Need to replace two wheels
 

I need to replace two steel wheels (bent) on the 15 LX. The wheels are out of balance when tested with a balancer BUT i do not feel any vibration in the steering even if these wheels are in the front. I guess this is just my OCD.
The dealer quoted me 256 per wheel (OEM), which is ridiculous for regular steel wheels. I've checked the tire discount website and found steel wheels for 85 dollars. My question is, is it fine to mount wheels with different offset values? If I buy these two wheels from the website, I will have two sets of wheels with different offset values (OEM vs Tire Discount).

i would get an opinion from another shop. steel wheel are easily bent back. i used to work at a shop, and we had this heavy steel wrench used specifically for bending steel wheel back into shape. it was very quick and easy to use. also, i highly doubt you destroyed both wheels with one hit... did you blow out both tires?

as far as using the cheap steel wheel, you can run different offsets for sure. you need to keep them on one end of the car though, front or rear. you may find your stock wheel caps may not fit the aftermarket chinese wheels. just a word of caution...

also, you can get the wheels for $151 each online. perhaps even cheaper, but this is what i found after 30 sec of searching. Honda Automotive Parts

i will take your old ones... :p but i am sure you can have them fixed fairly easily.

Thanks for the reply. I did not blow the tires when hitting the pothole. The wheels are bent for sure (wobbles on balancer) but I have not felt any vibrations and they are not losing air. In fact, I've been driving them since April this year without issue. However the image of bent wheels are inside head all the time LOL. One shop told me that if I don't feel any vibrations to not bother fixing it.

you would be surprised how many wheels are tweaked on people's cars. i have put many on a balancer and saw the warble in them. as long as you don't have a wobble or vibration, and the wheel is not cracked, then you are good to go. :)

Oh, interesting. I guess I will just keep an eye on it (steering vibrations) to see if it starts happening. It's already been 8 months so I should be very confident but again the OCD lol. I did find steel wheels (15x6) on tirerack.com for 60 dollars but with a 45 offset (OEM is 50). I could in theory replace all 4 with 240 bucks, which is the price of one OEM wheel at the dealer LOL.

I bought 4 of the Tirerack steel wheels with 4 snow tires. I had a slight issue with balance, so I had my local shop re-balance the front wheels. They told me my right front wheel was "bent" (brand new wheel, by the way). I checked it at home, with an indicator on the bead seat (the proper way-I've built a few laced motorcycle wheels in my day), and the wheel measured dead true on the car.


I don't know what they were seeing on their balance machine, but I suspect they may not have had the wheel seated correctly.


Unless I KNEW I hit something, I'd have them checked by another shop before I started spending money.

Unfortunately I was able to see the bent when the car was lifted. How could be possible that I am not getting any vibrations though? I hit the pothole in April on my driver side (thus, two wheels)

Well. just because the wheel is bent, doesn't necessarily mean the tire is running out of true. There's a lot of rubber between the tire bead and the tread.


Your original post wasn't clear that you'd hit something. In my case I knew I hadn't as I'd had the wheels on the car less than a week. The shop didn't show me the "wobble" so I had to look for myself.


Given the price of OEM steel wheels, I'd be looking to upgrade to some nice aftermarket alloy wheels if it were me. I can remember when you could get steel wheels for $15 each at the junkyard. $256 for a steel wheel? Who does Honda think they are, Harley-Davidson?

Wheel repair shop wants 140 per wheel to fix the wheels ugh. I am starting to think I should just leave the wheels until it is time to replace the tires.

if those are done in front or rear pairs, then yes.

Two of our Tire Rack steelies bent years ago...pothole damage.


No leaks though. Had two new snows fitted last year, and the tire shop didn't mention any problem.


So, I'd advise not to lose any sleep over yours.

Lo and behold, I took my car to a wheel specialist. Found this place that deals with Europen Car dealers in New England (Ferraris, BMW, etc). Their rating was excellent. Took my car in and they pulled all 4 wheels of the car. Checked them and only ONE wheel had a slight bent...Fixed, re balanced and mounted. I am not sure why the tire shot told me I had two unfixable bent wheels. Anyways, this wheel repair shop had some precision wheel balancing machine, so I will just believe them lol.

As I mentioned in post #6, I had the same thing told to me by the tire shop I deal with here in town. Good thing I know something about measurement and wheels (I'm a tool and die designer by trade). Still don't know how they determined my new wheel was "bent", either. I'm beginning to think they don't hire the best and brightest to work in tire shops.

Glad it worked out for you.

they don't call them "stealerships" for nothing...

glad it worked out for ya! :thumbups:

Haha, Yes I will take 105 dollars over $500+ (dealer). I just cannot believe the dealer wanted to charge me almost 250 for OEM steel wheels.