6ul Wheel Failure

[Apu]

That's true, but it's obvious the Gen II 6ULs have had an engineering/manufacturing issue. So whilst I would less likely have a concern about the Gen III...I'd be worried about the Gen II wheels.

[Apu]

How many percent failure did Emilio say?

http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/showthread.php?178237-2x-sets-of-949-6ul-wheels!&highlight=6ul

Make a guess on how many sets of wheels have been sold in Australia, and have a guess on how many sets have failed in Australia. That'll give you a good sample of the failure rate.

Here's a hint - I raised the topic about a number of 6UL failures in Australia with Suspense only a couple of weeks before Hjt's failed. We've since heard of at least another, and here's one more (albeit only cracked) on sale.

[Suspense]

Can't see what you've linked to without signing up and logging in.

Are these failures gen II or III?

[Apu]

I don't know but according to Emilio it's Gen II.

Anyway, that post was a seller in QLD and didn't specify which generation.

[Magpie]

Make a guess on how many sets of wheels have been sold in Australia, and have a guess on how many sets have failed in Australia. That'll give you a good sample of the failure rate.

Actually you would need to know which batch the failures were from and then the total of failures and the size of that batch to get the failure rate. However if there are multiple batches then you will need to see if the failures are limited to one batch or are spread amongst numerous batches. Somehow I doubt that this information will be freely available.

[Apu]

The message from Emilio suggests that it's the Gen II wheel.

[sailaholic]

I'm going to take a guess, if the cracked set for sale is in South Brisbane, it is the user here with a name something like "peter long". He put them on sale in Facebook as well quoting he'd had a quote to repair then for $120.

I comment that I thought it was very irresponsible try and sell a set of cracked 6uls to someone as if they only needed a cheap touch up.

Interestingly he hasn't posted them here only the second set he has.

If it was a batch problem we could be seeing a much higher failure rate of them than normal as sets of wheels would have been sent to mx5center in one go. Think about of one of the big group buys on them had 100% of wheels from the bad batch (if that was the problem). The apparent failure percentage would be huge.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[Apu]

I don't know the guy, but yes, he put up a quote to fix. I was tempted to point out how dangerous and irresponsible that is but it's a bit feral over in OzHonda-land. He's asking $900 for the set (with tyres).

As for the batch problem, yes it could be but...

Let's take a guess - 300 sets of 6ULs sold in Australia? I think that might be optimistic...that's about 10 containers of wheels (and this is not a mass market wheel). We can easily count 6 sets of broken wheels. I'm counting them in sets as some who have had the wheel break (like Hayden) have also said the other wheels have shown cracks, so I would assume that that would be true of all cases. That's 2%...much more than the 0.0x% claimed by Emilio.

So if Australia did pick up 100% of the bad batch...it would be pretty poor of 949 Racing not to put out a notice, given that the race track is what the wheels were designed for.

Look at the flack the car manufacturers get for not putting out recall notices.

[timk]

Anyone know where the cracks start appearing?

[mazmad]

You want to get them really clean and look on the inside and inside for hairline cracks.

[manga_blue]

With wheels there's cheap, light, strong - pick any two. In any case spider thin spokes in cast aluminium does not equal strong.

[MattR]

You use your wheels for racing, they are an expendable item, have been since the year Jesus was running in the 2 horse chariot classes in Bethlehem.

Case in point, I have a Valiant Charger and a lot of documentation about it including the race set up data chrysler distributed to racers to help set the E49 up. At Leo Geoghan's recommendation, and chrysler's, the W35 mag wheel, basically a ROH Jelly bean style wheel and one of the strongest wheels for the weight available at the time, and probably now, was lifed for six race meetings before they were replaced, so you went through two set of wheels a year in sprint races and probably threw away the two or three sets you ran at Bathurst.

Even today, most competitors will life their wheels, for some of us it is around 5 years or so, for some it's a lot shorter, but wheels will have to be replaced as they don't like getting shock loads through them from ripple strips kerbs, other cars, wall and so on on the track, or the same plus pot holes, kerbs and so on on the road.

The 6UL are a relatively cheap well made wheel, but for the price point there will be failures, it may be a design or material fault, it may also be a problem from use and/or abuse that has caused the failure.

My new, earlier this year, Enkeis have what looks like some kerb marks on them, however they have done 3 track days only and aren't used on the road other than driving to/from the track. the damage has to be from the kerbing, drop offs and ripple strips at the track so any wheel will only have a finite life when put to a high stress use like a track day.

From all reports the service from the manufacturer is good, he is trying to find out how the failures occur and building a better product as a result of the feedback, pretty much all you can expect from him.

[Apu]

The thing is I don't believe any of these cases were from race cars. They were dailies that saw the occassional track day.

[Dweezle]

Thats right. Dailies that cop pot holes, gutters and other high stress impacts that a aluminium wheel will not accept.
I thought most of the failures where from second hand wheels.

If that is the case then I question why the previous owner decided to sell

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk 4

[Hellmun]

I think I've got over 5 years and 70+ trackdays (including atleast 2 endurance races) on my 15*8's and I haven't found a crack yet.... I only broke one when I put a brake caliper through it. On the track you've got to appreciate your putting huge weight into the wheels and they're usually hot which weakens the aluminium further. It's quite amazing how many people are running them without issues (especially when some of the US guys are running 275 hoosiers, slicks etc). From memory Emilio provided advice on how often the roundness should be checked ...and gave a rough idea how long he thought you could use them before they should replaced. So I've never been under the impression they would last forever. I plan on picking up a set of 15*9's in the next 2 years (assuming I don't need to up-brake and get 17's, I haven't run a hot track-day yet and really tested the wilwoods) and retiring my 15*8's to wet weather tyres. I've pretty confident I've already gotten my moneys worth with the 8's.