Are these Volk Racing Formula Lug Nuts counterfeit?

[Ashikabi]

Originally Posted by mav1178

That's not my point.

All I'm saying is that Rays doesn't make their own stuff.... don't be too fixated on a small thing on where the tapered cap doesn't look 100% exactly like others that are listed.

Rays doesn't even list these lugs on their Japan site anymore...

https://www.rayswheels.co.jp/product...ang=en&r=0&f=2

As for the question of whether your lugs are authentic or not, that I do not know. But it's very easy for the manufacturer of the lugs to modify a small element of them, and sell them to any number of 3rd party sellers to flood the marketplace. Don't get caught up in the details and don't feel bad or cheated when these small things catch up to you.

If they were cast wheels instead of forged TE37, fine. But lug nuts? You'll be okay.

-alex

But if you paid for chromoly lugs with a quality coating and they start coroding then you'd probably be upset that they were just plain steel. Whether these are quality or not has yet to be seen but by then it'll be too late. The safe play is to get his money back

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by PandaSPUR

They're still listed here: https://www.rayswheels.co.jp/product...en&r=0&f=2&s=1

And I just cannot trust $20 replica lug nuts on my car. I'm always gonna be paranoid that they may just break. Sure its just a piece of metal and yea they may even come from the same factory as the authentics, a lot of replicas do. But as usual, authentics usually have higher QC standards vs replicas.

I'd rather pay more for the authentic article and be happy.

But that also brings up something even more relevant: lug nuts have no QC or testing standard like wheels.

You can advertise what tonnage press you used to forge metal with. You can advertise what grade metal you use. But there's no magical testing standard of lug nuts.

Brand is no assurance of quality... see below

Originally Posted by Ashikabi

But if you paid for chromoly lugs with a quality coating and they start coroding then you'd probably be upset that they were just plain steel. Whether these are quality or not has yet to be seen but by then it'll be too late. The safe play is to get his money back

My authentic, straight-from-the-source Kics R40 Iconix lug nuts are rusting at the ends. I should take a picture later... but for me, they work perfectly fine.

-alex

[Ashikabi]

Originally Posted by mav1178

But that also brings up something even more relevant: lug nuts have no QC or testing standard like wheels.

You can advertise what tonnage press you used to forge metal with. You can advertise what grade metal you use. But there's no magical testing standard of lug nuts.

Brand is no assurance of quality... see below




My authentic, straight-from-the-source Kics R40 Iconix lug nuts are rusting at the ends. I should take a picture later... but for me, they work perfectly fine.

-alex

Mine are not yet rusting(I have R40s as well) but I've had cheap auto parts store lugs on other cars that flaked after taking them off once. They may be functional but will look bad. And while there may be no QC standard across all lugs, I expect the expensive babe brand ones to be held to a higher tolerance, have higher quality coating, be a better material, and have their various tolerances and whatnot checked more often and more completely than cheap lugs. I don't have a problem with reps so long as they don't pretend to be real. Rotas look like Volks but they don't have a Volk sticker. I've had straight knockoff parts before(logo and everything) and they failed pretty quickly. I'm confident the"real"ones wouldn't have. While lugs may not fly off the car because they are low quality does not make them equally good. Besides he paid for the"real"thing. It doesn't matter how well these will work

[PandaSPUR]

Originally Posted by mav1178

But that also brings up something even more relevant: lug nuts have no QC or testing standard like wheels.

You can advertise what tonnage press you used to forge metal with. You can advertise what grade metal you use. But there's no magical testing standard of lug nuts.

Brand is no assurance of quality... see below




My authentic, straight-from-the-source Kics R40 Iconix lug nuts are rusting at the ends. I should take a picture later... but for me, they work perfectly fine.

-alex

Eh, just because there's no accepted standard to measure lug nuts against, doesn't mean that companies dont perform quality control on their products. Quality control is a normal part of a manufacturing process. At the end of the process, someone checks either all the pieces of a sampling of a batch to make sure it fits whatever guidelines set by the customer.

Originally Posted by Ashikabi

Mine are not yet rusting(I have R40s as well) but I've had cheap auto parts store lugs on other cars that flaked after taking them off once. They may be functional but will look bad. And while there may be no QC standard across all lugs, I expect the expensive babe brand ones to be held to a higher tolerance, have higher quality coating, be a better material, and have their various tolerances and whatnot checked more often and more completely than cheap lugs. I don't have a problem with reps so long as they don't pretend to be real. Rotas look like Volks but they don't have a Volk sticker. I've had straight knockoff parts before(logo and everything) and they failed pretty quickly. I'm confident the"real"ones wouldn't have. While lugs may not fly off the car because they are low quality does not make them equally good. Besides he paid for the"real"thing. It doesn't matter how well these will work

^ This. I thought I was paying for the real thing, so I want the real thing. If I was OK with replicas, I would STILL return these and just buy cheapo replicas myself at the replica price.

Anyway, PayPal just closed the claim in my favor, so I will be shipping these back for my refund and purchasing some authentics instead.

[CrazyWookiee]

I would not trust replica lug nuts. I've seen my share of authentic ones failing. Some of the replica's I've seen have failed or broken horrendously.