Enkei Wheel Failure

[Black Boss]

Second session at the track today on Conti slicks and had an Enkei wheel fail



Crack goes all the way through spoke. Did not hit anything or drop off a curb. It was the Left Front. Did get a good fast lap in but had to switch to the Nitto's

 

[VoodooBoss]

Did you hit any curbs hard? Or did you take that from Gary?

 

[Black Boss]

Did you hit any curbs hard?

No. I ran all the curbs, but they are progressive. Have run way more aggressive curbs at other tracks with no issues.

Anyone else had issues?

 

[cloud9]

No. I ran all the curbs, but they are progressive. Have run way more aggressive curbs at other tracks with no issues.

Anyone else had issues?

I have had two separate failures this season, both on fronts. The first was on the passenger side and had two cracked spokes off the same lug hole.



The second one was on the driver side and involved two cracked spokes from separate but adjacent lug holes.



Both of these are from my set that's on its 7th season. I called Dan at Outperformanceshop.com and he said that Enkei wouldn't warrant them because they had been spray painted at the body shop. He asked if they had been baked and I said no, just sprayed. He said they're engineered to crack and not catastrophically fail so I'm glad to see Nick's didn't completely fail. I used these wheels (both fronts) on my nose heavy GT500 for 3 years and now on the 4th year in the Boss. That's a lot of heat cycles and lateral load on a heavy car with very sticky tires so I wasn't expecting them to be covered by warranty. I chalked it up to basically reaching the end of their life cycle.

I have replaced both with new fronts this season and have run them pretty hard at MAM and RA, but do inspect them regularly. My other set is on its 4th season with no ill effects yet. I bang the curbing pretty hard as well and do tend to drive the car pretty hard.

I guess I'm not sure what to make of Nick's failure. I did a search after I cracked the first one and I'm not seeing a rash of this being reported on other forums. I'm going to say at this point it's nothing more than all the other things we manage to break when we drive the cars hard........

I would think Enkei would warrant Nick's since I'm assuming it's a fairly new wheel?

 

[VoodooBoss]

Glad to see there were no catastrophically failures. Wheels have a life cycle just like everything else on our cars and race teams replace their wheels regularly.

http://tires.about.com/od/buyers_guide/tp/The-Top-5-Toughest-Aftermarket-Wheels.htm

 

[Black Boss]

Glad to see there were no catastrophically failures. Wheels have a life cycle just like everything else on our cars and race teams replace their wheels regularly.

http://tires.about.com/od/buyers_guide/tp/The-Top-5-Toughest-Aftermarket-Wheels.htm

I checked my wheel/tire log. These were my newer set. Only a total of 22 cycles with 2 sets of Contis. I'm expecting Enkei to warranty it!

 

[WinterSucks]

Are you guys thinking this damage is from excessive heat from the rotors since they seem to only be breaking in the front?

 

[cloud9]

Are you guys thinking this damage is from excessive heat from the rotors since they seem to only be breaking in the front?

I would think the heat cycles from the front rotors have to be a contributing factor. Not only that, the front wheels take much more of the weight under hard cornering, thus the life cycle on front wheel hubs is shortened as well.

 

[blacksheep-1]

I would recommended CCW for a relatively inexpensive wheel, I have personally straightened some of these with a BFH and a 2x4. We pond the daylights out of these with no failures, if you've been things this year we've hit a lot of stuff. We also used these wheels when we ran "brand X" .

http://www.ccwheel.com/gallery.php

 

[VoodooBoss]

I would recommended CCW for a relatively inexpensive wheel, I have personally straightened some of these with a BFH and a 2x4. We pond the daylights out of these with no failures, if you've been things this year we've hit a lot of stuff. We also used these wheels when we ran "brand X" .

http://www.ccwheel.com/gallery.php

Rob, how often do you replace the wheels?

 

[steveespo]

I would recommended CCW for a relatively inexpensive wheel, I have personally straightened some of these with a BFH and a 2x4. We pond the daylights out of these with no failures, if you've been things this year we've hit a lot of stuff. We also used these wheels when we ran "brand X" .

http://www.ccwheel.com/gallery.php

C10 wheel looks nice but not enough tech specs to see how it will clear my brake package
At $700 a wheel I'd go with the Ford Racing BBS wheels. Puffer's Team Dynamics wheel fit the bill for me nicely.
Failed Enkei's are disturbing as many of my friends run them. Please check your rims guys. Although Gary can probably go just as quick on the rotors if he has to.

Steve

 

[13Boss#3328]

Bummer I just paid $1500 for a set

 

[VoodooBoss]

Bummer I just paid $1500 for a set

You're fine. These are high quality wheels and lots of race teams use them. If you search around there are not wide spread issues with them. Gary's are on their seventh season with lots of hard use with slicks. He likes to hit the curbs hard too. ;D

 

[neema]

Mine are holding up so far with lots of short cuts over rumble strips. If my wheels lasted 7 seasons with slicks, I'd consider that an accomplishment. Especially at their price point and weight.

 

[blacksheep-1]

Rob, how often do you replace the wheels?

Ours probably don't see 3 years, they are either damaged or rotated tot he rain set before being sent to wheel heaven. We date all of our wheels when they arrive. One good thing about the CCW is that they are very hard to seat the bead, so if you loose air pressure or run low cold pressures (cold day) they will tend to stay on the wheel and you can retain control of the car.
I'm just guessing, but say 3 heat cycles a weekend 13 races (including Daytona ROAR but not any others)..about 120 cycles. I'm not sure I've ever seen one last that long though, but they will take a beating. Try to stay away from some of the modular wheels (IMO) the polished bead component won't keep the bead on in case of rapid deflation. (I hope I'm not pissing anyone off with that statement).

 

[cloud9]

Mine are holding up so far with lots of short cuts over rumble strips. If my wheels lasted 7 seasons with slicks, I'd consider that an accomplishment. Especially at their price point and weight.

That's why I immediately ordered a replacement wheel in each instance. If I felt they didn't hold up to a pretty severe beating I would have punted and moved on to something else. Those wheels actually went a lot longer than should be reasonably expected.

Please check your rims guys.
Steve

I hear ya man. It's one more item I scan between sessions while I'm checking pressures and marking the session on the sidewall.

Although Gary can probably go just as quick on the rotors if he has to.
Steve

I'd rather not try and find out! ;D

 

[Black Boss]

You're fine. These are high quality wheels and lots of race teams use them. If you search around there are not wide spread issues with them. Gary's are on their seventh season with lots of hard use with slicks. He likes to hit the curbs hard too. ;D

I agree. Now that I confirmed it was my new set of wheels, I'd expect it was an isolated manufacturing defect. My other wheels have seen way more cycles and curb abuse, and although I was running Contis on the failed wheel, they are not that much stickier than Nitto's.

The Hoosier R6's are going on next

 

[WinterSucks]

While you are all on the topic of wheel life: has anyone reached the end of the SVE Drifts yet? It's nice to save some money, but if they need replacement 3 or 4 times as often as a nice $700 wheel then they are really not a long term bang for your buck. Unless you figure you will break the more expensive longer lasting wheel from curbs. Then I could see the advantage of the cheaper Drift.

What I am taking from this is to not HPDE with my relatively fragile TSWs and summer tires and buy some Drifts sooner rather than later, even if all I use are summer tires at the moment. Like my Sport Comp2s. Very happy with them, especially in the monsoon we just had here in MA. Best tires I have ever driven in rain.

 

[SC BOSS]

I run the Enkei PF01’s on my boss as well. I’m on my second full track season on them with multiple sets of Nitto NT01’s and have been monitoring them, with no issues as of yet. I run Conti Slicks on TSW’s and have run Hoosier R6’s on a different set. As far as my Enkei’s go, I run my Nittos HARD and if I get 5-7 track seasons on them, I’ll be satisfied. I spoke with a rep at both Tire Rack and Cortex (the two places I purchased my Enkei’s through), and they both assured me they would replace the wheel and send it to Enkei to reimburse them if I had an early failure (within the first few years).

let me know what you find out Black Boss.

thanks
Luke

 

[blacksheep-1]

I had an extensive discussion with John from CCW. He had a lot of good info, I'm trying to talk him into writing an article with some of that info, either in response to this thread or on its own. If not I will try to paraphrase some of our discussion after this weekend in Mosport.