I am looking at buying what looks to be a set of discontinued Borbet wheels in a 16 x 6.5 for my 02 MCS. I will be putting 205/50/16 non run-flats on them. Because of all the threads about the harsh suspensions that our cars have which can sometimes lead to bent wheels, based on this setup, should I be worried about bending a wheel that I may not be able to replace?

 

Yep.

One of the drawbacks of buying that one-of-a-kind killer set of wheels is that like other styles wheel styles come and go and designs get discontinued and become hard, if not impossible, to replace.

Some styles are made year after year, seemingly endlessly. Others are not. Often the spendier wheels, like BBS for example, are made year after year. The latest poured-in-China super zoot tuner wheels may be made in a short run and then are gone.

OTOH, unless the wheel is pretty much destroyed, the can often be repaired. Whether it makes sense to spend a couple of hundred bucks to repair a wheel you buy for a hundred and fifty bucks is a wholly separate question.

 

With a 50 profile I would not worry to much.
You can bend a wheel with just about any profile, but the higher the less worry. 50 is tall enough you would have to have a really hard hit to bend the wheel.

However, if you do bend a wheel (it can happen) it can get fixed for about $100 at a number of places.

 

Agreed, thulchatt. Unless you live in the former Soviet Union, where roads look like WWI trenches, or are planning to go rock-crawling in your Mini, you should not be too concerned. You have fairly high profile tires and relatively small diameter rims so if you are just a bit careful and avoid the worst of the potholes, you should be ok.

 

I speak from experience when it comes to orphaned wheels.

My SSR Competitions in 17x7.5 (anthracite w/ machined lips) were discontinued less than two years ago. I got run off the road and it destroyed one wheel and scraped another. In essence, I have three wheels. Sad thing is, there are no new ones available. So, I had to remove my Comps (barely two years old) and let them become garage space wasters and get a new set of equivalent SSR Type C RS rims instead. One of my other cars, (a Dodge Stratus) is currently waiting for a replacement Kazera rim that got hosed by a pothole in late February. I am being assured that this rim is still in production and I will get a replacement. Problem is, the ship date for the new stock has been pushed out well into June.

Moral of this story? Buy five rims if you can, and hold onto one as a spare. I am doing this with the SSR and Kazera rims. It's a lot of money to be tied up essentially doing nothing, but like insurance, it's good to have. One extra $400 rim is cheaper than $1600 worth of different rims should you need one and there are none left to be found (the Kazera is 'only' $130).

As far as your setup, you stand less of a chance of damaging a rim with 50-series tires. In fact, the run-flats, with the stiff sidewalls, tend to pritect a rim a bit more than regular tires. Reason for this is a runflat can hold the weight of the car on it's sidewalls when deflated. If you strike a pothole, the stiff sidewall will absorb and distribute the impact over a broader section of the rim, where the standard tire's sidewall will collapse completely and allow the impact to reach the rim and possibly bend it. If you bend a rim, replace the tire as well, since there is a good chance for hidden damage of the sidewall plies due to crushing. The same goes for driving on a (standard) flat tire. Even a short distance can cut or crush the fibers in the sidewall plies. Replace the tire, dont repair it.

 

Greatbear - good advice on buying five wheels when possible, but I have seen some really trashed wheels look like new after repair. So for those who can't spend the money on five, repair if they need it is an option.

I currenty have a wheel that I need to get repaired. I am still running because I have five wheels. My wheels are discontinued so I will get number 5 repaired. Best of both worlds, 5 wheels and using repairs.