Say No to Fake Wheels...It Could Save Your Life

phelan

Damn, stirring the pot much?

1. ken and SoCal may call me a JDM whore, but I agree that this video is purely a scare tactic. Wheels falling apart can happen to even the most highly regarded wheel manufacturers in the world. What matters is how the company designed and manufactured it. As long as a strict QC process was adhered to, and the wheel passed the necessary safety tests, I don't see the issue. Where you run into problems is if you buy replica wheels that are untested, and uncertified. At that point, you're on your own, and the chances you have a weak / problematic wheel increases.

tl;dr - Yes, this video was sensationalist media. Happens all the time. Ever try reading a tabloid?

2. Perhaps. Rays was established in 1973, Rota in 1977. Dunno when the TE37 was released, but my guess is Rays had a few years of their wheels being out there before Rota. But that's just speculation, and really, who the hell cares. At this point, it's common 'accepted knowledge' (true or not) that Volks are 'original'. Now in regards to mesh, etc., I dunno. Don't want to get into that argument right now.

3. Point taken, but as discussed in a similar thread where you took offense to JDM parts for some reason, to each their own. Let's not get into that.


Now then - as I'm an engineer, and a bored one at that, I thought I'd take a stab at your other concerns:
"What I care about: how is it manufactured, what will it cost relative to similar other wheels (see point #3) and what do they weigh?"

Okay. Fair enough. I'd go farther and say that anybody looking to buy a wheel should be interested in how it is manufactured, and what quality controls are in place to govern the manufacturing process.

"As to quality control, show me evidence of that. Show me the company policy of how many wheels get pulled off the assembly line at random and tested before the batch gets boxed up andsent off? No one here has that info, and if they do, by all means, show me that not this "sve your life" video.

Is it the same for Volk and SSR? What about Weds? How much does it matter? What's the industry standard? Is there one?"

Most if not all of the highly regarded companies - not just JDM, mind you - are inspected to meet requirements set forth by the manufacturer's government, or else they can't even be used on their home roads. Off the top of my head, for example, Volk rims, cast or forged, must meet JWL standards (Volk uses JWL+R type 2 for cast, JWL+R type 1 for forged).

From SSR:
Now I may be wrong, but Europe has TUV standards that can also apply to wheels. In fact, didn't we all have a bit of fun about TUV for - oh never mind. One thing I need to look for is the acceptable failure rate for the certified wheels. That would be an interesting variable to get.

Now I did some digging, but some replica companies are not subject to these tests (not ALL! Some do still test! See this post regarding XXR), as typically their countries of manufacture aren't that stringent. So the buyer is taking the company at face value in regards to the manufacturing process, and the quality of the final product. Is the cost break worth it? I don't know. I think it's the buyer's decision to make, based on their comfort level, their knowledge of how hard they will push the car, and how much they are willing to spend.

"If weight is irrelevant, and it's all about bling, then just buy what you want/can afford. The odds of the wheel simply failing in normal or even track driving is incredilby unlikely.

Likewise, smash a curb hard enough -- you'll damage a forged wheel too, "real" or "fake"."

Pretty much! For fun though, a quality made cast wheel versus a uncontrolled cast wheel may have significantly different material properties, as the porosities from a poor casting process can lead to very weak metal strength. Those will snap like a twig in situations that maybe a properly controlled cast wheel wouldn't...and a forged wheel would typically perform better than the cast counterparts.

Food for thought.

(And no I'm not saying JDM or bust here. I'm simply trying to state some known facts and make sense of it. What it all comes down to, though, is the buyer, and their decision making.)

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Jordo!

^^^ Dude, thank you for a well thought out and highly informative answer.

Yes, fair enough -- if a given company willfully fails to follow a government accepted standard of safety, then buyer beware, whether or not it will "save a life".

See, but THAT message, I can get behind... thanks again for all of the info

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phelan

Anytime

Also should add that in reading up on Rays specifically, their wheels are mandated by law to be JWL certified, but they take it a step further hence the JWL+R certification. Again I do not know what the acceptable failure rate is, nor their sampling rate from the processing. Just a little more explanation why they expect you to pay a bit more, and why people expect that once you buy a Volk rim, you'll never have to replace it...unless 1) you drive dumb or 2) you want to.

edit - someone beat me to it...and was a little more concise than i am

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Baer383

Did any of you guys notice in the side by side comparison the factory wheel was allot higher than the imitation wheel there for taking less of a impact.

Just thought I would throw my in.

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Jordo!

That test and video = Shameful propaganda

Phelan's comments and links = useful information consumers should keep in mind.

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KaienZ34

You run a risk with anything and everything you do. Even factory parts can fail.

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tsolin01

There's always a risk to everything. As long as you don't buy wheels made of paper or look like someone made them in their back yard, you'll probably be ok.

You get what you pay for though, so if paying that extra $$$ for your own piece of mind is worth it to you then great, otherwise get whatever you want.

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SoCal 370Z

Alright, alright, you're just a whore (remiss of JDM)...now, can I have my fake pillows back?

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kenchan

I just saw the "food for thought" part. Time for angus burger today. I have a taste for fake charburger.

KaienZ34

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TongMan

Propaganda and advertisement. I'm pretty sure we agree that cast wheels are weaker than forged wheels. With impact, any wheel would be subject to break, dent, curb, or blow up. Getting one of my rims replaced will cost me $131 with delivery in 3-5 days. I can't say the same about baller wheels that can take up to a year for delivery. By the time your rims break or had been destroyed, I can safely say that many other factors contributed to the incident and not just because the wheels were "fake".

I can afford baller rims from Japan, but I find it unreasonable to drive on them on a daily basis. Maybe I'll just buy a set of Volks, Rays, BBS, or Weds rims just to keep as trophies in my garage so people will get off my back about running XXR's.

KaienZ34

Your pic is a pretty little X

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370Ztune

I don't know if "shameful propaganda" is necessarily the right thing to call it; it's still somewhat informative. Although, I agree with everybody regarding that this isn't a definitive test. The portion of the title "it could save your life" was meant more as a way to get people to have a look at the thread...if I titled it "Weds Wheel Bump Test" I don't think as many people would've bothered to check it out. I still believe that the test holds some validity though. For instance, say you hit a very deep pothole at speed (as many of you know, are very common here in LA); the stress and hit that is put on the wheel can be equivalent to what this test demonstrated. I don't think completely discounting the testing that Weds has done is totally invalid.

Andrew is spot on regarding the JWL & TUV requirements; most low priced wheel manufacturers don't submit their products for certification.

By the way, if you guys want to know all the ins and outs of Rays' production process, have a read of this article; it's very informative:
w w w.motoiq.com/magazine_articles/articletype/articleview/articleid/1608/industry-insider-a-look-at-the-technology-behind-rays-wheels.aspx

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Jordo!

Uh...

1. "Fake" is irrelevant (more to the point, the supposed "originality" of the design is irrelevant). What theoretically matters is adhereance to a specific safety standard.

I can get behind that.

2. The likekihood that using "fake" or "real" wheels that adhere to this standard will "Save a life" is entirely speculative -- no data was provided on the correspondance between failing to meet that standard and auto accidents let alone fatal ones.

It's an over-the-top, dire warning that is clearly designed to instill fear in a consumer.

That I can't get behind.

So, yeah. Maybe I should have said "shameless" rather than "shameful".

Forgive me.

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SoCal 370Z

In all fairness, what was the motivation of the video? Did Weds receive legal treats regarding rims which are not theirs that are accident related? Are more knockoffs of their design being sold versus theirs? Why?

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