels that are way too big, which of course means that the tires become lower and lower in profile. Heavy SUV + rubberband tires = bent rims.

My suggestion would be to get a smaller size wheel so you have tires that can provide enough protection or look into forged wheels, although I'm not familiar with companies that produce bling bling wheels so I couldn't give you any recommendations.

Yaemish · 04-09-07, 04:16

They are actually 18" on a STS so its not a truck application. The car weighs about 4600 lbs and the tires I had were a 50 series so they aren't terribly thin.

I live in Upstate NY, but only ran the 18"s in the summer and managed to avoid most potholes. Still, I had some rubber on them.

sentra_99 · 04-09-07, 07:47

I have some ICW Racing Kobe's on my car (15x7) with some 195/50R15 on them to keep the profile about the same so the speedo doesn't differ much. I haven't noticed any bending of my wheels so far, so I assume that they are doing fine. My car has a curb weight of only 2379 pounds though.

ZoranC · 04-09-07, 09:35

I am not familiar with brands you are talking about so my advice will be generic: Inform yourself on technology wheels are made with (forged vs. cast, etc) and find out what is used to make model you look at.

Accumulator · 04-10-07, 10:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yaemish

They are actually 18" on a STS so its not a truck application. The car weighs about 4600 lbs and the tires I had were a 50 series so they aren't terribly thin.

I live in Upstate NY, but only ran the 18"s in the summer and managed to avoid most potholes. Still, I had some rubber on them.

Back before they *finally* started fixing the streets in our area, my wife and I bent rims running 50-series tires all the time...factory, aftermarket, it didn't matter. Sooner or later we'd hit a pothole and that was that. Makes me uncomfortable, even today, with really low-profile tires for daily drivers.

IMO it's gonna boil down to the condition of your roads. But 50s aren't goofy-extreme even for a good sized sedan, I'd think you'd be OK with quality wheels unless your roads are as bad as ours used to be.

Setec Astronomy · 04-10-07, 10:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Accumulator

AFAIK GM still makes their own wheels for Cadillacs....

Funny, my mother has a 2005 Buick LaCrosse, and I talked her into the Chrometech option. I researched and found the company on the web ChromeTech , read through their rigorous prep, called them to verify they are the ones that do the GM wheels. Sounded like they just take the regular painted wheels and chrome them. When she got the car, something never looked right about the lips, there was a joint there that I could never figure out.

I was rotating the tires and I found out why--the chrome part is some sort of cladding that's pressed in at the lip and wrapped around the spokes...of the "Made in China" wheel, on her "Made in Canada" GM car.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, and back on-topic for the OP, if you want the Caddy wheels there are tons of take-offs on ebay. There are also places that sell reconditioned wheels. The Cadillac website doesn't show any STS's that weigh 4600 lbs., but some of the configurations have staggered tire sizes, don't know if the wheels are also.