Un-Fuch-in Believeable

[84porsche]

Well gentleman as some of you know, I went and bought a pair of 16 - 7s and 9s about 2 weeks ago from a fellow Pelican. Well I put the wheels on the car and wow she looked great and drove great for a total of 100 miles and I was laying on the floor and discovered a crack through the petal and then I looked around some more and saw a 2nd crack. Well I took the car to Al Reed this morning and he said the wheel looks bad and that it could cause serious harm so the wheel came off tonight and thank the man upstairs that it didn't fail when I was driving it. Special thanks also to 450knotoffice and Carrera3.5L for looking at the wheel for me as well. Here are the pictures of the damage. I hope to still resolve this with the seller. But needless to say I am frustrated and so is my p-car. I was so hoping to have my new wheels running for Big Bear. Back to the 15s for now.

[rattlsnak]

ouch....

[slodave]

Very sorry to see that Chris. I hope things work out for you. I'm glad you found the cracks in the garage, not the road.

BTW, WTF are you doing lying on the garage floor??? Something to do with the carpet?

[Soonere39]

Ya know, I don't know who you bought the wheels from. And I wouldn't be suspicious with the fresh paint on the front side of them. But fresh paint on the backside? Why????
Unless you just cleaned up the backside to emphasize the cracks

[ael911]

That sucks, it's rare to see fuchs crack like that.

[PatrickB]

Were those limited to just one wheel?
Front or rear?
So sad to hear about that Chris!!!!!
Hopefully the seller is a stand up guy!
I've got another source for you if you want to try again...

[onlycafe]

that is a major drag.
best of luck with the outcome, although you are already very lucky.

[Wickd89]

Boy Chris, that really sucks. Sorry to hear that.
I know you were so excited and we were excited for you.

Hope the fella who sold them to you, takes them back.

I am sure it will work out. Back with the old set for now....

See ya for the BB run........

[84porsche]

Originally posted by slodave
BTW, WTF are you doing lying on the garage floor??? Something to do with the carpet?

I always lay on the carpet next to the car. I hate to leave her alone. She even has a fridge, an old TV and DVD player as well.

Originally posted by Soonere39
But fresh paint on the backside? Why????
Unless you just cleaned up the backside to emphasize the cracks

I didn't clean them up at all, those are the pictures right off the car. The initial transaction seemed to go really well but I have contacted the seller via email on Monday night and phone as of tonight so I am awaiting his response.

Originally posted by PatrickB
Were those limited to just one wheel?
Front or rear?
I've got another source for you if you want to try again...

It is the driver side rear wheel. I hope to get another set in play soon but it will take a little bit of time.

[Jeff Alton]

Well, when they fail, that is where one can expect them to finally let go. Thankfully you found it with the car staionary!

Hopefully the seller makes good on these.

The problem is these wheels are getting old and no one really knows what sort of life they have lived. At some point fatigue is going to cause this.

Cheers

[FenderGuy]

I wonder if they where chromed? One would think even with age they would not crack like that, unless the PO was doing the Duke of Hazzard's thing

[Jeff Alton]

That crack is about where any wheel will crack after it has been fatigued. Lots of people think these wheels are invincible, they are not. They ARE very very high quality wheels that have an untold history and will not live forever. This is not the first Fuch to show a crack...

Cheers

[aigel]

I have seen them crack at the local club, usually around the stud holes though. As Jeff points out, there is no telling what the history of 20+ year old wheels is. A few years of track days with R compound tires certainly would accelerate fatigue. I do not think that these cracks were filled and painted over, I'd be careful with allegations of that sort. That would look different from what the pictures show.

Good Luck,

George

[PatrickB]

+1 Jeff!

That's the frightening truth when buying a "used" wheel... One really has NO idea
how old, or how many miles, heat cycles, DE's, Races, miles, summer's, winter's, etc. a wheel has lived through.

I bought my 9's brand new, but my front 8's (951) were a roll of the dice. I found them on Ebay from a Rennlister. One of the wheels was slightly bent, but was easily repaired, then refinished by Al. No visible stress cracks, but I check them out CLOSELY every time I wash the car!

[island911]

That looks like a pretty nice failure mode. That is, the wheel didn't have a catastrophic failure. (like some knock-off do)

Frank and George make good points. Had the wheel been chromed? And that stress crack usually do develop futher in (those highly loaded bolt holes.)

[PatrickB]

One more reason to NOT buy a used chromed Fuch wheel...

Developing hairline cracks would not be visible, until it's too late...

[surflvr911sc]

This makes me ponder a few things…
Planning on new wheels for the track and maintaining the Fuch look there are five basic choices.

Factory Fuchs- great wheels getting older w/ unknown history

Replica Fuchs- cast and not considered good for much more than tooling around town on.

Linsey P2 type wheels- factory Fuch center welded into a forged rim, +17”.

Linsey P3 type wheels- factory Fuch center bolted into a split rim, +17”.

Rota fake Fuchs- a cast (?) Fuch look-a-like w/ a good reputation (outside of the Porsche world), +17”.

With failures like this, why would I want to spend twice as much to put an old Fuch center into a forged rim, welded or bolted? It almost makes the Rota wheel sound like the best choice here, although I’m not completely convinced.

Also, if a Fuch center can be welded into a forged rim why can’t this failure be taken care of the same way. Granted its unknown how the rest of the wheel will react if at all but it should be able to be welded good as new, at least as far as that crack is concerned.

[PatrickB]

If you must have Fuchs style, Brand New Factory Wheels are available. For not much more $$$ than used ones are selling for... I don't understand why people are willing to pay the ridiculous prices for used wheels!!!

The Rota's might be the wave of the future... Considering the better manufacturing process technology, and the success these guys have had with the Suby crowd! Those guys beat the C-Wrap out of their cars! I'm very interested to see how well they hold up on the P-Cars! If they continue to do well, I'm thinking of getting a set shod with R-compound tires for DE's.

Nice thing about the Lindsey wheel, is the center is from a 6x16. It is rare that a 6x16 wheel has ever seen the stress of an OEM 8 or 9 for that matter... Jack has had pretty good luck with his so far... If I had to do it over again, I would have gone the Lindsey route too. Many more tire choices for 17' wheels! There are very limited choices for 245/45 & 225/45/16's that I'm running now... I just checked my source for Hankook's in those sizes, and they are currently on B/O...

I'm not a welder, but I wouldn't think that a welding repair on the highest stressed area of the wheel would last... I wouldn't feel comfortable with it on my car, let alone on the track...
Maybe someone with more knowledge on this could chime in...

[WolfeMacleod]

Sorry to hear of your misfortune.

However, in my recent post about new, unused Fuchs prices someone asked this question:

Originally posted by rusnak


Anyhow, why the requirement for new Fuchs? Refinished straight Fuchs are cheaper, apparently about $800 for 8" or 9" eh?

I believe when he reads this post, he will learn the answer...

[PatrickB]

Refinshed straight Fuchs cheaper? Apparently NEW are going for the same price! WTF people??? Why pay the same price as new for a 20 year old refinished wheel?