Beware of Poor Quality Products
With winter in full swing, it seems that there are many “great deals” on winter tire and rim sets appearing all over the place. However, as with any “Deal” consumers need to be cautious. Many inexpensive, aftermarket rims, especially the ones manufactured off-shore, seem to be made without quality normaly associated with OEM rims.
We recently had an example of a customer having purchased elsewhere an inexpensive set of winter steel rims with tires. While the customer attempted to put them on a car, the lug nuts didn’t seem to have tightened as expected with typical, factory rims. After reaching the point where the customer thought the wheels were tight on the car, he went for a test drive. The customer immediately experienced a horrible shake even at low speeds. Hoping to get help from professionals, he stopped by our shop.
Upon close inspection of the customer’s “new winter wheels” we found out that the quality of steel that the rims were made of was so poor, that the rims distorted before reaching a typical 100 ft/lb of torque of lug nuts. Have a look at the photos below. Fortunately we had a set of OEM steel rims for the customer’s car and upon transfering the tires onto the new rims, the customer drove away happy.
The “CHEAPEST” is not usually the “BEST” deal, especially when it comes to automotive safety. Please exercise caution when purchasing off-brand rims, especially when the price seems too good. At Tirehaus we stock many OEM rims for popular car makes, so please contact us for advice and recommendations. Your safety is our priority. Visit Tirehaus for winter tire deals that make sense.
