Alloy wheel breaking up

[JohnDeere8530]

I was travelling up the A27 yesterday in Chichester and came accross a SLK on a 61 plate with its near side front alloy totally broken up.

It was from quickly looking a 5 double spoked wheel. It looked as if one or two of the main spoke arms had pulled away from the rim, causing the rim to break up badly. The car was leaning over and it looked like quite a bit of damage was done to the wheel arch and possible the door.

I bet it gave the driver a real fright, luckily the speed limit had been reduced from 70 to 40mph at the incident spot so nobody was hurt.

Has anyone seen or experienced such a thing before? There was no other vehicle involved and the car looked brand new still. There was obviously a fault with the alloy wheel itself, I thought they were ultrasounded or xrayed after being made to see if there are any faults with the casting of them >

 

[Dieselman]

More likely the driver had hit something.

 

[mercedescl500]

I had a genuine wheel (3 piece splitty) which had radial cracks on every leg/spoke at the hub. The wheel would have come flying off had it not been for 1 leg which was not completely cracked all the way through. A small pothole caused the damage but it was disproportional to the impact (if that makes any sense). I'll try and find a pic to illustrate the damage. HTH

 

[mercedescl500]

The name of the manufacturer cannot be mentioned just incase of he usual libel, but, there are several pics in my profile photo album. HTH

 

[JohnDeere8530]

yes the car could of hit something.

However the car was brand new and looked as if it was looked after. The break was where the double spokes merge with the rim... Looks like a potential weak spot to me ?

 

[WOODYTHEWISE]

The name of the manufacturer cannot be mentioned just incase of he usual libel, but, there are several pics in my profile photo album. HTH

Hells bells, bloody lucky you spotted that......

 

[longhoughtonlad]

That's why we should all do a visual check each morning

 

[mercedescl500]

I know it sounds crazy (well having worked in private security for nearly 20 years) but I check everything, everyday !.