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I just replaced the second tire on my wife's ID.4 in the 9 months (10k miles) she's had it. The first was from hitting debris on the freeway; the second turning

I just replaced the second tire on my wife's ID.4 in the 9 months (10k miles) she's had it. The first was from hitting debris on the freeway; the second turning a corner and curb-checking. The last one was a bit odd - it sliced the sidewall and actually cracked the rim, which had to be replaced. I'm guessing the load being carried has a lot to do with why this car seems so much more fragile than previous (I probably replaced 2-3 tires in the previous 10 years combined, mostly RAV4s)

jacquesm 3y ago
By the time you crack a rim it would be a good idea to check what the state of the other rims and tires is, just in case. That doesn't sound good at all, you should be able to drive up a kerb and down the other side on tires with the right pressure without damage unless you scrape the wheel along a very high kerb.
- bipson 3y ago
  That really depends on your tire and rim. Having low profile tires with light rims like those used on performance variants of Teslas and ID.3s/ID.4s/eTrons I would avoid curbs for sure.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    You should avoid that kind of thing regardless of the construction of your rims but to have one crack through such an interaction isn't normal. Rims are supposed to abrade or deform in such a situation, not crack and if they do crack that's a sign that the tire wasn't properly pressurized or that there was some kind of material defect. Hence my advice to check out the others because there may be more to this than 'just' an unfortunate interaction between the wheel and the corner kerb stones. Unless it was a particularly violent impact, of course. I've never had a rim crack under any circumstance in many, many kilometers over a lifetime of driving and if it happened on a relatively new design of a car I would immediately take it to the manufacturer, they may have overlooked something. Honda had a similar thing happen in the 80's when they sold a new model and it turned out the tires didn't quite fit the rims as well as they should have leading to way too many blow outs (because the tires ended up being able to sit still while the rims rotated inside them, which ate up the inner ring of the sidewall).
    - bdcravens 3y ago
      We took it to the dealership, and they found the rim was cracked when the new tire was leaking air. None of the other tires have been losing air, so I assume the other rims are fine. However to your bigger point, that the wheels are poorly engineered for their use, tracks. This is the first rim I've ever had crack, and I've even had some nasty accidents. This is however our first set of EVs (I have a Kia EV6), and I really feel like VW made a lot of compromises. (The UI/UX is the worst I've ever experienced in a car)
      - jacquesm 3y ago
        I've seen a lot of cars after accidents (bad ones) in various junk yards when hunting for parts, including ones where it was hard to figure out what brand the car was. In most of the cases, even with the wheel pushed all the way into the well they still held pressure so that's - in my view - very poor engineering. VW had a perfect storm of its own creation (the dieselgate, asleep at the switch when the energy transition started happening) that caused it to push their e-cars out on an accelerated schedule to avoid even further loss of market share, I expect that to eventually lead to some recalls. But to see it extend to something as basic as the wheels is very far out for their normal level of performance, that should have never ever happened. Would it be ok if I alerted someone in the org to your case?
        bdcravens 3y ago
        Sure, I have no problem with that.
        jacquesm 3y ago
        Ok, thank you. This could easily save lives so it matters.
        jacquesm 3y ago
        Ok, done. I have no idea what if anything they will do with it but it has been passed on as well as enough details that they can contact you or the dealer if it should come to that. You didn't have an email in your profile so I gave them your linkedin link. Best regards, Jacques
- bdcravens 3y ago
  She didn't drive up and over the curb; she hit the side of it. It was the rear passenger wheel, so it's pretty much as you'd expect if you didn't turn wide enough on a right turn. The scratch on the rim was relatively small, less than a couple of inches, so the fact that it actually cracked the rim was surprising.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    Yes, indeed. She also got lucky, depending on the speed that that happened at, a blowout in a turn can be really nasty.

jacquesm 3y ago

By the time you crack a rim it would be a good idea to check what the state of the other rims and tires is, just in case. That doesn't sound good at all, you should be able to drive up a kerb and down the other side on tires with the right pressure without damage unless you scrape the wheel along a very high kerb.

bipson 3y ago
That really depends on your tire and rim. Having low profile tires with light rims like those used on performance variants of Teslas and ID.3s/ID.4s/eTrons I would avoid curbs for sure.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  You should avoid that kind of thing regardless of the construction of your rims but to have one crack through such an interaction isn't normal. Rims are supposed to abrade or deform in such a situation, not crack and if they do crack that's a sign that the tire wasn't properly pressurized or that there was some kind of material defect. Hence my advice to check out the others because there may be more to this than 'just' an unfortunate interaction between the wheel and the corner kerb stones. Unless it was a particularly violent impact, of course. I've never had a rim crack under any circumstance in many, many kilometers over a lifetime of driving and if it happened on a relatively new design of a car I would immediately take it to the manufacturer, they may have overlooked something. Honda had a similar thing happen in the 80's when they sold a new model and it turned out the tires didn't quite fit the rims as well as they should have leading to way too many blow outs (because the tires ended up being able to sit still while the rims rotated inside them, which ate up the inner ring of the sidewall).
  - bdcravens 3y ago
    We took it to the dealership, and they found the rim was cracked when the new tire was leaking air. None of the other tires have been losing air, so I assume the other rims are fine. However to your bigger point, that the wheels are poorly engineered for their use, tracks. This is the first rim I've ever had crack, and I've even had some nasty accidents. This is however our first set of EVs (I have a Kia EV6), and I really feel like VW made a lot of compromises. (The UI/UX is the worst I've ever experienced in a car)
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      I've seen a lot of cars after accidents (bad ones) in various junk yards when hunting for parts, including ones where it was hard to figure out what brand the car was. In most of the cases, even with the wheel pushed all the way into the well they still held pressure so that's - in my view - very poor engineering. VW had a perfect storm of its own creation (the dieselgate, asleep at the switch when the energy transition started happening) that caused it to push their e-cars out on an accelerated schedule to avoid even further loss of market share, I expect that to eventually lead to some recalls. But to see it extend to something as basic as the wheels is very far out for their normal level of performance, that should have never ever happened. Would it be ok if I alerted someone in the org to your case?
      - bdcravens 3y ago
        Sure, I have no problem with that.
        jacquesm 3y ago
        Ok, thank you. This could easily save lives so it matters.
        jacquesm 3y ago
        Ok, done. I have no idea what if anything they will do with it but it has been passed on as well as enough details that they can contact you or the dealer if it should come to that. You didn't have an email in your profile so I gave them your linkedin link. Best regards, Jacques
bdcravens 3y ago
She didn't drive up and over the curb; she hit the side of it. It was the rear passenger wheel, so it's pretty much as you'd expect if you didn't turn wide enough on a right turn. The scratch on the rim was relatively small, less than a couple of inches, so the fact that it actually cracked the rim was surprising.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  Yes, indeed. She also got lucky, depending on the speed that that happened at, a blowout in a turn can be really nasty.