As the winter season falls, most vehicle owners are worried about ice-clad roads, low tire pressure, and dead batteries. If these issues were not serious enough, rim damage remains another threat that almost certainly works in the background. Thus, it often goes unnoticed. It is natural, as beneath the slush and snow lies the foes of rims, i.e., potholes, debris, and uneven surfaces. Each of these can leave your wheels bent, cracked, or misaligned. If left unattended, the damage can pretty soon lead to more serious and expensive issues.
When the rim gets severely affected, rim straightening can be the best solution. As a vehicle owner, you must understand how cold weather can affect your rim and how rim straightening can offer peace of mind.
Topic Summary
Reasons That Make Winters Harsh For The Rims
As mentioned before, winter comes with its accomplice, ice, and it targets the tires and wheels disastrously, and the reasons being:
- Potholes galore: With the falling temperatures, water seeps into road cracks, freezes, and expands. As a result, potholes start emerging from everywhere. For instance, when you are driving speedily and the wheel hits a pothole, the force can bend or dent the rim.
- Hidden hazards: The overabundance of snow, slush, and salt often conceals curbs, road debris, and any other surface irregularities. Since visibility isn’t clear at this time, any vehicle can accidentally clip a curb or drive over a sharp item, which in turn damages the edge or barrel of your car’s rim.
- Brittleness of wheels: Aluminum alloy wheels, the most common ones present in vehicles at present, tend to become brittle when temperatures are freezing. Thus, the likelihood of developing cracks or bends on impact gets pronounced even if the impact is a minor one.
- Regular tire deflation: We read this while taking our science lessons, as temperatures dip, it causes air molecules to contract, lowering tire pressure. Thus, under-inflated tires fail to offer any cushion to the wheel, and this makes the rims even more vulnerable to perils.
Rim Straightening
Since rim straightening seems to be the ideal option to restore the affected rims, let us understand the process at first. It is a specialized process that aims to restore bent or warped wheels to their previous shape. The procedure uses hydraulic presses, heat application, and precision measurement tools. The operation is conducted by skilled mechanics who carefully correct the deformation on the rims.
During the winter season, the rim straightening service becomes particularly significant as the chances of rim bends increase many times. On most occasions, the driver would hardly anticipate a dent, but it can secretly creep in, throwing your vehicle’s condition off gear.
What Other Types of Winter-Related Rim Damage Can Be Repaired?
- A rim repair shop offering rim straightening can fix a wide array of winter-related issues, and these are:
- Minor to moderate bends in the inner or outer lip of the rim.
- Wobbling or unbalanced wheels due to faulty rims.
- Shallow dents can also be overcome, which is often a result of ice chunks and curb hits.
- Lastly, rim straightening can also fix misalignment of the rims caused by winter potholes.
Although rim straightening can help in many aspects, you must understand that it cannot repair all types of damage. For example, deep cracks, severe fractures, or metal fatigue on the rims are irreparable. In such circumstances, a replacement is the best option. A professional inspection is important to understand the next course of action.
How a Renowned Professional Would Go About a Rim Straightening Work?
A professional and experienced technician would handle the rim repair services due to winter conditions in the following ways:
- Initially, the person will make a thorough inspection to assess visible and structural deformities.
- Next, they will launch precision testing, which includes wheel balance and run-out testing on a lathe.
- Once they are satisfied with the above results, they will move on with rim straightening and begin with hydraulic straightening that precisely corrects the bends using pressure and heat.
- Lastly, they will commence the finishing job, which may include sanding, painting, and powder coating, i.e., if the rims require cosmetic restoration.
You can also check out if the repair shops offer mobile rim straightening services. It can be very handy, considering traveling to the service center during winter is a challenge.
Preventing Rim Damage in Winter
Although some road hazards are unavoidable, here are a few tips that can reduce the risk of rim damage during the winter season:
- Try to avoid puddles or snow mounds as much as possible, as you cannot see through them.
- Drive as slowly as you can on poorly maintained roads.
- Ensure the tires have the right amount of pressure.
- You can switch to winter tires for better shock absorption.
- As far as possible, keep the rims clean to avoid salt corrosion.
- Lastly, rotate the tires regularly to detect any imbalances in them.
Rim Straightening is Also An Eco-Friendly Option
When you choose rim straightening, you are opting to repair rather than replace damaged rims, and it has environmental benefits. Aluminum wheel production requires lots of energy and generates carbon emissions. When you refurbish the rim, you are no longer discarding them and adding to landfills. Even though it seems to be a small step, it is still an impactful one for the environment.