Questions about cracked wheel

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dogememe

Joined
Apr 15, 2017
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6,489
Location
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Wondering why we kept having to add air and couldn't find anything in the tire. We looked more carefully and found a crack in the wheel. Trying to understand why this happened if we didn't notice hitting anything or unusually large pothole. Although it's been raining so it's hard to see them so IDK.

It's a 2025 Equinox EV RS with a 21" wheel and it's over $730 for a new wheel! Also I see the wheel has a $50 core charge... will a cracked wheel qualify as a core? The tire looks OK thankfully...

Is there anything else we can do besides having the wheel replaced? I found a provider on Yelp that is offering to fix it for $150 but they're a three hour drive away and I'm a little hesitant despite their good reviews that this is a good option long term? Thanks!

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2025? no warranty available?

I don't see a crack... you sure it's not just a bead leak? how that would "suddenly" happen I'm not sure, other than perhaps a bad tire? Can you rotate the tire and get a better pic of the leak?

This is why I prefer steelies...
 
It does look like a bead leak however wheels do crack. The C7 Chevrolet Corvettes (Grand Sports and Z-06"s) have had thousands of problems with their wheels cracking. GM didn't cover most of them under warranty either. Hopefully it's a bead leak in your case and if not you are better off buying one from a salvage yard and making sure it's straight and doesn't leak. Hopefully your warranty will cover it.
 
I don't see a crack either, just bead area leakage. Unless the bead area is cracked, which could be a defective wheel or overpressure.
No, looking at the pic again, it's just a bad seal at the bead, possible tire damaged during installation.
 
Have the wheel removed from rim and inspect, then you'll know what is the real problem. I expect that cleaning the rim and using some rubber sealant at this area will stop it leaking even if there is a small crack on the rim. To assume the worst right now is too negative IMHO
 
I think your only choice is to replace it. I would be surprised if you could claim a warranty issue because it likely will be labeled as a road hazzard victim.
Yes, it should be good for a core because of its scrap value and likely will be melted down.
 
The tire doesn't look bad in the photo, but if a pothole was hit hard enough to crack the wheel, you may have unseen damage to the tire too. I'd get the spare on and get this wheel/tire to the tire store for a closer inspection.
 
Yeah, get the tire off the wheel for a more thorough inspection. Could be just a bead leak, but let me tell of my sole experience with a wheel long ago. Alloy Spencer wheel that turned out to be a porosity in the metal itself. There were no cracks.
 
crashz said:
The tire doesn't look bad in the photo, but if a pothole was hit hard enough to crack the wheel, you may have unseen damage to the tire too. I'd get the spare on and get this wheel/tire to the tire store for a closer inspection.
Click to expand...
There is no spare… we are adding air every time we drive the car. The 21” wheels are also impossible to find used so far, I have tried multiple sources. Very frustrating :(

And yes I’m also worried about the tire being damaged internally but if it’s not doesn’t that kinda make it more likely there was a defect in the wheel that waited 20k to manifest vs a pothole?
 
dogememe said:
There is no spare… we are adding air every time we drive the car. The 21” wheels are also impossible to find used so far, I have tried multiple sources. Very frustrating :(

And yes I’m also worried about the tire being damaged internally but if it’s not doesn’t that kinda make it more likely there was a defect in the wheel that waited 20k to manifest vs a pothole?
Click to expand...
I'd look for a standard steel wheel to keep as a spare. Size doesn't matter as long as the rolling circumference is the same. So the smaller wheel diameter would be offset by a larger tire. You may need to do some research to figure out what wheel and tire combo will equal the same rolling circumference (or radius, I can't remember the term). Point is that you want the spare to equal the same as your existing combo.

Your logic makes sense about the damage, but it may not be provable to the dealer.
 
When I had my Mercedes I actually bought the tire/rim insurance and it was the first time I ever made out on an insurance product as low pro tires/soft rims/Chicago potholes. Think I got 2-3 rims and 1-2 tires over the years free which was good as each rim was 1k and each tire 300+. You need like a specialized tire shop that does repairs, powder coating etc... to see if they can fix it. If they can't fix it then it's either try to find a used replacement or a new aftermarket wheel. Most of the time it's cheaper to buy aftermarket over stock. Lot of places around me that do powder coating and that fix wheels but this wheel could be past repair stage not sure as usually they are making face surface scratches go away where you look like serious crack so not sure how much they can do or how much their liability insurance allows them to do. I just put 4 new 19" rims and tires on from discount tire and the rim portion was $234/each for nice ones obviously cheaper stuff available, just mentioning that since ya quoting $730 for 1 stock one. A lot of times ya can find someone that puts aftermarket wheels on and then sells their originals. Ebay probably has a few solo rims listed.
 
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