Bent wheels, although much rarer than they used to be, are annoying, bad for your car’s suspension, and just plain expensive to fix. If you’re wondering why this happens, there’s a few reasons.

Bent wheels can happen for a number of reasons. Hitting a curb, running over a pothole, and road debris have all been known to damage wheels.

Wheels that are bent sometimes only have minor signs of damage, like a slow leak. Other times, however, they can cause more serious problems like pulling, suspension component wear, or worst of all, steering component damage.

If you have steel wheels – the kind that usually are unpainted and have hubcaps over them – this isn’t as big of a deal to you. Steel wheels can have most minor flaws repaired, and if you can’t fix it, it’s usually very cheap to replace. Alloy wheels, however, usually have to be replaced when there is structural damage. Though they generally can take a beating better than steel, once they do finally break, it isn’t safe for them to be repaired. They can crack during repair, and even hairline cracks on alloy wheels are at risk of causing total wheel failure.

That doesn’t mean you have to just throw out alloy wheels, however. Alloy wheels are usually fine to do cosmetic repairs to. Repairing curb rash on an alloy wheel can get it looking brand new again, and it is considerably cheaper than a replacement.

Questions? Feel free to call us at 704-545-4597.