Lorinser Wheels Warning!!! Danger!!!

      Rip-off alert!!These wheels are supposed to be a high quality wheel that Mercedes Benz highly reccommends for their car owners. Below is a personal experience that I had with their product, and some from others that have e-mailed me with similar experiences.

In April of 2005 my wife and I had purchased a set of Lorinser wheels for our CLK 500 Mercedes Benz. They were purchased on line at www.wheelboutique.com. The purchase price of these wheels was over $900.00 each. We figured that we were getting a quality product, as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.

 Never were we told that there was no warranty on these wheels because they were chrome plated.

  Just recently,  the right front tire would no longer hold air. After a close inspection it was noticed that the wheel had stress cracks in the area where the tire seats. We called Wheel boutique and they said that we would have to take our problem to the manufacturer.  After calling the manufacturer, we were told by their representative Shari Hale that the chroming of the wheels by wheelboutique.com voided the warranty.  The reason given was that it changed the metal make up of the aluminum, and made the wheel weak.

  We were referred to a distributor in Tempe Arizona called Wheel Specialists. Darren young at Wheel Specialists examined pictures that we sent him and concluded that the wheel sustained an impact, and that he sees that kind of damage on a "regular basis." They said they would sell us a new wheel at the discounted price of $700.00. He recommended to us in an e-mail that we replace all 4 wheels "in the near future."

I find all of this very interesting, as no one wants to take responsibility for this problem,

I have been in the collision repair industry for over 25 years. I have taken courses in Impact dynamics, I have been utilized by local law enforcement agencies and major insurance companies in accident forensics. I am  I-CAR certified in collision repair damage evaluation, I hold certifications in GMAW all positions welding with a background in metallurgy studies, and I am certain that these wheels have a design flaw that lead to their failure. These cracks were NOT instigated by any impact.

We conclude that at this point, although Lorinser Wheel bills them out as being a quality product, we have found otherwise. We also feel that the Wheel boutique has misrepresented their product, and that they refuse to stand behind it. 

Below we have posted some pictures of the wheel. notice the cracks in the wheel below. there is no sign of impact anywhere.

This is a close up of the crack. A crack caused by impact would have signs of distortion or abrasion in the general area of the failure. You would see signs of chafing from metal that was mis-aligned due to impact.

Here is the area between the two cracks, again no sign of impact whatsoever. The area between the cracks is not abraded, nor is it distorted in any way. The most brittle compounds of aluminum will show traceable evidence of distortion before a structural failure. There is none evident here.

Here is a picture of the wheels. Be very carefull! This is a classic example of a rip-off. Do not be a victim of false representations, lies and overpricing for flawed engineering. Just because you are paying a lot, it does not mean you are receiving quality.

This is what you get for your money, You have been warned!

Below are the pages of the ads that we had purchased the wheels from. as you can see, there are no notations of any problems with the chrome wheels. They are sold from these suppliers as if they were manufactured this way.

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