Alloy rims, back to Steel?

[Chiprazor]

I just bought my 2002 GAGT used and noticed vibrations at speeds over 130 km. I took my car in to a tire dealer and found out that 2 of my alloy rims are warped.

Now I live in the country, and travel 1km on a gravel road to and from work. I also get a mean winter here in Ontario Canada. I'm a thinking alloys are for city guys???

I'm thinking about getting a set of black steel rims, maybe something performance but don't know what is out there or what I should avoid.

Hey what kind of rims to the cops use on their cruisers, I know they are steel, and I think they have some performance aspect to them. Does any one know?

Any info or links to help a member out

[kickarsgrdam01]

i am pretty sure they have 16" steel wheels that are fairly wide...maybe about like our 225 u could probably find some one e-bay...the biggest deal will be tires

[VanishingImage]

alloys arent the best in city either. Any bad road is going to have the possiblity to damage alloy wheels because of pot-holes,and just poor road conditions. But yea,if you do a lot of driving on bad/poor road conditions you might want to switch to a steel wheel.

[Chiprazor]

I'm having a difficult time trying to find a performance steel rim in Ontario Canada, does anyone in Ontario know a good Tire/Rim store?

Maybe I'll try Performance Improvments, but I know they are usually over priced!

[MantaGreen97]

Gravel road will definitely do it to you, particularly if you don't drive really slow.

PI is overpriced like crazy, for sure; but for wheels they may be okay (do they even sell wheels?). There are plenty of wheel/tyre shops around the GTA (if you live anywhere around here that is).

Also you could have your wheels remanufactured for ~$100 CDN per wheel and there's a place in Ontario that does that; however you can probably find replacement rims at a wreckers for around the same I'd imagine.

For the winter though, I'd definitely use a set of dedicated steel rims with winter tyres.

[VanishingImage]

American Racing has prolly some stee wheels. They usually make decently thick ones

[Chiprazor]

Found this googling, lightweight Steel Rim, anyone heard of or dealt with this manufacture?

http://www.diamondracingwheels.com/WheelSeries.htm

Thanks

[Pte Socks]

To be honest, I find that the stock SE 5 spoke rims do quite well for our winters. Ive curbed them many times and still dont have any ploblems with them. Plus they are fairly light ( 20 lbs ). Either way I use those for my winter tires and my 17's for my summer, hell it even makes the change-over a hell of a lot easier. THat said, I hate ontario, and even more so Quebec. Shitty assed roads and dear god! you freak the hell out of me!. I thought I was a good driver until I got there and everyone drives crazy ;). Remind me to touch up on my skills before I move my car out down east :)

[Chiprazor]

Yes everyone in Ontario is in a rush, but not as bad as them Quebec'ers.

Anyhow, I've pulled off my Alloys and put on Steel 16" with 4 dunlop all seasons that came with the car when I bought it.

As for the damage on 2 of the rims, one is warped side to side, the other is bent, and is warped up and down, no tire weight can fix. Any attempt to run these will cause bad tire wear and bearing problems.

I will look into trying a wheel repair/refinishing shop between now and spring. Hell, maybe I'll just throw on some 17" rims!

Anyone heard of this wheel repair shop in Uxbridge, Ontario?

http://www.wheelfix.com/index.htm

Sounds like they know what they are doing.

[MantaGreen97]

There's also another place, in Ontario...

http://www.carcone.com/choice_wheelsmags.html