Can a kerbed wheel
always be saved?

People send us photographs apologising for how bad a wheel is. Nine times out of ten the damage is cosmetic and the wheel is fine. The ones that cannot be saved usually look less dramatic than the ones that can.

What a bad scuff actually is

A kerb strike removes material from the rim edge. It looks alarming because it is the part you can see, and because bare aluminium against a painted rim draws the eye.

Structurally it is almost nothing. The rim edge is not carrying the load that the spokes and the mounting face are, and a few millimetres of material off it does not change how the wheel behaves.

The four that cannot be saved

1. A crack through a spoke. That is structural and no repair makes it safe.
2. A crack across the mounting face, for the same reason.
3. A buckle beyond what a jig can bring back within tolerance without weakening the rim.
4. A diamond-cut face already machined to its limit, where another cut would take it below a safe thickness.

None of those are judgement calls made by eye. Cracks are visible or they are not; buckles get measured on a jig; remaining face thickness gets measured before any cutting.

Check the inside as well

Most people photograph the outer face because that is the bit they look at. The inner barrel is where the more serious damage hides, particularly after a pothole rather than a kerb.

Run a hand round the back of the rim. A ridge, a flat spot or a visible crack there is worth mentioning when you send the photo, because it changes the job from cosmetic to structural.

If the car has developed a vibration at a particular speed that balancing did not fix, assume a buckle until somebody measures it.

What it costs to find out

Nothing. We quote from a photograph, and if a wheel turns out to be unsafe we refuse it and charge you for neither the inspection nor the collection.

That is not generosity. A refused wheel takes ten minutes to identify and a wheel we coated that should have been scrapped is a problem we would rather never have. See the buckle and crack page for what we can put right.