My E39 has 5-spoke wheels (I think style 49) that appear to be a tad rare in the US. At least from what I read on some of the Bimmer forums. A couple of the wheels have curb rash that I wanted to get refinished. I got some winter wheels and snow tires to put on over the winter, with the plan being to have a local shop completely refinish the original rims. Unfortunately, I didn't get the winters on before the big snow storm. The bimmer didn't move till after Christmas. The first time I am driving after the storm, but before the winters were installed, I hit a spot on RT1 in Relay/Elkridge where the road surface had heaved upward. This is right near the old Calverts distillery for anyone who knows the area.
So now my car a rattling and shaking like a carnival ride. When we switched over to the winters. we found that the right front wheel is bent. I was going to just chalk it up and have two wheels done instead of all four since the fixing of the bent spot would probably be costly.
My Brother-In-Law said that I should call my insurance company. My wife agreed, saying "It's a bimmer, and you don't know what else might be wrong". I went ahead and called them, and they said that this will not affect my rates since no other property was harmed and it is a no fault claim. I figured my $200 deductible would cover the alighment, and maybe the partial cost of fixing the bent rim.
Turns out that all four rims were bent, and my insurance company said that they will be replacing all four. Only downside is that the rims have to come direct from Germany and may take 7-10 weeks. That didn't matter to me. The total cost on the claim was $1700. I picked up the car today, and now they tell me that they think they will have the rims by next week.
So this spring, I will be mounting brand new matching rims for $200. I guess sometimes, good things come out of back situations.
POST-SCRIPT: If anyone is interested, that spot of road was patched with two really large steel plates. It's not perfect, but a lot better than it was when I hit it.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks