My car was handling funny leaving the work parking lot today.
I pulled into the gas station across the street, and went to check my front tire pressure on my passenger side. I suddenly saw the issue.
Hiding behind the plastic hubcap on the van was a fist sized dent in my rim. I was going about 15-20 mph the day of the storm pulling into an empty michigan left, started hitting the breaks right as I entered, slid through the entire deceleration lane, and hit the curb sideways going about 10 mph.
Didn't think it caused any damage at the time, especially since my tire was holding air just fine. But the rim's bent all to hell, no idea how it's managed to keep any air in it, let alone staying full like it did.
Anyone got a spare rim for a 98 plymouth grand voyager? Was hoping to keep this rustbucket til my annual review/bonus/payraise in June. :-/
Guess I'll have to hit up the wheel and tire shop run by one of our investors and see if I can get a discount on a new rim – they do repair but there's no way in hell you can repair this. Doesn't take a rim expert to see that.
Check the pick-n-pull used parts yards/junkyards. You should be able to get a rim the right size for relatively cheap from one of those places. It'll last until July, anyway.
you beat me to it.
Otherwise, you could cruise around town with a hydraulic jack and an air wrench and swap with some other fool in a grand voyagre. but that's not very good for the karma. ;op
Lawyers are expensive so I'll go with option 1!
I hadn't even considered that option. I keep forgetting there are junkyards out here – I only found out last summer about the ones here. I knew there were ones back home but I figured for some reason big cities didn't have the space for them or something since nobody ever talked about going to the junkyard. 🙂
I know for a fact there are two in the Howell area. I think there's one down in Pinckney. Not sure about over in your neck of the woods, but I'm going to guess there might be one nearby. A Google search of "used auto parts" might yield some interesting results.
Yea, there's parts galore at 8 and vandyke I think, We went there at the end of last summer and I got a trip computer from my car out of another van. I have lived in the detroit area for 10 years now and it wasn't until august that I found we have junkyards nearby. 🙂
You'd be surprised at what can be fixed these days, whether it's steel or aluminum. Steel is super easy to fix with just a hammer and someone who knows how to use it (to repair the wheel, not just smacking it a few times). When I was working for Belle Tire, I succesfully repaired several steel rims that had gotten bent so badly that they appeared to have a 6" long flat spot at one point.
If it's aluminum, it can still be repaired, but generally speaking you have to have the damaged section cut out, and a patch piece welded in. But it's something that any Joe Schmoe with a welder can do, mainly because you need a TIG welder to do it, and those don't come cheap. If you're on a tight budget, the pick-a-part suggestion is your best bet. I typically get wheels from the yards here for about $10 each.
-Eric/urbex
Huh – well one of our company's investors runs a wheel repair shop, I should give them a crack at it and see if they're able to repair it. They do good work, and it's worth seeing what they'll charge, considering I'll have to have someone remount a tire into anything I pull off a car (I don't recall seeing tires on the cars at Parts Galore) so if it's a $10-$20 difference I'm all about just getting it fixed. Otherwise it's definitely to the junkyard to score a new wheel.
Last winter/spring my dad asked me to take my sister's car into the shop across town to get an oil change. Well, we ended up getting some freezing rain that day and I didn't realize just how icy the overpasses had gotten, and I ended up spinning out and slamming into the Jersey barrier / K rail.
Got out, looked at the car, and the only damage I could SEE was a small dent just above the rear wheel well. So I thanked my lucky stars and pulled back on the highway and continued (slowly) to the shop. The car pulled a little bit, but nothing TOO bad.
Anyhow, I mentioned the incident to the mechanic (who was a friend of my dad's) and they checked out that wheel, and the rim was basically shattered and they were amazed that I had been able to drive on it.
Sounds like quite a job was done on that rim.
win