I did not want to bring this up but here it is: Every wheel made has some problem or another. Its just the way the wheel is made. Now some wheels will take a lot more to break when you hit a curb then others. No wheel is unbreakable. So maybe one thing to think about here is: Was the tires just rotated? If so where all the lugs to factory torque specs? If not this could have caused one of the wheels to come off the studs a little causing this problem of going out of control. There is just a lot of stuff we are still missing. Maybe when we get some pics we could better help, but right now we are all just assuming what went down.

 

Thats what I was thinking, I thought that everyone has seen fight club

 

That may be true - we just think he may not have all the facts.

But whether the story is completely factual or not, it doesn't matter - the cause is nothing but conjecture at this point. Honest conjecture? Perhaps. Conjecture to try and squeeze a few extra bucks out of Scion? Perhaps. We don't know, all we can do is judge the approach, which was very alarmist (what's the title of this thread again?).

 

I felt like I had to interject just on this point, because if your rear wheels lock up you most definitely can spin out. Now, if it's perfectly good traction and whatnot, it's not very likely unless your speed is up really high, but if traction was kind of lousy it's possible that you would spin out quite easily...this could have been due to anything, from like a puddle or a patch of ice or astroglide in the road lol. Because when only the rears are locked and the front wheels are freespinning the car basically has a pivot point in the rear.

But I'm much more likely to believe something simple happened, versus an "ABS lockup".

It's called "pulling the e-brake". If you do this while the car is going a good speed and just crank the e-brake, don't be too surprised if the car starts going places. So most likely it was driver error versus some crazy bug in the ABS braking system.

Even lightly lifting up the e-brake might trigger a spinout if you're not careful.

But yeah kids...drive safe...I've been in a couple accidents so far and they're never any fun. Particularly not the last one because the person driving the car I hit now has some jurisdiction over grades in a class I'm in. To say that that's not a great position to be in would be an understatement.

Having people die in car accidents or get horribly injured is far worse of course, you never think it can be you or your friends but trust me when I say that it can happen to anybody you know, including you. And visiting people in ICU or having people visit you isn't fun. Better than having to attend funerals though.

The other story about the car's wheels exploding then spinning, then flipping, sounds a little insane if he was really going on local streets at anything near a reasonable speed though...even assuming a good 40MPH speed, I don't really see how the car would have had sufficient energy left to flip over after it had already spun a 360, unless you were still slamming the gas for some retarded reason.

 

Oh and the reason why these wheels may actually break easy is that they're regular cheap cast wheels.

Most stock "alloy" rims are cast and aren't all that tough. If you want a cheap rim that won't bust on you, steelies are almost always going to be a few times stronger. If you can split a steelie your car is probably in such bad condition that you don't need to worry about that.

But obviously that doesn't look very nice. If you want something that looks nice and still is tough as nails you'll just have to spring for forged rims.

The TRD wheels for the scion aren't forged either...if you want some nice forged TRD rims TRD japan offers some nice stuff. They're not flashy, but that's not why they're made =P

Most OEM alloys though, are still going to be MUCH tougher than cheap aftermarket rims...cheap aftermarket (cast) rims are going to be even worse 99% of the time. OEM rims are usually heavy as hell even though they're alloy, just so they'll be relatively durable (so manufacturers don't have to deal with people coming in every other day with dented wheels on warranty), but cheaper aftermarket rims are pretty much just for looks, and get dented quite easily.

You probably can't get tougher than OEM cast until you step up to forged as far as aftermarket rims are concerned actually.

Personally I want the forged TRD japan 16x7's for the Camry (I drive a Gen5 Camry) and the TRD supercharger for our engines (I say our since the tC has so nicely borrowed the Camry engine =p)...but then again I drive a Camry so perhaps my tastes are a little less umm...extreme than the 19" TRD USA Scion wheels...cast and probably weighing a half a ton each. What the heck is the point of racing rims that slow your car down. I notice that the 19" TRD wheels TRD won't even warranty, lol. (they will warranty the 18's though).
I can't even find weight #'s for the trd usa rims.

 

yup, that's me.

Does anyone remember the deal with the Rota Battle rims? they were very popular among the Subaru guys... it took 10 people snapping the rim for them to finally recall them, turns out there was a flaw in the cast of the wheel that made them week where the end of the spoke meets the outter rim.

Again, tihs was just designed to be a heads up...

 

Alright, my tC goes up on blocks until we get a final answer on this one.... Or I might just let my *&%$%&* boss drive it and hope it happens...

Kevin

 

did you happen to notice rest of the car? car hit a tree with its front left side, including front left rim, everything around rim bent, it seems like protective heavy steel frame bent as well.
There is no way for rim to stay intact when hit with force like that. Heck, ppl bend aluminium rims by just going over the sidewalk to park.

What I found funny is that guy claims he is "not sure if the tire popped first or rim broke". I mean it just freakin funny for anyone to say something like that when they freakin hit the tree with the rim.

Thats like a huge rock smashing your windshield and then you go and spread the word how windshield might have broken before rock hit it.

Other guy that claimed it was an "ABS issue" had worn parking brake and was braking hard enough in the turn. Whatever it was, it wasnt an ABS issue if his parking brake was activated - he knew that from starts and did not want to mention it.

It is just stupid stuff and worst part is that ppl believewhat they read, mostly because they dont really have much experience to think otherwise.

as to Slapshotnerd - dude, please - dont be so friendly, you say that you dont really know what happened or not, but you still are spreading ridicilous roumor. I mean some aftermarket rim was had an issue hence strong possibility of tc rim having an issue? wtf does that mean? It only serves to alarm people, in fact all of your posts do - "you are not really sure, you are just saying heads up" story is dumb.

 

Hey I had a Toyota Tercel with Enki's on it, was broadsided by a mini van and bounced over a 4 inch curb and the rim cracked. Should I have called the company and told them they have defective rims? I just sat and read this entire line and all I can say is it is obvious that this KID had no idea how to drive a car. I also found it rather funny that there was someone here that was a very experienced driver of 11 years, YEAH RIGHT.

All I can say is after a crash like those and all they had was soreness, not only are they luck yot be alive, but I hope all the Scions are as tough if any of us need the protection.

 

This original post might be an illusion ala "Fight Club"......

Kevin

 

i'm going to sell my car based on one unidentified unnamed anonymous source on the internet and sit in the corner and shake i'm so scared.. never going to drive my tC again.. hahahah

 

i believe the story is true, there are chances that things go wrong in manufacturing, for a car that have thoudands parts in it, the chance is high even that's for toyota. is that a indivdual event or design falut, toyota will decide that. And I think they will make a fair decision.

the first poster was just trying to tell all the tC owner to be aware of a potential problem and drive safely, that's a good advice that we all should take.

 

" At no point in this post am I bashing anyone or suggesting anything negative towards anyone"

Very Good Point....

As For SCION/TOYOTA needing to recall all the TC's thats bunk.. The TC is a brand new car and WHAT CAR HASNT HAD FIRST YEAR BUGS!!!
The Tc has got to be one of the best buck for bang vechile..
Just comparing the severity of the rim defect if its that &
Abs Lock Up (If not USER ERROR)

I drive a 99 cobra.. First cobra in the newest body style.. Had pages of recalls
to list some, upper intake ( lack of performance) seat belt recoil Failure, Ebrake cable not tight enough to stop car.... Many more... Didnt stop Ford from pumping them out.....
Saturn has the View Issue, Car/Suv cant handle fish hook turn at snap wheel off.. havent stop makin them just fixing the problem at owners convience...
Im sure they're several more i could list.. But anyway..
Dont bash the TC.. Or suggest theres something Terribily wrong with it...
Let the Professionals diagonis the vechile... Not a few freak accidents....

Just my 2 cents...

 

Sheesh... Just by reading some of these posts, I'm surprised some of these people make it out their front door! Repeat after me, "evrything's going to be okay".

 

the "kid" i mentioned in the very first post is actually in his late 20's. Not sure if that qualifies as a "kid" anymore...

 

I am not sure about that. As you have:

Kid Rock
Billy the Kid
Cisco Kid

and they are/were older than that.....

Kevin

 

Wheels don’t decelerate and Scion would never tell you that there was a problem or that another case like this had been reported. This is a very serious legal issue. I don’t believe you either! The only way is that the loud noise you heard was when you hit a huge pot whole or a curb.

 

Keep in mind... Firestone didn't initiate their recall until 3 people had been KILLED in a roll-over accident caused by their tires. Ignoring the dozens of blow-outs and resulting accidents that were non-fatal, they didn't take action until their tires had claimed a third life. Basically that means that 2 lives went unnoticed. Big corporations aren't always your friend or looking out for the little guy. Yes, to some people human life does have a value offset by profit.

I'm not going to take sides here, however. Both have their points. If such a bold claim is going to be made, some proof is pretty much demanded.