Tire/rim damage question

[jsharmon7]

My fiancee hit a pothole on her way home from work. She hit it hard enough to dent/bend the rim and bulge the sidewall of the tire. The tire hasn't gone flat but I know it will have to be replaced or risk blowing out on the highway. Fortunately she does have the road hazard warranty on the tire which will help offset the cost of the new one. My question: does the rim needs to be replaced? Aside from aesthetics, will it still function normally? It's not a catastrophic dent, but it's noticeable. I don't think she cares about how it looks but I don't want the air to slowly leak out of the tire or something. Anybody knowledgeable about such things?

 

[Jaredjosh]

I hate to say this but that depends on a few things. Is it a steel wheel? The reason I ask is because sometimes the alloy wheels can crack when they get bent bad enough. If it's a steel wheel and it's just the edge of the rim a lot of times a pipe wrench and a little hammering can fix it right up. Now if it's bent bad it won't matter if it's steel or alloy because if you try to use it it could cause a vibration or wobble no matter how well it's balanced. That is if it's able to be balanced properly in the first place.

So as I said before it depends. I would recommend having someone look at it when you go to replace the tire. If in doubt have them dismount the tire and put the wheel on the tire balancer without a tire mounted on it and spin it so you can visually see how bad it is bent.

Good luck and I hope it's not that bad.

 

[chef larry]

I hate to say this but that depends on a few things. Is it a steel wheel? The reason I ask is because sometimes the alloy wheels can crack when they get bent bad enough. If it's a steel wheel and it's just the edge of the rim a lot of times a pipe wrench and a little hammering can fix it right up. Now if it's bent bad it won't matter if it's steel or alloy because if you try to use it it could cause a vibration or wobble no matter how well it's balanced. That is if it's able to be balanced properly in the first place.

So as I said before it depends. I would recommend having someone look at it when you go to replace the tire. If in doubt have them dismount the tire and put the wheel on the tire balancer without a tire mounted on it and spin it so you can visually see how bad it is bent.

Good luck and I hope it's not that bad.

This.^^^ Go to a local tire shop and have them check out the rim and if there is a bulge on the sidewall, tire may be bad and need to be replaced.

 

[indykid]

A bend in the rim would cause uneven pressure across the tire, potentially leading to it's premature failure even if new. It is also there could be a crack in the bent area that a straightener would find and could possibly fix.

Worse case is the wheel is no longer straight as well as the rim bent, causing to wobble which could lead to suspension failure.

Like said earlier, take it to a tire shop and let them determine about salvaging the rim. An honest shop would send it to a place that specializes in bent rims, unless the shop you go to just happens to have that service.

Good luck.

 

[yote hunter]

If it was a state or county road you may call state or county highway departments depending on whom evers responseable and see if anyone notified them of the pot hole if so you can file a claim for your rim and tire and if it hasn't been reported your screwed on getting it replaced from a claim... This happened to my daughter and I filed a claim and they paid for another rim and tire..... But as far as your question if its a alloy rim replace it, you can prob. get one at a junk yard for $50 to $100 and if its a steal rim just have the tire store look at it, if its not bent to bad it should be ok, they may have to rebalance it... I had a truck years ago that had a bent rim and drove it for a few years like that before I sold it, but it didn't leak...

 

[rotortech]

I would replace the wheel. And get the alignment checked too.

 

[jsharmon7]

Thanks for the input. In the morning light the bend is not that bad, but since I'm taking it to get a new tire anyway I'll just have them look at it. The wheel is aluminum alloy so who knows what they will say, but at least the bend isn't as bad as it appeared last night in the dark. The tire is definitely screwed up though.

 

[schafe]

I've successfully straightened rims in my driveway several times, alloy and steel. I dismounted the tire, mounted the rim on the spindle, and using an undamaged wheel for a guide as to tolerance, straightened them with hammers, 2x4's, jacks, etc. The dial indicator was my friend. With this technique, I was able to make them run true, and smooth.

On the down side, considering the time spent, I'm absolutely positive that it wasn't worth it, but I just wanted to see if I could do it, and how good I could make them.

 

[vitamink]

Many tire shops offer services to straighten rims. They're everywhere in the custom thug mobile culture as it's difficult not to bend a rim with 50" rim and a rubber band for a tire.

 

[Roscoe38]

My fiancee hit a pothole on her way home from work. She hit it hard enough to dent/bend the rim and bulge the sidewall of the tire. The tire hasn't gone flat but I know it will have to be replaced or risk blowing out on the highway. Fortunately she does have the road hazard warranty on the tire which will help offset the cost of the new one. My question: does the rim needs to be replaced? Aside from aesthetics, will it still function normally? It's not a catastrophic dent, but it's noticeable. I don't think she cares about how it looks but I don't want the air to slowly leak out of the tire or something. Anybody knowledgeable about such things?

Most scrap yards (auto) have stacks of wheels taken from wrecks. Cheaper and faster than NBT or Tire Barn charging you mega bucks to maybe straighten your bent wheel. Just a thought from out of the box.

 

[Desdinova]

My wife did this last week and actually cracked the rim. I didn't find out about it until I took the van to get new tires and the guys at the shop pointed it out. Now I'm left trying to hunt up a rim. I've called every scrap yard within 100 miles and no one has them. Looks like this is gonna get annoying

 

[jsharmon7]

They replaced the tire and advised that the rim wasn't bent enough to be an issue. I drove it home down some back roads and it seems to be doing just fine.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

As alluded to above:

FILE A TORT CLAIM with the "responsible" municipality / governmental entity.

It'll be a while before you see any $, but you'll be reimbursed.

-J-