Last Friday I noticed a nail in my passenger rear tire and so I made an appointment for today to have it repaired & balance all 4 tires. The tech fixed my nail in the tire & mounted & balanced my rear tire installed it then dropped it back down. I told the tech I wanted all 4 tires balanced as well so he jacked my car back up and started to balance them. He called me over after a few minutes to tell me my driver-side rim is bent (I am like WTF seriously came in for a $35 nail fix) so he said he would check the rest of the rims as well. About 15 minutes later the tech informed me all my rims were bent(driver-side wheels were the worst), he showed me I could easily see the problem. The tire I originally went in for the repair actually ended being the worst one, the tech was surprised he didn't notice it at first when he was doing the nail repair. Luckily the Tire&Wheel shop I was at also does wheel repair/refurbishing on-site in their machine shop, the machinists came out to take a look and said he could repair all 4 in about an hour but there was a slight chance my passenger rear rim could possibly crack during the process so I told him give it a shot nothing to lose at this point. He came back in about an hour and they all spin true even the worst one was fixed with no issues These are OEM hollow-spoke twist I had powder coated 2 years ago and have a total of maybe 22,000 miles since new so they all became bent with in the last 2 years somehow. I thought my car road a bit rough in hindsight but thought it was because of my H&R springs I had installed 2 years ago. Anyway after they re-installed & balanced my tires and $600 later I was back on the road. Soon as I got on the freeway I was shocked how smooth my car drove like it was new again. It amazes me that I didn't notice this before as I always slow down and I am extra careful for dips, pot holes in the road but I guess not careful enough

 

you been doing some general lee type tricks??? LOL

In NYC rims get bent all the time, how are the roads around you?

 

Lol you would think I was doing some general lee tricks with 4 rims bent. I live in Phoenix and in general I think we have good roads that's why I was surprised I didn't notice but I only drive my car once or twice a week.

 

Could the powder coating have weakened the wheels?

 

I asked the machinist if the powder coating process weakens the rims he said it used to but now they use lower temperatures when they powder coat wheels so my much issues but anything possible

 

I think this explains the bent wheels:

Luckily the Tire&Wheel shop I was at also does wheel repair/refurbishing on-site in their machine shop, the machinists came out to take a look and said he could repair all 4 in about an hour but there was a slight chance my passenger rear rim could possibly crack during the process so I told him give it a shot nothing to lose at this point.

When the only tool in the tool box is a bent wheel repair machine, every wheel that comes in is going to be bent.

Unless the powder coating can affect the wheels in some way that I'm not familiar with or you bang the car from camel to cactus like Samir ("You're breaking the car!") the wheels do not bend. I have 125K miles on my Turbo's stuck Turbo wheels (hollow spoke) and they are fine.

The tires can go out of balance after some wear and can require rebalancing but my dealer (where I buy my tires for both of my cars) does this for free.

Samir:

 

602 -- I'm interested in the name/location of the shop. Please PM if you don't want to post it here. Thanks.

 

I think its pretty hard to bend oem wheels.

 

It is odd that the shop conveniently fixes bent rims but I'm overly skeptic on shops. I smell some nice extra income from bogus diagnosis= hey that sounds like a disease lol.

 

Here you go its located in Tempe AZ http://www.wheelspecialists.com/

 

I thought so as well but there is a reason why GT2's came with the solid twists from the factory a bit heavier in weight but stronger then the hollow twist.

 

I tend to agree usually but I was watching them in the shop for 3 hours while they were working on my wheels. While I was waiting 4 other customers vehicles were having new tires installed using the same Hunter Wheel Balancer machine and they didn't have any bent rims I guess I was just the lucky one

 

$600? for R&R ing 4 wheels and tires, truing up the wheels on a lathe and rebalancing.

Glad you're happy with the results. Must be the highest paid machinist in the world though. Coming from someone in a related biz, that does machining, builds custom wheels and owns a lathe. You definitely got charged the "Porsche" tax.

 

Darn, tells you how little I know, that sounded like a good deal to me, HaHa-- KH

 

If I made that kind of hourly shop rate when I was a machinist I'd still be a machinist.

BTW, I hope no metal was removed. Porsche does not support wheel repairs that require machining or welding.