Safety of welded 3 piece rims

[Mad RS]

I had a problem with a tyre deflating today so I took it to a local tyre shop to get looked at. Leak was between the rim and beading so thats ok (I think??) but the guy in the shop gave me a bit of a dressing down about having welded rims and that they will explode (??) eventually just because they are welded.

The rims are 16x8 Watanebe's that have had the outer lip/rim half removed and a custom outer welded in place (so they now can not be pulled appart). Has anyone here had anything to do with welding up 3 piece rims, either driving on them or having them welded?? What would be the safety aspect of driving on them?? I never gave it a thought until this guy brought it up.

Over the 2 or so months I have had the car the tyres haven't lost 1 pound of air pressure and I put the leak down to having the front tyres swaped to the opposite rim and maybe they were not sealed properly.

[DavisJD]

I recently had my 3 piece rims sealed properly. Some sort of sealing liquid was used between every piece and all the bolts had to be done up to the correct torque. Not exactly sure what that figure was but that solved all the deflating problems

[Mad RS]

Nah I am not worried about the deflating part. It was just a leaking bead, what I am worried about is the safety of welded rims.

[roadsailing]

the guy was just pulling it http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/fap.gif hehe, ehat a useful emoticon

anyway, unless your wheels were welded dodgily, there is nothing wrong with them at all. my wheels are welded 3 (maybeye 2) piece and they are factory datsun wheels. they haven't exploded yet.

[DRFTAE86]

I once was given a lecture about some Impul rims i had taken to a tyre shop to have tyre changed..... once the guy took off the tyre and saw the welding, he was all like "that aint safe mate, the rims could brake aprat".......I didnt think much of it, as the rim hadn't fallen apart yet nor had any signs of breaking. http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/forums/emoticons/wtf.gif

[Mad RS]

See the more I think about it the more I am not worried about it. Isn't the rule that 1 inch of weld can hold a tonne or some thing.

Anyone here know about welding?? Does alloy crack with welding?? I think this guy was telling a few porkies. I think that I may get Ray Beleau (sp??) to have a look at them.

[slydar]

most "3 peice" jap rims are made that way. i doubt your rims were modified, id say thats how they came.

ssr mesh rims the inner and outer are welded together and only the centre unbolts.

longchamps the inner is welded to the front of the centre, and the outer is welded to the back. they dont comeapart at all.

that dude is a just some aussie bloke who's never seen that manfucaturing style before.

[Blown86]

I've noticed a lot of the Jap two piece are welded.

It's not a problem if rims are welded properly.
Most of the time if it's dodgy it's not the weld it's self but the surrounding metal can be over heated this leads to warping or cracking.

If you want to test rims for integrity look in the yellow pages for a Non Destructive Testing company, they can crack test anything for a reasonable price.

[45aken]

hahahahahha
welding will shit all over bolts any day of the week. he was probably saying that to try to make you buy some "sick" rims of his that he just gets from tempe anyways.