So today I pull into Wal-Mart and the driver of the FD I was following pointed out that my rear right FD wheel was cracked. It looks pretty bad, similar to this picture where it seems to go all the way around:



Of course this happens the DAY before I planned on taking the 8 hour trip home to Jersey from southern Virginia, and I don't know what to do. If there was a replacement easily accessible I would have bought it already, but i'm a poor bastard and part of the reason for going home was to potentially sell the car. I've been reading quite a bit and hearing about people driving tons of miles on pretty heavily cracked wheels, but I dont know if I can trust it on an 8 hour drive. Are there any options for getting them temporarily fixed for the drive home? (Welding, etc.) Because i've got some wheels at home I could use, but not here.

I need help FAST so I can get home.

Thanks,
Brian

 

that looks like a scratch.....

 

Well its not. Anyone with something useful to say?

 

If it is cracked, it obviously isn't safe. If it isn't safe, then you shouldn't drive on it .......... but you already know that.

Get another wheel. Maybe the other guy with the FD has an extra one??

 

How does it look from the inside of the rim? Is it cracked all the way through? I'm not sure if it would be worth welding it up for a temporary/permanent fix unless you did it yourself. You can always call up a wheel repair shop to see what they will quote you. A shop over here in WA charged a buddy of mine to fix his Skyline BBS wheels $300+. You can probably find someone cheaper, but it's just a thought.

 

Although you might be able to make it all the way (straight-ahead mild accel & decel driving won't put much stress on it), I don't think you should chance it. The penalty if it breaks completely is too great.

However, if you have no choice but to use it, stop every 50 miles or so to make sure the other spokes are not cracking. If another spoke starts to crack also, you will have to drive very slow and inspect even more often to prevent a disaster.

If you have the time, you can investigate companies that claim to be able to repair damaged wheels, but I don't think I'd trust a repair in this location.

Post a wanted ad - someone is bound to have a fully functional, but scraped-up wheel that they'd sell cheap.

 

I'm sure there are plenty of other FD wheels for sale and places I could go, but I really have hardly any money OR time since I am leaving tomorrow afternoon.

 

Put a post in your local section. Maybe someone there will be able to help you.

If you can't get a replacement wheel, don't make the trip. You will be risking the lives of anyone near you on the road.

 

I wouldn't drive on it.

 

If you don't have money or time you could try stopping by a local tire store to see if they have an old rim of the same size (steel or whatever) that they could sell you for dirt cheap so that you can make the trip. I had a friend that owned a tire shop and they always had misc wheels laying around. It would be much safer than driving on that one and would probably not cost you that much. Just a thought...

 

I was the person in the fd that pointed out the crack. It looks a LOT worse than that pic, I'm pretty sure it goes all the way through.

Brian, I would NOT drive on that wheel for more than a few miles. Like I suggested earlier, I would try to pick up a wheel locally, either from another fd owner or a cheap wheel of the same size.

 

I think the dirtyness makes it look thicker since when I checked it when I went back up close it wasn't much different than the one in the picture. The one in the picture is also cracked all the way through according to the guy. I'm going to try and pick one up on the way home or get a cheap *** wheel from someone for the way home. Any suggestions for local places to get some steels?

 

Hmm...what FD owners do I know in the area? lol

 

Get an FC rim and bolt it on, or some other 5 lug wheel that fits, such as 300zx, etc. 5x114 rims that will bolt up to this car are not exactly hard to get. I wouldnt drive on it at high speeds, so just stick some other **** on there until you can resolve the situation later with another stocker.

ON a similar note, my wife's millenia had a cord showing on a tire (fwd inside wear pattern that's easy to miss until it's too late) so I stuck my FD rims on it for a few days until I got time to go to the tire store. They worked fine, but they were obviously offset out about an inch more than her stockers.

 

Go somewhere with a welder say a muffler shop and throw some weld on there, that will probably get you home and then you can replace without having to buy a rim where your stuck.

 

dont you have spare ? try to get a Mustang wheel. they are 114.3x5. it might be cheaper too

 

I've got like a donut thing. Nothing i'd want to drive 450 miles on.

 

I've got a question. If I can find one temporary replacement, and it didn't have the same tire size or something, where would be the best bet to put it? Front or rear? The one thats messed up is the rear right, but the rest are fine. I'm looking bare minimum, so would it be fine to just get one different one for the ride home?

 

You feel a bad or odd size tire the lest on the right rear...farthest from your steering input in the drivers front position.

 

^^^ True that is.


If you run a tire that's taller or shorter than the oposite side for long it will **** up you're diff. Look out.

 

I don't really see how...that's no different in the diff's eyes than going around a long, sweeping turn, and that's what a diff is designed to do...differentiate between wheel speeds. Doing so for 3 seconds or 30 minutes, I can't see how one is any different to the other. Perhaps the older LSD diffs with clutches, but not a torsen or viscous style. BUt, I could be wrong, being no LSD/differential expert.

 

I don't think think it's good for it to be turning at such different speeds contunuously. Sweeping turns are one thing, different sized tires are another.


I'm no expert either. But I do speek from experiance. When I was in high school I ran two different tires on the back of my FC (for a not so temporary replacement) and was replacing the diff not long after.



--Alex