Turbowned
February 7th, 2014, 14:54
Gentlemen,
This past Monday I blasted a pothole with my RF wheel and ruined a perfectly good Michelin Pilot Alpin 3. The good news is that the spare tire worked great despite never being used before, and that despite being discontinued, Tire Rack had three PA3's left and shipped one to my work the next day, in the middle of a snowstorm no less!
The bad news is my wheel is now out-of-round somewhat, because I now get a vibration at 50-55mph. When I had the winter tires mounted two months ago, my technician friend noted that two of the wheels were slightly bent, and I could see this when he put them on the tire balancer. We put those wheels on the rear of the car. Before hitting the pothole there was a very slight vibration at speed; more of a minor nuisance than anything.
What I'm wondering is if it would be worthwhile to spend the $3-400 to have them straightened and the curb rash repaired, or to look for a different set of wheels. There is an alloy wheel repair specialist less than a mile from my work. The wheels aren't visibly bent, meaning there's no nasty bends when you look at them straight on; you only notice it when you put them on a balancer and spin them. If this were a cheap econobox I probably wouldn't even bother fixing or replacing them, but this is a high-performance car designed to travel at high speed, and while I don't really want to shell out for new wheels, I also don't want to half-ass anything. Thoughts?
This past Monday I blasted a pothole with my RF wheel and ruined a perfectly good Michelin Pilot Alpin 3. The good news is that the spare tire worked great despite never being used before, and that despite being discontinued, Tire Rack had three PA3's left and shipped one to my work the next day, in the middle of a snowstorm no less!
The bad news is my wheel is now out-of-round somewhat, because I now get a vibration at 50-55mph. When I had the winter tires mounted two months ago, my technician friend noted that two of the wheels were slightly bent, and I could see this when he put them on the tire balancer. We put those wheels on the rear of the car. Before hitting the pothole there was a very slight vibration at speed; more of a minor nuisance than anything.
What I'm wondering is if it would be worthwhile to spend the $3-400 to have them straightened and the curb rash repaired, or to look for a different set of wheels. There is an alloy wheel repair specialist less than a mile from my work. The wheels aren't visibly bent, meaning there's no nasty bends when you look at them straight on; you only notice it when you put them on a balancer and spin them. If this were a cheap econobox I probably wouldn't even bother fixing or replacing them, but this is a high-performance car designed to travel at high speed, and while I don't really want to shell out for new wheels, I also don't want to half-ass anything. Thoughts?