once again my car was back to the dealer getting fixed. i think they have had my car more in the last year than i have.....now my car has a new tranny, rear brakes, ignition, door lock system........and now on the list.....front brakes..

the other day my disk brake on the front pass. side was making a terrible grinding noise and the brake was sticking and not workin right. so, i take it to the dealer and they tear it apart, and what do you know....the bearings are just shredded....

i asked why this happened...and my mechanic told me that is because i have aftermarket wheels. okay, one i cal bull****. i know tons of people with aftermarket wheels on their car and they do not have this happen.......so this gets me wondering.....could that happen due to aftermarket wheels...

my mechanic says yes....but the guy who put my wheels on and does my alignments says no, and i called discount tire company and i asked them and ther said they have nevere heard of that happening.


im just going to assume that my bearings were just worn out and it happened because of wear and tear....


any info?!?!?!?

 

Do you brake heavy? I have 18's and have had them on for about 2 yrs.

 

there is no way new wheels can cause brakes to fail. go to the mechanic that told you that and tell him to explain exactly HOW it can do that instead of just telling you that it does. but dont be pissy because that will get you nowhere

 

My friend has wide wheels on his Accord and no problems. I know a whole bunch of people with rims and have never heard that. I agree with mikey.

 

um i have 17" on my neon. i messed up my wheel bearing also but not cuz of da rims. but i was drifting my car for a while lol. (dat was fun till it lasted) do u drift or make turns at high speeds?

 

i have 17" rims on my neon and i messed up my wheel bearing but dats cuz i drifted my car ( dat was fun till it lasted) but dats only why. even my mechanic asked me but i said no cuz hes a good friend of my dads. but yea drifting messes up ur wheel bearing.

 

Only prob with aftermarket wheels I have had was with a set of 13 X 7 reverse offset spokes on my 90 probe. It went through wheel bearings like crazy but with the tires sticking 6 - 8 inches out from the fenders what can you expect. Other than that no prob with aftermarket wheels here.

 

I've never heard of that; that's good to know.

I've also never heard of the wheels messing other things up. I have aftermarket rims and I'm straight.

 

aftermarket wheels on a car thats not alligned properly and ya ur gona see some problems....bigger tires and a stock breaking unit your gonna see problems...the lower profile u go the worst it is for your car....the more power u have and the smaller wheels makes it hard on the car...im suprised u all have nver heard about this before....my dad being a mechanic sees these situations all the time...the worst thing is when guys chop springs to lower there car and put a biggers rim/ tire package...u might as well pull all the money u have right now and give it away

 

as some of you probably already know, torque=(force)x(distance)

if you consider a stock neon with 15's and front discs, there is about7.5-8 inches from the outer most point on the tire to the center of the brake pad. as you increase tire and or wheel size, you increase the "distance" part of the equation which in turn increases the torque needed by the brake in order for the car to come to a stop at the same rate as it didwith the stock wheels. the same situation happens in the lateral or "side-to-side" direction. because the distance from the ground to the the hub centers will increase with a bigger wheel, more torque is placed on the wheel bearingswhile cornering.

the mechanic would be right if he said that aftermarket wheels will cause things to wear faster, because its absolutely true if the wheel/tire combo is bigger than what you had to begin with.

for your situation however, i dont want to say that this is the only hindrance because there are many other guys with big wheels not having the same problems. yes they are putting their bearings and brakes under more stress but it doesnt seem to be excessively harming their vehicles.