Need advice from TW on this one... safety issue?

Hey TW members, I had some bad luck with some lugs snapping on me while driving down the highway, I was very lucky and seemed to only damage my rotor and hub. But after checking everything out I noticed some stress cracks in the rims ( Mickey Thompson Sidebitter ). Now Im suspicious my lug nuts were over torqued which may or may not have caused these cracks.
Im not sure if these are safe to use anymore. I sanded the inside down so the paint wont hide it. The cracks don't appear to be in a very critical portion of the rim as far as load bearing , but again Im asking for advice because Im no expert. Both my front rims are like this, only the one that fell off has the visible cracks like this. Should I replace them? Can I repair them? Or am I just being paranoid?

Thanks

 

Yes, it is serious, do not drive the truck with that wheel on it. Those cracks are out from the tapered wheel nut seats from what I can see in your photos, and WILL cause a repeat wheel-off situation.

I'm confused by your sentence "Both my front rims are like this, only the one that fell off has the visible cracks like this." Can you explain? To me it seems like a contradiction.

 

The passenger side you can feel little bumps in the same spots but you can't see them like the driver side wheel.

 

Unlike steel aluminium does not bend it cracks and when it goes it goes. Don't drive on those rims. Who over torqued them?

 

I can't imagine seeing a crack in any rim and not assuming that it's an immediate safety issue. Obviously we'd all love to save a few bucks when possible, but IMO this ain't worth gambling with.

 

Take them to your local recycling facility and see how much scrap value you can get out of them.

 

Yeah i was already about 90% sure I wasn't gonna use them, but I figured It couldn't hurt to ask. Desert Rat wants about $1,500 for 2 new rims, and 4 new cooper stt m/t tires. Sounds pretty good, but before I make the order does anyone here know of a better place? or discount code for desertrat.com ?

 

The lives of you and your family ride on those wheels. Absolutely no compromise should be taken. I don't see how simple over tightening would have caused that unless they brought out a large breaker bar and cranked on it or the wheels had some manufacturing defect or they used a made in China alloy and the China alloy didn't meet spec it advertised.

I highly advocate OEM wheels for unsurpassed quality and durability.

 

You would think you could trust a brand like Mickey Thompson... Smh

 

F Mickey Thompson. Go to discount tire you can get 4 rims and tires for that much. Desertrape not desertrat.

 

Yeah, and those 4 wheels will likely be of less quality and also made in China.

OP, I would contact Mickey Thompson and let them know of the issue, see if they help you out at all. If those wheels failed and someone was injured or killed they would be facing a serious lawsuit. The proper thing to do would be to let them know of the issue so they can investigate it.

 

looks like everything was overtorqued..... spacers n wheels.... might reconsider who ever you let touch your truck as well as the wheel spacers.

 

I'm curious if these wheels are hub or lug centric (couldn't find info. online), and what style lug nuts were used, e.g. - OEM shank lugs, 60° Conical lugs.

If the wrong combo was used, an indeed over torqued, that would have definitely caused the pressure cracks.

As crashnburn80 suggested, I would contact MT and provide pics to see what they say. Those wheel have a lifetime structural warranty fyi.

 

I used 60 degree conical lug nuts , but let a ( buddy) who opened his own shop work on my truck once or twice and he never touched the back wheels which is why they are fine I suspect lol. I also agree this was from over torqued lug nuts, even though I still don't fully understand how it cracked the way it did.

Calling M/T tomorrow , I'll keep ya'll posted

 

Your "buddy" probably used an impact to put the lug nuts on.

 

Holy crap.

 

Im not saying Its the wheels fault for breaking studs , but over torquing with a impact gun ( which he did use) shouldn't have cracked the rims like that imo

 

Aluminum wheels with tapered nuts / seats are very susceptible to distortion and cracking when over-torqued. There is a reason most OEM's have switched to the shank-style nut with the flat washer for alloy wheels - no wedge effect to damage the wheel under the wrong torque, and more consistent torque is achieved with the steel washer as opposed to the tapered seat - on aluminum there is a lot of friction between the two surfaces.

That's not to say the tapered seat style are unsafe or won't work well IF torqued correctly and re-torqued within a hundred miles or so. I too would say those were grossly over-torqued, which is not a manufacture's defect. I'd be discussing this with your buddy the shop owner, if for nothing else than his education.

 

what's typical torque on a lugnut? or does it vary quite a bit?

 

so, like, eleventy?