My right front tire pressure sensor went on this morning on the '07 I bought last month, I took it down to the dealership for my Virginia inspection and it turns out that I have a hairline crack in the rim. I have 20" Senta rims. The dealership manager said that you really can't fix a crack, that you have to replace the wheel.

Anyone have some suggestions on where to go for a good used rim? I looked on eBay and found a half dozen rear wheel (9.5), but no front wheels. I need an 8.5" rim.

 

I recently bought a CPO 2013 XJ SC that within a week after purchase developed a slow leak in the right rear tire. I soaped up the tire but couldn't find any bubbles, so I went to my indy tire shop to have them check it out. They put it up on the lift and showed me where the inside of the right rear rim at the bead had been welded. I was not pleased that I was sold a CPO XJ with a welded rim. It turned out that the slow leak was from the valve and it appeared that the weld was not leaking air. Nevertheless, as explained below, I felt that a CPO car should not have been sold with a welded rim and, to make a long story short, the selling dealer (in an adjacent state) shipped me a brand new 20" Kasuga wheel and paid my local Jag dealer to do the installation. I'm pleased that they did the right thing.

As for a rim that has been welded, there are divided opinions as to safety depending on the location and size of the weld. Google "welded rim safety". Some say that small welds are OK. I'm not a metallurgist, but IMHO any weld compromises structural integrity. Do you want to take a chance that you'll hit a pothole in the exact location of the weld, resulting in a catastrophic wheel failure, loss of control, and thereby cause yourself and your passengers to prematurely reach the end of the road? Your dealership manager gave you good advice.

Beware of used rims, as you don't know the extent to which they may have been damaged and then welded and refinished. Don't believe "it's only cosmetic curb damage", because a good paint/powder coat job will cover all sins. I was fortunate that the inside of my welded rim was not refinished. Otherwise, I'd be riding on a dangerous rim today.

Be safe. Buy a new rim. Shop online and see if your local dealer will meet the lowest price. Is the difference between the cost of a new and used rim worth risking your life?

Stuart

 

Stuart - Well said and right on point.

 

Depending on your deductible, it seems an insurance claim might help to ease the pain, and then maybe a brand new OEM wheel would be in your future!

 

Thank you. I found a new one, a replica, at a place in Wisconsin, but I'm a bit hesitant on the replica.

 

Cracked OEM wheels seem to be a recurring theme. Usually replicas are high quality and made to high standards. I'm about to try a complete set made by Marcellino that look just like the Sentas.

 

Hi,
Since I have had this exact problem with these exact wheels, I'll give you my take on it. When I purchased my 07 with Sentas in 2010, I had a hairline crack in one on the right front. At that time you couldn't find any used and the new cost was way out of the park.

So I had mine taken to a reliable wheel repair business. $200 bucks later, I was good to go. Now fast foward to September 2014. The repaired wheel/tire begins to leak and I have it checked. It has cracked on both sides of the weld repair. It seemed to me that the wheel was heated incorrectly when doing the weld and now is basically scrap to me. This repair only had 10k miles on it so that should tell you something about welded wheels.

I called around and there are NO replicas to be found. And no one can get them anymore. I spent a week calling all over. So if they show to have them, you better get them to put hands on them. I can't tell you how many places told me they had them and then didn't. I give up and finally call different dealers. I get a price of $1090 shipped to me. There were only two of these wheels in stock in the US. After having the wheel installed along with new tires, I carried it to the dealer for an alignment and found out that the other front is bent. So I haven't addressed that yet.

Now on to filing it on your insurance. This is what mine said. If I file it on my insurance, it will be considered like I have had an accident. Sure the deductible is low but my rate goes up. I'll spend a lot more than just buying the wheel outright. That's just what they said and I've had no wrecks in 20 years or speeding tickets.

 

I saw those on eBay and thought what a great deal. I bought my XK used just recently and my Senta rims are a bit beat up cosmetically so have been thinking about repair or replacement. At the time, I didn't know that I had a crack also, when I did find out about the crack, I looked the offer up and they'd been purchased already (by you I believe). You'll have to let me know how they work out for you. I'd be curious to find out whether they're as strong and whether the color is an exact match.

I wish I could go back to the people I bought it from, a Maserati dealer in Chicago, but they were absolutely adamant that it was "as is" with no warranty. As someone mentioned above, the fact that this had a cracked wheel when when I bought it (haven't driven it much and haven't hit potholes...yet) is not right.

The senta wheels look really great, but I was worried from the start about the low profiles. I had low profiles in my first jag and over the course of six years, bent three rims on the potholes around here. (I live near a park that doesn't get a lot of traffic and so doesn't get that much attention from road crews either). On my second, an XJ with 18 inch rims, in 7 years I haven't had any damage. I still hit potholes from time to time, but the big cat takes the hit, shrugs and continues on its merry way. Now, with this XK with low profile Sentas, I'm worried about potholes again.

I first resolved to just drive the XK during the summer and fall when the incidence of potholes is minimal, but the thing is so nice to drive that I can't help myself, I can't resist, it's like an addiction! The extent of my driving so far has only been to a couple local stores, to work twice and once to an art gallery downtown. Since it's just a play car (still have the XJ as a daily driver), I may see about getting the crack (about 1/2 inch hairline) repaired to buy some time to see if I want to replace, repair or go to 19" rims. Therefore, I'd be curious about how your new wheels work out. I wonder if there'd be an issue with three oems and one replica or not.

 

Thank you for your thoughts. I talked to a guy yesterday who had 9.5 rear Senta replicas in stock (he's in Wisconsin), but was out of replicas for the 8.5 in front, but also said that he had some more on order that should arrive in mid-January. If you seriously want the web site, I can dig it up for you.

I thought I'd look around tomorrow again to see if there are any others around and available.

I don't want to go back to the insurance company right now. Someone dinged my XJ in the parking lot in October and drove off. They nailed a front headlight, the bumper and right fender for $2800 and so I just got that fixed under "uninsured driver" (their suggestion) and so I don't want to go back to them again.

Given my worries about the low profile wheels and the propensity for potholes around here, I was seriously considering buying that full set of "backups" that I saw in eBay. Mr. Flyc2c was very smart in making a quick purchase of them.

My local dealer (who are absolutely wonderful - though never discount) said they can get an OEM replacement for $1226 (MSRP) but am hesitant to do that. I think I want to drive it a bit more to see if I have recurrent rim problems (cracks and out of round) like what you're experiencing. If it becomes a recurrent problem, I'll seriously considering going to the 19' rims.

There are several companies in my area that advertise that they can fix "rounding" problems. I'm not sure how long that would last though. I'm not an engineer, but I think once it goes out of round, it's lost some % of it's structural integrity and the repair might not last that long.

 

I talked to the same guy in WI but he had no idea when he would get some in or if he could. I bought a new one from the dealer and if the other can't be balanced out, I may just buy a set of different kind. I had found a set of take offs from a 13 XKR but their offset is different. I could not find reliable information about what size adapter I would need to correct it. I could have gotten them for about $1200. Good luck in your search and hope it comes out well. I would stay away from used ones, I got bit really good on two off Ebay. When they arrived, they had been damaged, heated and half butt repaired. I was lucky to get my money back through Paypal. Rears are a dime a dozen but the fronts are hard to come by.

 

There is a full set now on Ebay for sale. All the blah blah blah about take offs, new so forth. Then reading down they've been reconditioned. I don't like that word "reconditioned".

 

Thanks, I think I will stay away from used.

BTW, yours looks really sharp. I have black also, but have the slate/ivory interior.

 

Mine's actually not black. It's British Racing Green. 2007 was the only year they painted them that color. When I first looked at the car, I thought it was black too until my wife told me different. Black looks great on these cars.

 

Hi, mine is a Sep 08 car - also BRG with Tan interior. I love the combination. I see black and silver here in Dubai, but not seen another like mine.

simon

 

Why not consider a set of new "aftermarket" wheels for your Jaguar.

A new set, can run about $1300 to $1500 shipped to you.

I replaced the Jaguar OEM Selena wheels with a set of Braelin BR02 wheels, and get lots of compliments. If your car does not have the Alcon brake system than it should be relatively easy to find an aftermarket set for under $1500 staggered for all four (8.5's front ....9.5 or 10's on the rear)

Your welcome to see my Braelins shown in my photos within my signature below.

You may also want to consider the Conventry Whitley wheels made for the Jaguar brand. They offer the staggered set for about $1400. You can order on-line or seek out a Discount Tire store who can get them for you and mount them for about $70.00 for all four wheels. Then you have a complete new set.

Welding aluminum takes a very special talent to get the repair completed properly.

 

FRGIII2014,

Pothole-ridden streets are toxic to 20" cast alloy wheels with low profile tires. Most vulnerable are cast alloy rims that have large gaps between spokes, such as your Sentas, pictured below:


The weakest spot in the Senta is in the center of the large gap, since there is no spoke support at that point. I realize that you love the Senta design (I do, too). Even if you buy a brand-new Senta from your Jag dealer, there's no guarantee that you won't damage it when you hit a pothole.

I suggest that you consider replacing the 10-spoke Sentas with another design with more spokes that will provide more support. One such design is the Coventry Whitley with 15 spokes: Click Jaguar XK Wheels


Note that both of the above wheels are cast alloy, and they are not as strong as if they were forged. But forged wheels are more expensive.

To the best of my knowledge, Jaguar offered only one forged wheel for the 4.2L XKR - the UK-only 2008 Jaguar XKR-S was fitted with lightweight Vortex wheels, which is my favorite XK wheel design:

These wheels are very rare and occasionally show up on eBay.co.uk, but they are expensive. The same design is available in the USA on 5.0L models in other finishes but the offset is different and won't work on your 2007 unless you use spacers, which I would avoid.

Jaguar also introduced the Vulcan lightweight forged wheel on the 2012 XKR-S but it, too, won't fit on your 2007 without spacers.


There are many aftermarket wheel choices for your 2007 XKR since it does not have Alcon brakes. Note that many aftermarket wheels are made in China under various brand names for multiple fitments with the bore drilled in the USA for specific makes/models. And because casting methods differ, so some cast wheels are stronger than others. So, to the extent I can generalize, the more spokes the stronger the wheel.

For my money, if I had to cope with potholes and wanted to stay with 20" wheels, I'd go with a cast alloy wheel with at least 15 spokes like the Coventry Whitley. Alternatively, you could downsize to 19" or 18" wheels with higher profile tires to better absorb impacts.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. No one said it would be easy. Good luck and let us know what you decide to do.

Hope this helps,

Stuart

 

Thank you Stuart, this is a comprehensive analysis and greatly appreciated. I like the Coventry Whitley, the spoke pattern promises to be stronger and they look great too. I think I'm going to try to find a temporary solution with the Sentas and take the summer to see if I have any more difficulties with the wheels and use that time to shop around and compare for an alternative. I really like the alternatives that you've dug up.

 

My wife really likes the BRG and I was really making an effort to get one. The car is for me, but if I can make her happy while purchasing a car like this, I figured it was a double bonus. I put bids in on two, but didn't get either of them. It's really a great color. There aren't that many of them around. The new F-Type comes in BRG, and it looks really sharp too.

 

I did the research a while ago, when I was considering replacing my OEM Selenas. Because of my Alcon brakes, there was nothing that fit until Richzak's work with Braelin in Canada to make their BR02 fit. I almost bought a set but decided to keep the Selenas.
Stuart

 

The new BRGs may be called that, but they actually have a lot of metallic flake in it. I believe 2007 was the last year of a glossy non-metallic BRG color across the line. I know Ian Callum said he does not like green cars, so I wonder if that had something to do with it!