Beware Kinesis Wheels! Look at this!

Screw them, what a bunch of crap! Glad your o.k Plugz.

 

Yes!!! The K57 was and is still be offered........even on some muscle car conversions.http://www.xvmotorsports.com/cars/index.cfm

Wheel on the right is in fact a genuine Kinesis K57 that they are still able to get for their conversions.

It is DOT approved.

Usually their is a disclaimer on street wheel warranties that void if used for track/racing.

 

Here is another pic from XVMotorports that shows the Kinesis center cap
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Weird, lots of Porsche guys use Kinesis K27 design with great results. Maybe is just a problem with your rims or the design, as i know other guys who have same design as yours without problem. Still, i FULLY agree Kinesis is not the same company they were before the selling off. Both sets of my K27 have been great, though the K27 is a very different design and the same one pro teams and the Porsche guys use.

 

Funny thing, because the company is called Kinesis Motorsports. One does not do motorized sports on the street, but the track.
Regardless, they should not crack 80% of the material holding it together, unless involved in a direct sideways impact.

 

The K57,58,58R,and 59 all use the same centers...aircraft quality forged aluminum centers(T6-6061).

Bruce, if I were you I would PM Jay(UconnHusky) and arrange for him to test the broken wheel center.

I personally have used Kinesis wheels(back in the good old days) and never had any problems......Porsche guys have used them for many many years.....might want to go to a Porsche chat forum and post....they would find this very interesting and could probably give you some quality advise.

There are lots of these wheels out there and you could possibly pick up just the center....make sure the offset is correct and have it crack tested before installing.

BTW, were these wheels on the car when you purchased??

 

bruce has a good idea. Try http://forums.rennlist.com/ on the race forum and use tinypic.com to cut and paste your image

 

Bruce, happy 1000th ;p

 

Time for a lawyer Bruce. A good product liability lawyer.

Me thinks if they understood the PR implications of this that they might settle up.

If they do not.....I will never recommend Kinesis wheels to any of my clients again and will go out of my way to spread the word.

Voiding a warranty for track use is BS......they sell these wheels for that reason. Performance. If they did not, they'd make OEM sizes only.

 

Well, anyone can have bad casting run, but to stand behind it, in this case, WAY behind it, it another matter!

Sad to hear this and just glad you are okay.

DOT rating means something in my mind, as we use to wheels to and from the track in alot of cases. Maybe they WOULD be interested..

Now food for your thoughts.......a failure lab will find the cause, and if one of those spokes are old stress cracks from a curb impact, they'll find that too.

 

Looks like a weird place for a crack to form - is there a cutout on the backside that corresponds with these crack areas? Also, did you buy these wheels new?

 

As far as product liability, since the only thing that broke was the wheel the payday for any litigation would be pretty small. I doubt that the "mean bitin' dogs" are going to line up to take the case unless you agree to pay them by the hour.

A good failure analysis lab (I have worked with a good one near me) could likely pinpoint the cause but it would probably cost more than a new set of wheels. The person that would benefit most from this work would be the manufacturer so that their current product isn't likely to fail.

Since they are disavowing any responsibility and nobody was hurt, it is probably best to settle for poisoning their name throughout the car world.

 

Of course if it was found not to be the fault of the manufacturer, then this "poisoning" could result in very serious trouble for the original poster.

 

Thanks X, nice of you to notice. It's about time I got there....I've been going for quality and not quantity, which as you know keeps the post number down....did you hear that OZ????...lol

 

Seems like anyone producing a product(especially one that is DOT certified) would want that product returned so that they could run tests to determine the causation. The price of testing and sending a replacement to the owner, would not only show their commitment to safety, but also their willingness to maintain an impeccable reputation through-out the market sector their livelyhood is dependant on. We witnessed the best of the best when Hill Engineering stepped up to the plate when PAP348 had the wheel spacer incident. Sad that not all mfg's have the character and integrity of a Paul Hill.

 

Wow Bruce. You weren't kidding about that wheel. Scary. So glad you didn't get hurt.

 

Oh for sure - most performance part companies concerned about making good products and protecting themselves would want to work with the customer in a situation where their product fails. It seems like Kinesis has been acquired by the bling guys, though, so I'm not sure if they have the same motivation, as others here have suggested.

Regardless of their policies or motivations, I wanted to point out the danger of "name poisoning" on the internet.

 

A 1st class act!!

 

as long as you are stating an opinion, there isn't much anyone can do about it....

 

This post is the most illogical one I've read in a long time.

 

Wow, glad that you and your car are ok. It's a shame to see businesses not stand behind the product they sell.

 

I had a set of HRE two-piece racing wheels for my Datsun 510 that developed small (maybe 0.5 cm) cracks in the corners of the spokes. I contacted them and they promptly sent me replacements for no fee. They were quite happy to make me happy. Which seemed like a good business attitude. I sent new customers to them.

 

unfortunately, this **** happens to alot of wheels...many of the custom wheels have had this problem and honestly, there isnt much a buyer can do...I have heard of and seen almost every custom built wheel manufacturer have cracks and split...DPE, HRE, Kinesis, FIKSE, BBS..you name it...


I still use Kinesis and Fikse on my racecar...no problems...

 

I don't think good wheels should develop cracks in the first place. I've heard several stories of HRE's failing when used at the track. Too little material, too sharp radii, or some other simple causes may be to blame. They are nice, apparently just not strong.
And HRE's on a Datsun? Makes no sense!

 

Damn Bruce, sorry to see the damage. Good to hear you didn't go off in turn 8. For those that have never been to Willow Springs, thats a 120-130 mph hair raiser. About the last place to have an off. The good news is I know 3 companies I would not buy wheels from...Just poor customer relations.


Darrell.