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[RINTAXI]

I bought a set of ARC-8 back in April 2015. Today I went to my tire shop to do a routine tire rotation. And we found that my rear passenger side wheel is bent pretty bad. I only drive my car to the track and drive back home, no DD at all.

I was like omg, already??? Does Apex have warranty on their bent wheel?

[warp10]

A few of mine have slight bends. But they have been able to balance them out. So its no big deal to me when they are a track knly wheel for me and they are relatively inexpensive to replace.

[ayao]

Was there a specific off or incident that would have resulted in the bend?

[dogbone]

Apex will replace the damaged wheel for 50% off the price of the new wheel. You need to pay to ship the old one back, but they will send you a UPS label. It costs like $20 bucks to ship it with their label.

It's a fantastic policy. I have 12 of their rims. I bent 2 of them. They replaced them with new ones 50% off no-fuss.

[RINTAXI]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Apex will replace the damaged wheel for 50% off the price of the new wheel. You need to pay to ship the old one back, but they will send you a UPS label. It costs like $20 bucks to ship it with their label.

It's a fantastic policy. I have 12 of their rims. I bent 2 of them. They replaced them with new ones 50% off no-fuss.

Wow that is a cool policy. Thanks for share it. I am going to contact Apex tomorrow.

[RINTAXI]

Originally Posted by ayao

Was there a specific off or incident that would have resulted in the bend?

I actually have no idea why my brand new Apex wheel would be bent. I did not went off the track or hit any pothole at all.

[okusa]

Originally Posted by RINTAXI

I actually have no idea why my brand new Apex wheel would be bent. I did not went off the track or hit any pothole at all.

Apparently you did, you just didn't notice.

[Eddy@ApexWheels]

Originally Posted by RINTAXI

I bought a set of ARC-8 back in April 2015. Today I went to my tire shop to do a routine tire rotation. And we found that my rear passenger side wheel is bent pretty bad. I only drive my car to the track and drive back home, no DD at all.

I was like omg, already??? Does Apex have warranty on their bent wheel?

RINTAXI,

I'm sorry to hear you've been inconvenienced by a bent wheel. Sadly wheels from every manufacturer can bend from use, and for this reason, no manufacturer that I know of provides a warranty that covers bends.

That being said, we understand it can be frustrating to experience them early on in the life of a wheel. Although you may have had limited use with them on the street, the track can be a deceiving place when it comes to the abuse they put on a car.

Going off track is a common way to bend a wheel, as an "off" is essentially a one car accident, involving unknown terrain, with high loads, and odd angles. Who knows how much abuse any given part is experiencing during those moments. If you don't go off track then the berms or track runout are you next two possible wheel killers.

If you hit a berm or drop a single tire at speed, that can be much worse than a pot hole on the street. Under cornering load the tire sidewall is flexing away from the wheel (this is not happening when traveling on the street). If you impact a bump/berm at the same time, the metal rim can actually make physical contact with the pavement, since it's already so close. If there isn't metal to pavement contact then at the very least, more than normal shock is transferred through the remaining sidewall and into the wheel. Checkout pictures of cars going through the corkscrew at Laguna Seca to get a visual on how much even meaty tires will roll over under load.

There are often divots and trenches formed by cars that miss or over shoot the runout. Headed up the hill at Laguna Seca through turn 6, there is a significant inside bump that's known to eat wheels. Often in a single session you may be repeatedly hitting these bumps and berms with the same wheel. It's a very easy way to beat up a wheel, while the suspension absorbs the abuse you feel in the cabin.

Pro racers bend every kind of wheel, and they often continue to use them. What we don't condone is repairing those wheels and then continuing to abuse them further once you reach a "repair or replace" decision point. We at APEX do not support repairing bends as a repaired lip does not add back the lost strength.

Our goal is to reduce the number of people driving on repaired wheels, and to keep cycled-out, and worn-out parts off the second hand market. If something is seriously going to fail, it's going to be when a part is living its second life, in the hands of an inexperienced novice.

To help solve this issue, we created an experimental and unofficial program a few years ago to help supplement our warranty. Very few wheels are ever returned on warranty, and a small number of customers experience bends. For that reason, we were willing to get a little wild with our customer support program and willingly offer support beyond the norm. We are still experimenting with different price points, quantity limits and other variables before we officially unveil a formal program.

The idea is simply to get customers to choose a new replacement (motivated by a discount) rather than repairing the wheels, or hocking the damaged goods on the used market. We've used it to cover any non-warrantable scenario from curb rash to cars and wheels totaled in an accident. As long as we get the wheels back, and you're the original owner, we've covered it.

David is our most forum focused staff member. I will have him contact you directly to propose a solution for your exact situation. He was out today, but should be back tomorrow.

Thank you for your support,

-Eddy Pintacsi
CEO

[AriuSen]

I just bought my EC-7. And hearing about laguna seca kinda scared me since I am going there this weekend lol

[w0ady]

Awesome policy by Apex.

[dogbone]

Don't be scared. Laguna Seca is a FUN track. I've been there a number of times.

Laguna Seca is a super smooth track and it's not a bermy track. In fact, it's quite the opposite. They have those red humps at the apexes that are to be AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS. Those red things are nasty. Just stay off of them. There's no need to even get close to those. However, you can roll over the blue/white strips. They sound like rumble strips but they're no problem to go over.

If you keep it on the track at Laguna, you won't have any problems. (If you've ever been to Buttonwillow, that track is much tougher on rims because you can live on the berms there, and that can definitely take a toll as you get faster.)

As I mentioned before, I have 12 Apex rims. They've served me very well on 80+ track days on every track in California. And in the unusual event that I had a problem, Apex was quite nice about it.

[M3ANMACHINE]

You're lucky that the Apex wheel has the strength to bend instead of cracking and causing catastrophic failure.

Just another reason I run them on my car!

[MFL]

This is why I love Apex!

Great Product
No Price Gouging
They back up their products
They respond

Well done guys!

[M3 Number 86]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Apex will replace the damaged wheel for 50% off the price of the new wheel. You need to pay to ship the old one back, but they will send you a UPS label. It costs like $20 bucks to ship it with their label.

It's a fantastic policy. I have 12 of their rims. I bent 2 of them. They replaced them with new ones 50% off no-fuss.

Will be returning my bent wheel tomorrow morning. It's in my trunk in the box. I saw them at bimmerfest after the session I bent my wheel - they said 50%. Nice.

[StealYourFace]

Right rear wheels bend on BMWs, fact of life. The combination of force and negative camber puts pressure on the inside of the wheel (the side that usually bends).

It's a bitch.

[doogee]

Got to say I've been pretty disappointed with my Apex ARC-8 ownership. I DD and track and I usually need to get atleast 3 rims repaired each year. Never hit any major potholes etc.

[beats]

I've been tracking mine for 4 years now, about 15 days per year. No problems at all (although I've never really had any sort of off). Great wheels IMO

[cliverman]

Originally Posted by dogbone

Apex will replace the damaged wheel for 50% off the price of the new wheel. You need to pay to ship the old one back, but they will send you a UPS label. It costs like $20 bucks to ship it with their label.

It's a fantastic policy. I have 12 of their rims. I bent 2 of them. They replaced them with new ones 50% off no-fuss.

Makes me consider these wheels. That's a great policy.

[1MOREMOD]

Thought damaged wheels sent back got half off new one

[Richbot]

Your sidewalls are tiny and useless, like t-rex arms with no hope of protecting anything, get you some 17's, with burly strong sidewalls that put the wall in sidewall, like space shuttle

[M3ANMACHINE]

Apex's replacement policy is amazing and virtually unheard of, ESPECIALLY considering that they offer the 50% off replacement with pretty much no questions asked. I don't think any other companies offer this sort of "warranty."

Highly likely that you hit a berm or pothole and didn't realize it.