Good VS Poor Quality Wheels

[VF-X]

I've been searching throughout the web and couldn't find definitive answer. So I reckon I'll ask my question here.

What's the benefit of getting good quality wheels such as from Japan? Pros and cons?

How much does it affect the Fuel consumption? Because I know most Jap wheels are light-weight.

Just on average, how much heavier is the Non-Jap wheels compared to the Jap ones? in sizes 18"-20".

Is it worth the difference in terms of cost?

What's the advantage of having multi-piece wheels?

I've read some answers relating to my questions in few websites and forums.. I just want to clarify and share it and hopefully people will find this topic useful for future reference.

[trentmeyer23]

Pro-Improved braking (less rotational weight)

Con-Price

[Hiro]

I think this topic is a little mis-guided. Not all Japanese wheels are high-quality lightweight racing rims, and not all non-Japanese ones are lead slugs.

[dutchie101]

Hiro is correct,

from my purchases and dealing with them:

Pro: Build quality far superior and manufactured to higher standards than Taiwanese/Chinese copies. Higher quality alloys used in the manufacture. Superior machine finish and surface finish from what i have seen. Light weight (or normally lighter than the copies). Not copies, original sharp designs. Copies can be up to or over 2kg more per wheel due to poor quality or recycled alloy.

Cons: Cost, replacement of damaged rims, although not so much of an issue these days with more dealers in this country now, and the power of the interwebs.

Multi piece or forged single units, really up to you and your budget or style your after. Forged single piece are usually the lightest option of all rims.

Obviously there are some ultra-lights made by other-than-Jap manufacturers.

Its pretty much up to your styling and pocket depth first of all.

[eviltwin]

Different Situation and car but look outisde the square. Both sets of wheels i have for my AE82 look excelent but neither are japanese , i have a set of ROH 15X7's ( Australian ) and i also have a set of Zender Turbo's ( German ) . if your buying wheels and your worried about weight i don't see going for 20's as being ideal

[private number]

Buying something like wheels overseas = knowing that your the only one (or a few) in australia that has it. Hate (well not hate but you know) seeing other people having the same thing as me (hence why i have a done up camry LOL)

[VF-X]

I know I shouldn't judge any rim from the price. I'm just curious why the wheels themselves from Japan is 3-5x more expensive than those we could get our hands here.

I think this topic is a little mis-guided. Not all Japanese wheels are high-quality lightweight racing rims, and not all non-Japanese ones are lead slugs.

I agree. I only consider the Chinese and Japanese when I created this thread. Will modify the topic.

But as far as I know of, all Japanese wheels are high quality eventhough they're not lightweight.

If your buying wheels and your worried about weight i don't see going for 20's as being ideal

If you can go for both looks and performance.. Why not? ;)

[eviltwin]

As long as you retain that Avatar we can be great friends

[dutchie101]

I know I shouldn't judge any rim from the price. I'm just curious why the wheels themselves from Japan is 3-5x more expensive than those we could get our hands here.

Like i said, quality alloy is used (high magnesium and in some case ceramic+magnesium), machining is more precise, higher labor and machining costs ect... smaller room for factories etc over there drive up prices.. rah rah... and thjose companies spend big bucks on design/testing/compliance etc.

Most stuff sold here except ROH and Speedy (maybe another one or to brands) are Chinese or Taiwanese copies. Cheap cheap labor, recycled cheap alloy used in the casting blah blah blah.. and they knock them out by the thousands.

Im with Private, if you wanna know no one else will roll with your rims, and you wanna stand out, bite the bullet and go for what you really want. Plus, you can use that "f@ck your fake wheels" sticker you always wanted to show.. :D

[johnnieboi]

I've definitely learnt my lesson with my rims. Next set will have to be a set of VOLKS or Works wheels. Probli kill the wallet, but for the quality and build, its worth every dollar.

[rthy]

some copies like the Koya Drift Teks (Taiwan) aka TE37 copy are pretty decent, commonly found on drift nissans.

Had SSR Longchamps XR4's 3piece on my ae86, very light wheels, also very strong :S

jdm wheels are superior, but could you justify them on a daily drive? $4000 vs $600...but id pay $1000-1500 2nd hand

[DreadAngel]

People have to be aware, not all the Japanese rims are forged lightweight items. In fact a lot of the Australian popular ones eg Work Emotion CR Kais, SSR Type C are cast not forged though they're much better cast quality than those cheap copies. With the amount of crap roads, people don't realise until later than their cheap replicas are either warping or buckling in due time. I haven't touched a set of replica rims since using Rota Slips on my old old EG Civic and they're considered quite high quality for knock-offs. When it comes to keeping your car glued to the road, I'd rather not play...

Edited October 18, 2010 by DreadAngel

[chicken]

how about oem alloy wheels? i know they are outsourced but probably face the most strict quality testing?

[Hiro]

People have to be aware, not all the Japanese rims are forged lightweight items. In fact a lot of the Australian popular ones eg Work Emotion CR Kais, SSR Type C are cast not forged though they're much better cast quality than those cheap copies. With the amount of crap roads, people don't realise until later than their cheap replicas are either warping or buckling in due time. I haven't touched a set of replica rims since using Rota Slips on my old old EG Civic and they're considered quite high quality for knock-offs. When it comes to keeping your car glued to the road, I'd rather not play...

Even genuine top-of-the-shelf wheels can warp and buckle if you drive them on too-rough roads or hit pot-holes, the Made In Italy Momo Twins that are on the ST162 have accrued 3 separate flat-spots since we got them (albeit secondhand), and word around the block is that Momo wheels (a fairly well known and quality brand if you spend the money, their cheap stuff is a bit meh though) are very soft despite being good quality.

[Mole]

If your buying wheels and your worried about weight i don't see going for 20's as being ideal

If you can go for both looks and performance.. Why not? ;)

Ok, 20's will be bloody heavy, even if you get super expensive ones. They'll be heavier then stock, so that means you'll have more unspung weight, which is BAD. Looks and performance is more like 17's. Not to mention how terrible your ride quality would be in comparison.

[and1]

The advantage of multi-piece wheels (aka modular wheels) is that you can change out the individual pieces to vary offset and width. Also you can use different materials for different parts, ie using a magnesium alloy on a wheel centre on a 3 piece wheel.

[DreadAngel]

People have to be aware, not all the Japanese rims are forged lightweight items. In fact a lot of the Australian popular ones eg Work Emotion CR Kais, SSR Type C are cast not forged though they're much better cast quality than those cheap copies. With the amount of crap roads, people don't realise until later than their cheap replicas are either warping or buckling in due time. I haven't touched a set of replica rims since using Rota Slips on my old old EG Civic and they're considered quite high quality for knock-offs. When it comes to keeping your car glued to the road, I'd rather not play...

Even genuine top-of-the-shelf wheels can warp and buckle if you drive them on too-rough roads or hit pot-holes, the Made In Italy Momo Twins that are on the ST162 have accrued 3 separate flat-spots since we got them (albeit secondhand), and word around the block is that Momo wheels (a fairly well known and quality brand if you spend the money, their cheap stuff is a bit meh though) are very soft despite being good quality.

Yup, hence I said in due time. The life you get out of them obviously dependent what type of driver and the condition of the road (Usually crap being Australia) any rim can be damaged. I've yet to have any sort of damage with any of my good wheels, with the other one, not so lucky. The 1 year old Starcorps the previous owner put on the EG were way beyond gone, heavily warped while the Rotas weren't in flash condition before changing over to my Regas permanently.

how about oem alloy wheels? i know they are outsourced but probably face the most strict quality testing?

Ahhhh, gotta be careful here too. I've seen several AE111 6 spoke rims fail and various other Nissan and Honda ones crack too. Most are good but some just aren't.

Edited October 19, 2010 by DreadAngel

[rthy]

apparently rota supply lots of stock wheels these days

go with steel wheels to be safe

[dorifto]

Another contributing factor to the expensive cost of Japanese wheels is the rigorous testing each wheel must go through and pass before being sold to the general public. It is this reason why each wheel has a certain plaque on the inside of the wheel that states in what year it was passed and by which inspector. My very first set of VOLK GR-C's had this and so do my current Enkei RPF1's in which I worked and paid out of my **** for.

I'm not saying ALL Japanese wheel makers have it but most do, so much so that RAYS ENGINEERING exceeds the JWL wheel safety standards and introduced the JWL+R (Racing) version which are commonly used on many race cars.

In my personal experiences with Japanese wheels, I've had no issue for them and for the money you pay you wouldn't hope there would be any. I was told to be careful with the wheels being a monoblock lightweight design, they could buckle from hitting large pot holes. As the car is a daily, it's seen alot of bumps, undulations and pot-holes. 3 months later, the wheel will still balance 100% without the need for wheel weights. This applies to the IMPUL RS wheels I have as well, they use only a few 10-20gram wheel weights but considering they are coming up to 20 years old, it says alot about the design and manufacture of the wheels. In comparison, a knock-off version of my RPF1 is 2 kilo's heavier yet is a 1/2 inch less in width. (4.5kg vs 6.5kg and 7inch wide vs 6.5inch). Food for thought.

[private number]

I've read some answers relating to my questions in few websites and forums.. I just want to clarify and share it and hopefully people will find this topic useful for future reference.

Vick; im just curious, what answers did you find to your questions before you started this thread?

[fandio]

Oem wheels are very strong in my experience. Had a 2002 corolla 15inch alloy that had a rather large impact with a truck and lived to tell the tail, just a few chunks taken out. But didn't buckle or warp. Compared to some rip off alloys I had that buckled after only a small pot hole

[VF-X]

I've read some answers relating to my questions in few websites and forums.. I just want to clarify and share it and hopefully people will find this topic useful for future reference.

Vick; im just curious, what answers did you find to your questions before you started this thread?

I kinda forgot already..

Ye, as and1 pointed out, it's easy to do things with multi-pieces. Read somewhere that it's good for track? I've no idea why, but a source said so.

Anw, This certainly isn't a good example of what we consider decent.

[Ronnyboy]

Anw, This certainly isn't a good example of what we consider decent.

Ouch!!!!!! Poor Rims........

[private number]

haha vick -.- fair enough

wow poor car and poor wheels. damn