Hi just thought i would share what happened to me yesterday while driving down the motorway.



was driving down the motorway and heard a very faint rubbing noise so i slowed down and was about to pull in at a layby i was about 10 yards from the layby when the wheel broke off passing me and took off down the motorway hit the centre reservation bounced about 20ft in the air crossing onto the on coming traffic straight in to the front of another car. its a mirical no one was hurt and lucky it hit the guys bumper/wing and not the windscreen or roof.

fiat will definitly be hearing about this and was wondering if this has happened to anyone else?

Wow lucky that no one was hurt.

One question: have the wheels been powder coated?

Thank goodness you were ok Hubby - also lucky it didn't cause a lot more grief to others.
You'll be scunnered too after getting a nice paint job on it recently
There are threads on here about rims developing cracks and falling apart, can't think where they are just now [?Baz possibly] but someone will point them out. It seems that refurbed rims are more prone to this happening.

This is the third time in the past two years I think. Nit good at all!!! Glad you are ok. As stated above....have the wheels been powder coated?

Jeeez!!

Really glad your ok Andrew! Thank goodness you noticed the noise and slowed down, wouldn't like to think of what may of happened to you or anybody else if you hadn't, and the wheel had broke off at speed!

Absolutely shocking, glad you're ok fella

Mods - time for a Sticky thread somewhere? - failing wheels are going to hurt somebody eventually - we should be talking to Fiat UK and getting them to contact all Coupe owners (can be done easily enough through DVLA)

EDIT - In fact I've taken matters into my own hands and contacted the same person at Fiat UK that I dealt with ten years ago with the 20vt exhaust manifold claim - I really think Fiat UK should do something to warn owners - I'll keep you posted

Those pictures are a scary site! Glad no one was hurt!

thanks guys, the wheels have been painted (not powder coated) they were not shot blasted or oven baked

as i say i am going to contact fiat but not sure who would be the best department to phone? would it be worth going in to see a dealership?

+1 that is shocking,never seen that happene before :0



yeah they should be made aware of this if it has happened a few times. Regardless of how old the car is.

I think I'm going to stick with after market wheels now.

WTF?! Glad you're OK mate.

BTW, what happened with the lovely Kei Racing wheels I sold to you a few years ago?

As Nigel suggested is there anything we or rather FIAT can do about it? It makes me think should I use standard wheels with track tyres..?

thanks Nigle keep me posted

This is what I've found for a quick search:

Cracks in powder coating


One failure for johnnyk then 2 months later another:
http://www.fiatcoupeclub.org/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1361227&page=1

And in the above thread the Baz thread from 2008:

http://www.fiatcoupeclub.org/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=42485&Number=530579#Post530579

I loved my Kei wheels but i found the ride on 17s to be a little hard so went back to standard kinda wish i hadn't

Glad you and everyone is ok mate, don't like the dark bits on the broken spokes

Very scary. Glad you are alright!

Glad your OK Andrew, phew bet that was scary.

If you are stuck, I could pop up at the weekend with a spare wheel to get you going again mate, just let me know.

That's just scary stuff.
Glad your ok mate!

I think my refurb wheels will be checked with a magnifying glass before fitting.

Looks like they had cracked along the spoke line and been like that a while till giving way.

Noticed the dark grey metal colour then the shiney fresh!
Ballocks me...

Thanks for the offer Ronnie but i have access to another car and will get the car repaired.

I think you are right about the wheel being cracked for a while but it has cracked from the back of the wheel out so very difficult to spot unless you take the wheel off

oh yeah so i did see 1..forgot about that
but still,that shouldnt be happening at all.

Glad your ok and that no one got hurt on the otherside,could have been a lot worse with a bouncing wheel

Amazingly, I have had a response from my contact at Fiat UK already - what great service!

This case is being referred first thing in the morning.

It will probably involve getting the broken wheel (plus photos of other failures) to Fiat - we should be able to arrange courier collection rather than having to drop the wheel off at a dealer

I will keep you all posted

at 10 past 10 at night? wow

Glad you walked away from that. I don't think anyone would've spotted the signs, even if you had the wheel off. I suspect the crack forms, takes brake dust in, and then in the same journey propagates til failure. I wouldn't have thought it's been like that for any length of time.

Nigel, what have you proposed to Fiat? And have any themes shown themselves? I have wondered if there are bad batches/different suppliers for the wheel.

Thanks Nigel
I was going to suggest you speak to your contact at fiat as you managed to get something sorted with the Manifolds.
Im not sure what fiat can warn us with though? Unless they offer to check and test peoples wheels?
A simple your wheels may catastrophically break probably isn't going to help much?

I wonder what Fiat will be prepared to do. I don't think this is the sort of failure that's going to always visible. Also wonder if there are any specialist garages that do ultrasound crack testing like they do on bridges. Probably almost certainly not as I've never heard of it, but this has seriously freaked me as I've no idea of the complete history of the wheels.

I was talking to Joe about this a while back. Apparently there are places you can get the wheels x-rayed (of equivalent) and checked for hairline cracks etc...

Nigel has him on speed dial

Hubby, are you standard or modded?
They could turn round and blame it on power increase as wheels were designed for 220bhp. (If you are modded)

This is worrying.

Scary stuff indeed. Glad to hear you're ok.