check your car

[btmatt]

A few weeks a go, the kid took our PT Camaro out for a spin and came back complaining the diff was shuddering under part throttle. No biggie, it had been giving trouble before and probably needed serviced.

Upon closer inspection, 3 of the 4 wheels have multiple cracks thru the webbing. Mind you they are CCW forged race classics; decent wheels. If any had let go, the result would not have been good. Granted, we drive the car hard, but never expected to see so many breaks. Just lucky we caught it when we did.

That said, we are in the market for new wheels. Any suggestions appreciated. Matt

[Vimes]

If you like CCW, perhaps their SP550s would work. It's a classic style that looks good on most. Really, while the complicated wheels with the spindly webbing look nice, I've always found them a pain to clean and have not been convinced of their strength. Your post outlining cracks in the webbing reinforces this. The SP550s with their five nice, thick arms will likely hold up better. I've had wheels of this style (but not this brand) before, and they've always held up well on heavier vehicles than a Camaro.

[btmatt]

here are a few pics of the wheels; 3 of the 4 have cracks with worst having 9 cracks
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[ModernMuseum]

Not sure if it's just me, but clicking the link doesn't take me to the attachments.

[thumper877]

Not sure if it's just me, but clicking the link doesn't take me to the attachments.Same here

[andrewb70]

I would get on the phone with CCW and see what they have to say. I believe Weld Wheels has own them for quite some time.

Andrew

[btmatt]

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Here are the pics again; I actually called CCW yesterday about replacing the centers and they do not manufacture this style any more. Worse yet, the number of bolts securing the hoops is different so we could not use them either.

They were decent enough to speak too, just no options for what we have due to the age

[thumper877]

Wow that is crazy. Could of been a bad situation

[NorCal-SS]

Looks concerning from the pics but it’s kinda hard to see on my phone. Are you certain that isn’t superficial damage to just the coating (maybe a clear coat)? Do the cracks appear on the back of the faces too?

Might be worth having the faces stripped to see if the cracks disappear on bare metal. In which case they just needed to be re coated

[NorCal-SS]

On second look, one of the pics definitely looks like a crack. The rest I’m not so sure

[Blown353]

Yikes. Good that he felt something and let you know before it turned into a catastrophic failure.

Center sections shouldn't crack like that from just driving, even if they are older or have been used hard. While aluminum does not have an endurance limit like steel, wheel manufacturers know that and should take that into account during the design phase and shouldn't be designing them to the ragged edge with no safety margin just from a product liability standpoint.

Interesting it happened on multiple wheels... multiple failures occurring at almost the same time would make me look in the direction of a material/process problem or design error. Wonder if it was a bad batch of aluminum or incorrect heat treating. If the center sections were powder coated and the powder coating oven was too hot that could alter the original heat treat. If I remember right, CCW also used to offer anodized center sections, and improper or contaminated anodizing can lead to hydrogen embrittlement which significantly shortens the fatigue life of the aluminum. Be interesting, but probably expensive, to send a center section off to a metallurgical lab for failure analysis.

[morrisclassic]

Wheels usually have a manufacture materials warranty. I had set of wheels replaced that were over 2 years old.
Hold them to manufacture defect for replacement.My wheels were discontinued also so they replaced them with
another brand. Not your manufacture.

MCC , Billy

[srode]

They were decent enough to speak too, just no options for what we have due to the agehow old are they?

[JohnUlaszek]

Makes the a for non-destructive inspection (NDI) at least once a year on cars running sticky tires doing race car stuff. Glad to see you caught it before something more expensive happened.

[Alwhite00]

Damn, digging into a corner hard could have been catastrophic. How old are they?

[btmatt]

you can see light thru the cracks when you place a flashlight behind


Looks concerning from the pics but it’s kinda hard to see on my phone. Are you certain that isn’t superficial damage to just the coating (maybe a clear coat)? Do the cracks appear on the back of the faces too?

Might be worth having the faces stripped to see if the cracks disappear on bare metal. In which case they just needed to be re coated

[btmatt]

contacted the manufacturer and the warranty is 3 years (as are most). The design has been dis-continued for more than 3 years and tooling no longer being used.

I would have bought new centers, but the number of bolts securing the hoops is different in current model


Wheels usually have a manufacture materials warranty. I had set of wheels replaced that were over 2 years old.
Hold them to manufacture defect for replacement.My wheels were discontinued also so they replaced them with
another brand. Not your manufacture.

MCC , Billy

[ModernMuseum]

Damn (and yikes!), not a great advertisement for CCW wheels.

[btmatt]

This thread was never meant to bash CCW. TBH, they have been fair to deal with and up-front with the shortcomings of running lightweight aluminum wheels on a road car.

My post was to remind others that while we want all our high dollar cars and parts to be a one time investment, we still need to check them as many have defined lifetimes especially if your car is pushed beyond normal design guidelines


Damn (and yikes!), not a great advertisement for CCW wheels.

[67birdak]

As someone that also has a nice set of CCW Classics on my PT Firebird, this certainly caught my attention! I'll be checking my wheels more often, that's for sure! What was the manufacture date on your wheels?

[Wayneburns]

I believe if you add some cash you could get another complete set of the wheels from the manufacturer.

[btmatt]

Update: wheels replaced and super happy with whole experience. 3030 autosport was a joy to deal with. Discount allowed me buy tires and swap if i didn't mount to get right size. Speedway sells and reasonably priced tool to fit tires and provide accurate measurements. Last, SpeedTech large front tubs provide great clearance but be prepared to modify LOTS on stock subframe.
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[Alwhite00]

Looks great.