Why i will not sell Enkei wheels anymore!!
 

First of all, this is a review from a dealer point of view. Someone who is dealing with Enkei for over 6 years! A dealer that is always kind to help is customer, especially when there is a problem with a product!

All started off the 8th of august 2013, when I got the delivery from The Tirerack, mounted and balanced wheels and tires for my customer 2011 Audi TT. We installed the wheels on the car and realized there was some paint missing where the lug bolts goes, on 3 out of 4 wheels! (see pictures of the 3 wheels having the issue below. The Wheels are mounted on the car, with the lug bolt tighten down).

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...sfc325e59.jpeg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...s230bb481.jpeg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/c...s28ca5041.jpeg

After seeing this I send the pictures to The Tirerack, and explain the situation! At first, Tirerack doesn’t even want to talk because the wheels had tire mounted on them! After many explanation that they were the one who installed the tires on the wheels, and it is their problem if they haven’t seen this before. How could someone 1600 miles away could tell them not to mount the tires because the wheels seems to have an issue.

After couple of discussion, where it seems like they never even spoke to Enkei, all they wanted to give my customer was 30$/wheels rebate, which is not even close to the price of respraying the wheels. My customer doesn’t want to pay to get the wheels repainted, which is normal, why would I pay twice for painting when this is supposed to be done at the manufacturer!

After seeing that The Tirerack didn’t want to speak with Enkei, I have contacted an Enkei representative myself (Which I don’t normally do, since there is a distribution network, and I would follow this normally.) I sent him the pictures, told him I was dealing with The Tirerack, and he told me that he wanted those wheels and could probably go on warranty! I’ll I need to do is to contact The Tirerack for a RMA.

Good, me and my customer are more then happy to to get the wheels back to The Tirerack(which still cost me 200$ to send back, plus the 150$ shipping they charge me to get the wheels on my initial order, at this point I am loosing money, but want my customer to be happy).
Couple of month pass by since I returned the wheels, and I get an answer from The Tirerack, saying the wheels has been cleaned and there is no issue with them. They are sending me the wheels back, no warranty done on those.

This for me doesn’t make sense, I showed him the pictures, explain to the representative the issue and he tells me to send the wheels in for further inspection. The answer I get; and this is coming directly from their email to me:
Our tech's have inspected the wheels and cleaned them up and there are no signs of missing paint. The lug access hole are not painted all the way, but that is normal as it is the way Enkei paints the wheel.

I have been selling wheels for 8 years, Enkei for the last 6 years. And this is the first time I see this. And know knowing this is the way Enkei now paints the wheels, this is what they are telling me, I am for sure never selling these wheels to any of my customer again!

Now The Tirerack will send me the wheels back and I will have to get them painted correctly! It’s funny that a well known wheel company like Enkei, tell me they are not able to get the wheel fully painted. I was under the impression they could do a better job then those Taiwanese wheels manufacturer.

For everybody looking to deal with Enkei in the future, well keep in mind you might only have 95% of your wheels painted.

The wheels I sold to my customer are the Enkei Raijin in black!
Please post pictures of your Enkei, I want to compare how many wheels with unpainted lug bolt are out there!!

Curious to see how many people have this issue, and didn't care ... or notice

If that was me, I would have shrugged my damn shoulders and drove my AUDI!

Looks like a place where the lugnut would raise the paint; did they intentionally fade away the paint to prevent any lifting or corrosion? I pulled up random Enkei black wheel pictures on google and I see the fade on plenty of them *2 cents*

If that was the case, the Enkei rep should have said it was designed that way... would have put an end to this suffering.

Although the OP has every right to be upset with the quality of the product and the run around that he got from Tirerack and Enkei, I think I would have just painted the lug wells black myself or installed longer lug nuts to fill the wells.

German cars don't use lug nuts. They use lug bolts. AFAIK, there is no "longer lug bolt."

To the OP: sucks, but could've been worse? I think you're making a mountain out of a mole hill... And I think your frustration should be directed wholly towards tirerack, not Enkei. It seemed like Enkei wanted to help you, but their hands were tied due to tirerack's incompetence.

Get the frustration, but eh. It's a good, light, cheap-ish wheel. Give it a month and with all the gunk in it by then, it'll look black and no one will ever know :party0030:

I don't think it's that bad, although I would be pissed at first. If mounted you can't tell, take the $30 per wheel and call it a day.

Sorry what?

Mine were completely painted (Feb 2014 order date). My stock wheels were not, however. They fade at the bottom of the lug area. I noticed it when I cleaned them for storage last weekend!

Like i said in another thread, i am speaking for my customer. But i have propably sold and seen more Enkei than 95% of this board.

Enkei, wanted to help me at first, but then responded the same way as what tirerack did.

I am not quoting everything, just the major line. And for me to go out there and write this on forums, it is because the situation went to far with them. Beeing a dealer, i deal all the time with wholesaler and manufacturer.

They look like cheap generic Enkei's you'd find on sale at your local tire store. You get what you pay for.

Yes those are the Tuning series wheels. No other wheels in the right size were made for the Audi TT.

But following your thinking, it is normal to pay for 240$US, and not have fully painted wheels, i am not talking about paint peeling off..

I am not saying these are the most expensives, but they are better quality built wheel then Primax and others.

And the Fact that i have sold about 5 setes of these wheels before, just shows me that this is not a common issue.