[Sankar]

Originally Posted by Wanderers

Forgings is most common manufacturing process for alloys due to flexibility in providing the desired shape and finish. Also they are stronger but a bit costlier.

In both the cases of broken wheels, the construction is a forging based. However they have used multiple piece construction and the crack seems to propagate from welded portion.

The XUV 5oo alloy wheels, both OEM and Original Accessory, are cast wheels. They are not forged wheels. Not just Mahindra but no mass market manufacturer gives forged alloy wheels on their mass produced regular cars.

Forged wheels are expensive and to be found on racing vehicles and super/hyper cars.

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by Wanderers

In both the cases of broken wheels, the construction is a forging based.

How did you conclude that the alloys on the XUV are forged?

Originally Posted by Wanderers

Forgings is most common manufacturing process for alloys due to flexibility in providing the desired shape and finish.

Casting and machining is the most common process for alloy wheel fabrication AFAIK.

[SDP]

Originally Posted by vinjosep

...
Back to the topic. SDP, could we check with the owner if the other remaining alloys show any sign of wear/ cracks/ damage? I assume chances are that they are from the same batch.

Unfortunately not possible to check the other alloys on the same car. He wasn't ready to take any further risks and got all of them replaced.

Update from the owner Rakesh (2nd incident - Silver XUV):

Actually I needed my vehicle asap so I asked them to remove all the 4 alloys and asked them to replace with normal disc wheel. And I have asked to refund the money which I paid for the alloys. They have accepted to refund it within 10 days. They will send the broken alloy for testing and they will give me the report after it comes.

[tamojoym]

I am using these alloys in question and I shot a mail to Mahindra customer care .Got a call from Customer care Manager from Bangalore assuring nothing will happen to the alloys and also that they are investigating the issues reported .
Actually I shared the link of the First Post by SDP in my mail .Fingers crossed .
I am using these alloys for over a year now and did highway runs unaware of the potential danger .

[motomaverick]

Actually I needed my vehicle asap so I asked them to remove all the 4 alloys and asked them to replace with normal disc wheel. And I have asked to refund the money which I paid for the alloys. They have accepted to refund it within 10 days. They will send the broken alloy for testing and they will give me the report after it comes.

Really really interesting fact revealed, if by they he means the dealer then Mahindra is definitely aware of some short comings of these Speed style rims. Otherwise no dealer will readily agree for a refund that easily. Though I may be wrong and the owner had to haggle and shout a lot to get the refund but accepting for a refund certainly makes these cases more interesting.

[1100D]

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

Can you post the marking on the last to pics? (exact letters?) Trying to figure out who made these alloys.

Just because they are made in China we can not be badge as "Bad Quality or inferior"

Those "Made in China" marked alloys are the stock wide-spoke rims, the one's in question here are the "Speed" rims. We do not seem to have reports (apart from the post GTO shared, which looks to be a separate issue altogether) of those giving up.

Originally Posted by Captain Slow

I can see some marks on tyres? Could these be because of some kind of Impact?

Those marks are interesting, probably provided the initiating force for the destruction.

Originally Posted by SDP

Check the same pic with additional areas marked in blue and white.
Attachment 1348922

The blue area shows that the skirting of the wheel arch has been dislodged. The white area on the right shows that even the fender has been damaged and the black skirting has folded inside. In my opinion, all this damage to the skirting and fender has been done after the alloy broke and the tyre came in contact with the skirting and fender. So the dirt mark on the tyre is most likely because of the tyre touching the inner side of the skirting.

If this was true, then the tyre, which seems to have rotated counterclockwise after hitting the fender inside, would have a clockwise and longer circumferential dirt mark. However, the mark that is there on the tyre seems to be something that you get after having hit something made of hard concrete. But then, too where the rim seems to have failed is where the spokes connect to the hub.

And looking at the cross section of the spokes where they meet the hub of the rim in question, its not hard to assume why. Just some indicative sections marked , though all the spokes and all the 5 joining points on the hub have similarly given up



If I had these rims on my vehicle, I would be taking them off immediately.


Interesting observation is, when a vehicle undergoes prototype testing, it does undergo rigorous tests from manufacturer on their highest "standard" dress level, design defects of critical parts do make themselves visible then and the manufacturer can make the respective vendor take corrective action.

In this case, the standard "Made in China" wide spoke alloy itself has undergone miles of testing on the prototype stage of the vehicle.

However, on the aftermarket accessory scene, the manufacturers tend to depend on the vendor to have ensured proper stress/shear testing. Besides, the authorised accessories themselves not having to go through CMVR or other regulatory policies.

These incidents are actually quite a curtain raiser, that they cannot rely on the vendors alone to ensure quality even if these are accessories. Being sold under the manufacturers brandname, they have to be similarly involved as if they were OEM. Hope Mahindra learns from this. Most of the learning is usually associated with some terrible loss, but thankfully and coincidentally in this case no lives were lost in this, although the risk was significantly higher.

Most premium manufacturers do offer a choice of rim designs, but each of those do get to rack serious miles by the manufacturer before the manufacturer approves those rims to be sold as an authorised aftermarket accessory from the manufacturer.

[Gannu_1]

Originally Posted by Sankar

Anybody know who makes these alloys for XUV and for Scorpio? Who's the OEM for alloys?

Originally Posted by SDP

The "Made in China" marking

Friend who works in M&M confirms 2 names - Deltronix and Wanfeng China.

[rahul_kej]

Got couple of calls from the service centre. They have asked to bring the vehicle for inspection. Though it was a prompt response from there side I really don't understand what will they inspect, specially nothing will be visible externally.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by rahul_kej

I really don't understand what will they inspect, specially nothing will be visible externally.

They would have gotten instructions from M&M on what to check upon.

P.S - Is Anindam around Khokan Motors? (he was at Skoda)

[rahul_kej]

Originally Posted by Sheel

P.S - Is Anindam around Khokan Motors? (he was at Skoda)

Out of the few people I know there, never heard his name. My RM is Mr. Roshan and he is quite cooperative.

Will be going to the ASS on Saturday, will enquire if he has joined.

[Geo_Ipe]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

Vid, where are you getting this "5" number from?

I can only see 2 incidents of the speed-rim design in this thread (with pics), as well as a the 1 additional mention (rim style unknown) that I've shared in my post above...

Originally Posted by Vid6639

In any case the number of speed alloys wheels is much smaller so the 2-3 cases itself is very high DPPM.

I think Rehaan has summed up what I was saying in a much better way.

I don't think the number "5" or "3" is the most important factor in the discussion!

Before this thread, how many of us have seen such an incident in any car?? Bent alloys - yes! But alloys breaking off at the center is something unheard of. And the 'coincidence' argument is really not valid here, considering how rare the nature of the incident is.

M&M definitely needs to investigate and let at least the XUV owners know how safe it is to drive their vehicles around.

Just curious - Hasn't Anand Mahindra responded to this controversy on Twitter? Folklore says he is very active on socail media when it comes to matters like this!

[callvvijay]

Originally Posted by SDP

Yesterday, a owner Rakesh from Chennai reported a very similar incident with the same design alloys from Mahindra.

In his own words:

Here are the 4 pics he shared:

Originally Posted by SDP

The second case is from Chennai. The owner is part of a XUV group on FB. He has provided details that the vehicle was doing 30kmph (one of the reason why the broken wheel did not roll out of the wheel arch and caused a bigger accident). He also provided details that its a 2.5 month old vehicle, has run 7000kms and has not hit anything before.

Quoting a (relatively) old post from this very same thread - just to say that the place where the accident has occurred is very close to my home and it's my daily route to/from office.

I see many posts about the possibility of the car hitting potholes and about the speed of the car.

Potholes:
It's a well-laid road and because of the construction activity going on (Metro station), the road has some small potholes. Actually, I can't even call them as potholes. When my Alto takes up these so-called potholes with ease, can't the XUV?

Speed:
The construction activity for metro has been happening for quite some years now and to slow-down the speed of vehicles, speed-breakers are present. Actually, to be very exact, to cross the stretch of ~0.5 kms where this metro station is being built, you will have to cross 6 speed-breakers. There is no way that any car can pick up speed beyond 30/40kmph.

[Captain Slow]

Originally Posted by 1100D

Those "Made in China" marked alloys are the stock wide-spoke rims, the one's in question here are the "Speed" rims. We do not seem to have reports (apart from the post GTO shared, which looks to be a separate issue altogether) of those giving up.

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Friend who works in M&M confirms 2 names - Deltronix and Wanfeng China.

Thanks Gannu!
So I am guessing
Deltronix -
Makes the Sporty Design - The one that has broken in the picture.

Wanfeng China
Makes the normal Alloys found in the stock car.

[latentpotential]

Originally Posted by rahul_kej

Got couple of calls from the service centre. They have asked to bring the vehicle for inspection. Though it was a prompt response from there side I really don't understand what will they inspect, specially nothing will be visible externally.

Originally Posted by Sheel

They would have gotten instructions from M&M on what to check upon.

P.S - Is Anindam around Khokan Motors? (he was at Skoda)

The way to inspect an alloy for failure possibility such as this is using xrays to look for telltale microfractures. e.g. rimstock in the uk uses this in their testing facility. I wonder if we have any such test facility in India at present.

[sachinayak]

Quoting from a similar thread on another forum. Note that this is about the W8 model and not the petal-shaped alloys being reported here.

I met a guy during xuv regular serve whose disc had cracked. and it was nothing less than catastrophic.

his rear left w8 OE disc cracked in the middle, like 2.spokes one half and 3 spokes. other half. the floor of vehicle got baldy smashed and he had to. apply for Insurance to get vehicle repaired.

repair cost 50k, out of which 20k was paid by Insurance.

source - http://www.theautomotiveindia.com/fo...ompromise.html