Bent my Steel Wheel and Lost a Hubcap

[Mark]

Criminy, thank goodness it's not your CVT. Wouldn't it be funny if your CVT outlasts the rest of your car? Haha

I must admit that would be a hoot!

[Mark]

You think this would work Mark? 2017 G4 ES steel wheel
https://m.tirerack.com/wheels/WheelC...7&autoModClar=

I live near a town of 5,000 people. I know of three small town tire shops in town, & I would trust any of them to look at a tire like your and give me the best advice. If only the lip is bent, they may be able to straighten it enough for your hup cap. If they say it needs to be replace, asked them what a steel rim would cost you? Steel rims aren't meant to expensive. Take it to two places and see if they say the same thing. Those guys deal with tires every day. If you buy the rim from them, they may not charge you that much to balance & remount it on your car

I find small town tire shops to be very competitive. I would think you can find the same thing in a larger city. I would start there, before ordering a steel rim from somewhere.

Sidenote: If the rim isn't really bent all that bad & you want a new one anyways, I would keep your damage rim as a spare. Next time you replace your tires, put an old tire on it. If you had a tire issue, you would have a full-size spare on hand. Since you have two Mirages, having a full size spare on hand would seem worthwhile to me.

[Eggman]

Sidenote: If the rim isn't really bent all that bad & you want a new one anyways, I would keep your damage rim as a spare. Next time you replace your tires, put an old tire on it. If you had a tire issue, you would have a full-size spare on hand. Since you have two Mirages, having a full size spare on hand would seem worthwhile to me.

Interesting point. If it weren't for TPMS, this would be an easy and beneficial solution.

[Dirk Diggler]

I live near a town of 5,000 people. I know of three small town tire shops in town, & I would trust any of them to look at a tire like your and give me the best advice. If only the lip is bent, they may be able to straighten it enough for your hup cap. If they say it needs to be replace, asked them what a steel rim would cost you? Steel rims aren't meant to expensive. Take it to two places and see if they say the same thing. Those guys deal with tires every day. If you buy the rim from them, they may not charge you that much to balance & remount it on your car

I find small town tire shops to be very competitive. I would think you can find the same thing in a larger city. I would start there, before ordering a steel rim from somewhere.

Sidenote: If the rim isn't really bent all that bad & you want a new one anyways, I would keep your damage rim as a spare. Next time you replace your tires, put an old tire on it. If you had a tire issue, you would have a full-size spare on hand. Since you have two Mirages, having a full size spare on hand would seem worthwhile to me.

Im going to take your advice and do all that Mark. Much appreciated your insight.

[Mark]

Interesting point. If it weren't for TPMS, this would be an easy and beneficial solution.

Keep in mind - I am recommending you keep the damaged tire as a spare (if not damaged that bad). You don't need TPMS in a spare. It wouldn't work if it had one, unless you could predict which tire needed a spare and cloned that sensor.

The spare would be nice to have while you're waiting on a replacement tire or having someone just fix your flat.

When I lost a tire to sidewall blow out, I didn't use the Mirage jack or spare tire. I took my driver's ed. car home, & I got a good jack & one of my Mirage snow tires. I used the Mirage snow tire for a few days while a pair of replacement tires were being shipped from simpletire.com. I wouldn't have wanted to use that small donut tire during that much time. If you are using factory size tires, the odds of finding a replacement in stock are probably quite low.

[Eggman]

Keep in mind - I am recommending you keep the damaged tire as spare (if not damaged that bad). You don't need TPMS in a spare. It wouldn't work if it had one, unless you could predict which tire needed a spare and cloned that sensor.

The spare would be nice to have while you're waiting on a replacement tire or having someone just fix your flat.

When I lost a tire to sidewall blow out, I didn't use the Mirage jack or spare tire. I took my driver's ed. car home, & I got a good jack & one of my Mirage snow tires. I used the Mirage snow tire for a few days while a pair of replacement tires were being shipped from simpletire.com. I wouldn't have wanted to use that small donut tire during that much time. If you are using factory size tires, the odds of finding a replacement in stock are probably quite low.

I know. Wouldn't it be nice if the Mitsubishi made the Mirage TPMS a bit more user friendly though? It would be nice (to those who care) to be able to register new TPMS sensors at the dashboard. It would be even cooler to be able to read the various parameters available too - air pressure, temperature, battery percentage. With so many technological features available, it seems more user friendly TPMS would be a cinch to implement. Alas, what do you want for an affordable economy car?

Back to bending steel.

[Mark]

I know. Wouldn't it be nice if the Mitsubishi made the Mirage TPMS a bit more user friendly though? It would be nice (to those who care) to be able to register new TPMS sensors at the dashboard. It would be even cooler to be able to read the various parameters available too - air pressure, temperature, battery percentage. With so many technological features available, it seems more user friendly TPMS would be a cinch to implement. Alas, what do you want for an affordable economy car?

Back to bending steel.

When I bought a couple extra steel rims & snow tires for my Mirage (December 2017), I inquired about sensors around my area. No one could help me. Every tire shop I contacted was a dead end. Not a single tire shop could put a new working sensor in my Mirage, nor did they have the ability to clone one. The one place in town that cloned sensors could do it for many cars, but not the Mirage. To clarify some, they could put in a sensor that worked. It would have involved traveling to a dealership 65 miles away to program it, however. Let's say I did that! My original tires wouldn't have worked when I change back in the spring. How stupid is that?

In essence, no one could really help me. It shouldn't be that difficult to maintain a safety feature on any car!

This has changed slightly since. I can buy a device that can clone Mirage sensors now. That's another investment, however. I haven't pursued where local tire shops are on all this?

My TPMS dash light being on just reminds me I am in snow tire mode. It's no different with my 2011 Forester. Only difference is that I paid $160 to have sensors put in my snow tire set, but they don't work unless I reprogram the car. I don't have that tool, & I am not driving 130 miles round trip every time I switch wheels. I just wasted $160 on useless sensors, but I learned something at least.

Cloning sensors is worthwhile! Especially, if you don't live near a Mitsubishi dealership. Thanks to Top_Fuel thread all that is covered in great detail!

OK, I vented some! I feel better now! I agree we can go back to bent steel rims now, too!

[Top_Fuel]

...It would be even cooler to be able to read the various parameters available too - air pressure, temperature...

Not to get off topic...but I think I have this issue solved. I have a device in my Mirage right now that is displaying my real-time air pressures and temperatures of all 4 tires. Look for a write-up in the next few days.

[Top_Fuel]

...I haven't pursued where local tire shops are on all this?

FYI... I was in my local Discount Tire the other day having some new sensors installed (another experiment on my part...I didn't really need new sensors). Anyway, My local Discount Tire has a Bartec TPMS tool with the special Mitsubishi Adapter required to do TPMS sensor registration in a Mirage. They brought the tool out and it worked on my Mirage! Even better...they didn't charge me a dime because that's where I originally bought my tires. So at least some shops are catching up with the ability to handle late model Mitsubishi TPMS.

[Mark]

FYI... I was in my local Discount Tire the other day having some new sensors installed (another experiment on my part...I didn't really need new sensors). Anyway, My local Discount Tire has a Bartec TPMS tool with the special Mitsubishi Adapter required to do TPMS sensor registration in a Mirage. They brought the tool out and it worked on my Mirage! Even better...they didn't charge me a dime because that's where I originally bought my tires. So at least some shops are catching up with the ability to handle late model Mitsubishi TPMS.

That is good to hear!

TPMS - I may have to find something else to gripe about?

I am not going to ask a lot of questions (even though I have them). I know you! You will have all my questions answered in due time. Products, costs, etc..... Thus, I will be patient & wait!

You share some really useful information for all of us to digest! I really appreciate that!

This being discussed on a bent rim thread isn't the worst deviation from the topic that I have ever witnessed on this forum!