[Vasuki]

Originally Posted by Sanjunair5

What is your point?

There are two instances of speed rims cracking mentioned on this thread. Nothing, absolutely nothing else - had they hit something earlier, were the fitted properly? - is known about what caused it. So why jump to conclusions that it is an OEM problem or a Mahindra problem?

Sure, it is a serious issue if rims break. But given the kind of details, can you say it is a manufacturing defect? Can you say all speed rims are faulty? No, no way yet. And that is my point.

I drive a XUV, but no Mahindra fanboy.

Totally agree with your point. More than 1 lakh XUV's are on road. Say 70% of them has alloys, this translates to 70000+ vehicles. Out of these 70K, till now two been reported of this issue.


In above cases we don't know how these vehicles were driven, there can be instance/possibility of vehicle negligence in the part of user, which cannot be ruled out.


Still this is a cause of worry and should be thoroughly investigated by Mahindra.

[Soumyajit9]

Originally Posted by Sanjunair5

What is your point?

I am not a XUV owner, and do not have the money to put into a xuv, but I have a point which I guess you would somewhat agree.

Unless these 1% or 2% issues are reported, how will M&M or Supplier or Dealer know that there are issues with the product they are selling ?
They can launch an investigation, and later if all is found well, we can blame the owner for hitting a pothole sometime back or for over tightening the screws.

But unless these issues come out in open and people start reading, how will they know that their's XUV could be next ? Aren't you worried that your alloy could be defective too ?
Or incase something similar happens (touchwood, hope it never happens), you would say "Ohh, I had hit a pothole 2 months back, hence the alloy cracked now" ?

It is just awareness that people are highlighting. Unless the blame-game starts no one would wake up.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Sanjunair5

Folks, I think many here are jumping to hasty conclusions. Mahindra has sold over 100,000 XUVs, most of them with alloy rims. And in this thread I see fewer than 5 instances of cracked rims being discussed, which is a very low sample to jump to conclusions.

Granted, alloys can crack due to manufacturing defects, but can also crack due to other issues like hitting an obstacle hard, wrongly centered rim etc.

This thread has 5 instances, but these are not the only 5 instances. There could be hundreds more which are not documented on this forum.

Right now the point is that 5 known XUV's are having issues with a particular alloy wheel. We don't have all the 100,000 XUV owners on this forum, just a sample from them and the 5 is another sample from the number of actual issues.

[prakhar1998]

Originally Posted by Soumyajit9

Unless these 1% or 2% issues are reported, how will M&M or Supplier or Dealer know that there are issues with the product they are selling ?
They can launch an investigation, and later if all is found well, we can blame the owner for hitting a pothole sometime back or for over tightening the screws.

A few facts to consider.
All the alloys have a typical type of damage, i.e. complete shearing off around the centre. Firstly, such an incident is very unusual for wheels, and especially alloys that are supposed to be stronger.

Next, no other kind of damage is seen in the alloys, just the centre part coming off.

A recall is a step that M&M should consider ASAP. If I owned an XUV with those tires, I would not even think of getting it off the driveway. Unfortunately, not all owners of XUV are car maniacs like I am, and they probably are unaware that the OEM alloys they paid extra for are a death trap and could cause them harm at any point in time.

Taking chances is something Mahindra can't do. They haven't even informed any of the alloy owners about the occurrence.

Remember, a lot of times, recalls are just preemptive. Not all Alloys have to break apart for Mahindra to realise that their is a problem. The problem is, you never know how many are, and can you take the chance?

[SDP]

Originally Posted by Sanjunair5

Folks, I think many here are jumping to hasty conclusions. Mahindra has sold over 100,000 XUVs, most of them with alloy rims. And in this thread I see fewer than 5 instances of cracked rims being discussed, which is a very low sample to jump to conclusions.

Granted, alloys can crack due to manufacturing defects, but can also crack due to other issues like hitting an obstacle hard, wrongly centered rim etc.

Originally Posted by 300 KMPH

Exactly!

...I might be wrong but I think this is probably just a case of hitting potholes at high speeds. We all know how Mahindra owners abuse their cars.

Guys, I have shared 2 cases on this thread. Fellow BHPian chevyman was at the accident site for the first one which caused the XUV to topple and multiple are saying that the alloy broke BEFORE the accident.

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.

What is remarkable about the 2 cases is that the same alloy has broken in the exact same fashion in both the cases. It could be a mere coincidence. It could be that the alloy had taken a hit earlier which caused a failure later. Those possibilities exist and that is precisely the reason why the thread is titled as "Potential XUV500 safety issue: Weak alloy wheels?". The word "potential" and the question mark at the end are important.

Originally Posted by Sanjunair5

....There are two instances of speed rims cracking mentioned on this thread. Nothing, absolutely nothing else - had they hit something earlier, were the fitted properly? - is known about what caused it. So why jump to conclusions that it is an OEM problem or a Mahindra problem?

Sure, it is a serious issue if rims break. But given the kind of details, can you say it is a manufacturing defect? Can you say all speed rims are faulty? No, no way yet. And that is my point.
...

The point is valid. Some people seemed to have jumped the gun and have already started saying that the alloy design is faulty or the OEM manufacturing process is faulty or QA at M&M is bad. Some others are actually taking this opportunity to engage in their favourite activity of flogging M&M and making generic statements about M&M and all their products being cheap and inferior.

My opinion is, let M&M investigate and come back.
This is not a niggle. This is not about a infotainment system that refuses to pair with your smart phone or fused bulbs. This is about a 'potential' life-threatening situation and the thread is precisely for that ... to make owners with these particular alloys aware of this possibility. It might as well be a false alarm. Only time (and M&M) would tell.

Originally Posted by Sanjunair5

Granted, alloys can crack due to manufacturing defects, but can also crack due to other issues like hitting an obstacle hard, wrongly centered rim etc.

Originally Posted by 300 KMPH

I might be wrong but I think this is probably just a case of hitting potholes at high speeds. We all know how Mahindra owners abuse their cars.

Originally Posted by Vasuki

In above cases we don't know how these vehicles were driven, there can be instance/possibility of vehicle negligence in the part of user, which cannot be ruled out.

I fully agree with the statements of Sanjunair5, 300 KMPH and Vasuki.

Once, I had a bad experience of two bent alloys of my erstwhile Linea after 15,800 km. But, FIAT India was magnanimous enough to replace them at 50% cost as a goodwill gesture. The details are here. Afterwards, I did not face that problem until 71,678 km, when I sold off Linea.

My XUV 500 had its own share of driving on bad roads and potholes in its 22,469 km so far and thankfully, all its OE stock alloys are intact. I wish that they stay in the same condition in future too.

[Sanjunair5]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

This thread has 5 instances, but these are not the only 5 instances. There could be hundreds more which are not documented on this forum.

Right now the point is that 5 known XUV's are having issues with a particular alloy wheel. We don't have all the 100,000 XUV owners on this forum, just a sample from them and the 5 is another sample from the number of actual issues.

So that just makes it qualify as a coincidence - that of 5 alloys of the same design getting damaged appearing on one forum. No?

These alloys rims do not go on to vehicle straight off a foundry. They go through various destructive and non destructive tests to check for quality. And these are highly proven scientific tests.

Am I concerned as a XUV owner? No, my basic knowledge of manufacturing processes tell me that this is far from a concerning situation.

Ofcourse an OEM or Mahindra may want to investigate specific instances. But this is not a, sky has fallen down situation yet.

[rahul_kej]

Got a prompt response from Mr. Sonjoy Gupta the head of Customer Care in Mahindra. The mail reads as follows:

From: GUPTA.SANJOY@mahindra.com
To: rahul_kej@hotmail.com
CC: CUSTOMERCARE@mahindra.com
Subject: Re: XUV 5OO W6 Speed Rims
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2015 14:40:39 +0000

Dear Mr Kejriwal, we will be investigating into the feedback.

Meanwhile kindly share with us a picture of the alloys you have on your car.

rgds
sanjoy

Once they investigate things will be clear as we cant afford to risk anything, and yes I am the user of these alloys and I am worried. The manner in which they broke really raises doubts. Its not a worry for W8 owners only for people using Speed Rim alloys.

[Sheel]

Originally Posted by GTO

Here's another report of a damaged alloy wheel - link to post. It's not bent, one part of the wheel seems to have just fallen off! Mahindra replaced it with a new rim:

Originally Posted by rahul_kej

The manner in which they broke really raises doubts. Its not a worry for W8 owners only for people using Speed Rim alloys.

GTO's post on page one has the picture of W8 alloy wheels. Though it is the only W8 reported and it has not disintegrated as those Mahindra's original accessory alloy wheels.

Yet to hear something like this from dealership level.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by Sanjunair5

So that just makes it qualify as a coincidence - that of 5 alloys of the same design getting damaged appearing on one forum. No?

5 alloys which are sold in limited quantity as aftermarket accessory breaking at the same point is a coincidence for you? Wow.

So I guess the multiple issues in the XUV niggles threads are stray incidents and not even a coincidence like clutch, suspension.

Even the recalls must be a coincidence.

These alloys rims do not go on to vehicle straight off a foundry. They go through various destructive and non destructive tests to check for quality. And these are highly proven scientific tests.

Do you have the data for these tests available to confirm that these are indeed passed all of them?


Are alloy wheels the only part which got through quality checks and highly scientific tests? Hasn't the car been through years of testing and quality checks? Why does the XUV have so many niggles if it's been through the tests and checks? How come they had to recall the car for suspension and airbags and what not.

Any automobile designed would have been through way more tests, destructive tests and quality checks. It should have been perfect in that case and all owners would be happy with their XUV.

[raj_5004]

To summarize -

• We cannot just shrug off the fact that an unnerving high number of incidents have indeed been posted about the "Speed" alloy wheels in the XUV, which is sold as an accessory by M&M.
• The OE wheels which come with the W8 should be kept out of this discussion. One crack in a particular vehicle does not say anything. We have no idea under what circumstances it broke.

From what I have seen, heard and experienced, Mahindra is very proactive about solving issues, especially when it comes to XUV and Rexton customers. What I honestly expect from Mahindra is -

1. Hold the sale of these "speed" rims for the moment
2. A simply investigation of these 5 incidents - where these from the same batch?
3. If they were from the same batch, maybe that batch was faulty.
4. If they are not from the same batch, maybe there is a design issue with these rims or even serious - the manufacturer lacks serious quality control. In both cases, Mahindra should just stop sourcing these rims from them.

What about existing owners who have these rims?

• Mahindra should replace their rims with a better one (of course they are not obliged to provide the OE rims), as a goodwill gesture.
• If the above is not possible, they can atleast replace it with stock steel wheels and refund the amount spend on the "speed" rims.

[Sanjunair5]

Vidyut, wouldnt it be nicer if sarcasm is kept out of the discussion?
My point really is five cracking alloys is still a statistically insignificant number to make any inference from. You will need at least 30 data points to think of a distribution.
So I understand your point is it is a manufacturing defect. And it is fine by me.
Though for me it is not conclusive yet.

[SDP]

Originally Posted by Sankar

Please confirm when you get the chance to look it up. The OEM and the Original accessory wheels could be from different manufacturers as the volumes will be considerably different.

Originally Posted by SDP

Pretty sure about it now. Remembered that I had mentioned it in my ownership log as well.
....

That's a 2 year old post. If I get time tomorrow morning, would click a pic and share.

Here are the pics of the W8 stock alloy's inside:




The "Made in China" marking.


A closer look.


More markings on remaining spokes.


This one has Mahindra logo.


This one mentions 7J (size of the rims) and 750KG among other things.


This is most likely manufacturing date/month stamp.


Did not find the name of the OEM supplier anywhere.

[prakhar1998]

Originally Posted by Sanjunair5

Vidyut, wouldnt it be nicer if sarcasm is kept out of the discussion?
My point really is five cracking alloys is still a statistically insignificant number to make any inference from. You will need at least 30 data points to think of a distribution.
So I understand your point is it is a manufacturing defect. And it is fine by me.
Though for me it is not conclusive yet.

Wait. Are you suggesting that we wait for 28 more such occurrences to come to this conclusion?

The accidents that we have discussed here are non fatal. However, imagine if an XUV with the "Speed" alloys were travelling at "speed" during the shearing off, what might happen?

Recalls for automobiles are often preemptive.

[akash_m]

Just a humble submission:

The statistics say only 1 plane crashes in 1,10,00,000 (11 Million), or the chances of crash are .00001% in every flight.

As far as my knowledge goes, every crash is investigated to depth. Same goes with alloy wheels also. Where human safety is involved, even a single failure should raise questions..!!