Had Hankook Evo V12 installed at the local tire barn. The rides sounds much quiter than the previous Kumho Ecsta. Whlle waiting for the guys to wrap up, get the dreaded "sir we need to talk to you."
At some point one of the front rims was cracked. The crack is on the inside of the rim starting at the lip and going into the flat part of the rim, it was aproximately 1/4 of an inch. They have a local contact that is a pretty skilled welder so I am hoping that will do the trick.

Installed a HID Gate 55 watt, 5000k kit. What an amazing difference. It makes it very obvious the need to replace the yellow marker light with an LED and upgrade the fogs. I also realize that my lens is starting to haze again, so next weekend will be spent with a 3M restoration kit.

Easy install, however I think the driver side didnt seat properly. While driving it almost looked like the light was gently moving back and forth, it was more noticable when going over rail road tracks. I will check them tommorow once it starts to get dark and verify the lights are seated correctly.

Now if only the NeedsWings CAI would get here and the NiDoc wrap.

 

Did they cause the crack?

 

I’d be a bit skeptical about welding an aluminum alloy rim, I’ve dealt with welding motorcycle cases before, but a rim is another can of worms. A replacement rim, from some of the prices I’ve seen advertised on some of the web sites, just isn’t that expensive. I say replace the rim.

 

As far as I know, based on the size of the crack it looks like it has been there for a bit. I am worried about the welding of the rim. I just dont want to drop the coin for a new set of rims, but I might. I will be looking for decent alternatives that will use the stock tires seeing how I just bought a new set.

 

I have the exact same dilemma right now. I got a nail in a tire a while back and when I took it to get patched, it turned out that I also had a cracked rim (damn Indiana potholes...)

I'm sort of stuck at the moment as far as deciding what to do. I figure the options are as follows:

-Replace only the cracked wheel with a new or used OEM replacement (the cheapest option)
-Replace all 4 wheels with new/refurbished OEM wheels
-Replace all 4 wheels with aftermarket wheels

I'm inclined to replace all 4 wheels due to curb rash from the previous owner and paint flaking off, but yeah, it is a decent amount of money to drop...

If you are looking to replace your wheels with aftermarket ones, check out TSW wheels. They have a pretty decent selection and they actually make wheels in staggered 18/19 that allow us to keep OEM tire sizes. Not too bad on pricing, either. I'm looking at either the Willow line or the Zolder line.

Have you found any other suitable options in OEM sizes?

 

I was actually looking at TSW as well. Just cant settle on what I want to do. I get the amazing joy of traveling I-70 from Terre Haute to Indianapolis generally once a week. It seems like 70 is the child the inbred cousin locked in the basement of Indiana highways. Finally they have patched some sinkhole...err potholes but the road surface is still pretty bad.

I like the SRT-6 style rims. There is an older post regarding installing TSW rims. I was using the friendly function search button earlier and found some nice pictures. I dont know if any of the members are still running the rims.

 

Gotta love 70. I live downtown Indy so mostly I get to have fun zipping in and out of idiot drivers and strange traffic patterns. Having a smaller car with some pep like ours is definitely a plus, haha.

Some of the TSW wheels might require changing tires or adding spacers, but a lot of them would be direct fits. I used a wheel/tire comparison generator from one of the major tire dealers online and most of their stuff will be a direct fit. The Willow and Zolder styles come in 19x9.5 and 18x8, which would be an acceptable fit for stock 255/225 tires. Offset for the 19's are 35 vs. 22 for our OEM rear wheels, but according to everything I found, there would still be plenty of clearance. The offset for the 18's is 32 vs. 35 for our stock fronts, so that isn't a problem at all. I was bored and went into Discount Tire the other day and was able to talk them down to 850 for a Hypersilver set of Willows, so I'm betting if I go back in I can talk them down to below 800, which would be a pretty damn good price.

 

Great choice for either. I was playing with the viewer at discounttiredirect.com and really like the look of the Vortex and Vairono. First step for me is getting the rim secure and getting it welded up for now and then its time for a decision on the rims. Try to talk them into a labor special and then post pictures of your victory.

 

Well, hopefully it all works out in the end. I had to get mine welded, too. It's been a few months now and the weld held for a while but has started to develop a slow leak. I probably should have just gotten replacements right away, but I wanted to wait a bit just to see.

 

the trouble with welding, is, they will crack again alone the weld. Nice temporary fix though...I like the snettingtons...I think that is the name of the wheel...anyway, a lot nice aftermarkets out there...