What's my best option for fixing a broken wheel on the car?

You say broken wheel,does that mean blown tire, broken rim,wheel bearing?

More details @Jeruba.

Definitely going to need some details on this one.

Thanks for the responses, guys. The car ran over a sharp rock on the freeway and flatted both right-side tires. The front right wheel rim was sharply bent. It can’t hold a tire.

My son thought he could pick up a wheel at a local scrap yard and do a replacement, but it turns out they ditch all the wheels they get, as scrap.

I would say take it to a tire shop they can see if the tires can be saved, and source out a rim if it’s a factory mag you might have to go to the dealer for a replacement,or check out different wrecking yards.

The car cannot be driven. Can’t take it anywhere.

If you aren’t picky, a new set of rims wouldn’t be expensive.

There are a few places in my area, that have stockpiles of used rims. Not all rims are more valuable as scrap metal. It depends on the rims.

You’re on the west coast. I would think that there are a large number of car graveyards within a few hundred miles.
If they have reasonable prices for shipping, I’d look into that.

However. Putting a tire onto a rim is difficult.

If your son can remove the damaged rim, and the one with a flat, you could go to a wheel/tire place, and have them put a retread or cheap tire on the ok rim, and either get another rim there or buy/use a donut.
Once you get the temporary tires on, you can drive the vehicle to a repair shop for much cheaper than a tow.

If you do have AAA, I would use them.
I’ve used them before. The trick is, they won’t pick it up from your house. So. If you can limp it out to even the street you live on, you can call them. They tow for free, for x amount of miles. Then charge by the mile to your destination.

If the car can be driven VERY slowly, it shouldn’t hurt the car. The rim is already shot. If you aren’t dragging the undercarriage, you can move it.

If money is not the highest priority, I would have it flat bedded to a service shop.

We have a couple of shops the repaint alloy rims and repair them too, I ran over a large piece of metal and bent the inside of the rim. Had a spare rim so I took them the bent rim and tire, they fixed by bending the metal back into shape. It took about and hour.

New alloy rims for my car are $900 EACH at dealer. They are not steel rims.

Places like PepBoys, have a lot of “affordable” options. When it comes to getting a car on the road. You could probably get a full set of rims for under $300, and maybe tires, if you don’t care about it being fancy.

I would check ebay too.
It’s common for people to get aftermarket rims. They usually sell the factory rims.

Good luck.

You will have to get it towed somewhere to get it fixed. Do you have towing insurance on the car? I would call several repair shops in the area and get estimates on what they would charge once it’s in the shop.

How about a local auto yard? They pull parts off wrecked vehicles and would likely have a decent used rim. Thats what I’d do.

PS If you have AAA, they will tow it somewhere within 5 miles. Also, you could have them come out and look at it and make a recommendation although they won’t fix it themselves.

I’d go to somewhere like an Auto Parts store, maybe even Walmart to look for rims. If you get new rims, you can get a tire mounted onto the rim without the car being there. Once that is done, just change the tires.

Another option might be to see if there is anyone with the same kind of car as you have to see if you can borrow their spare tire. Use your spare and theirs to replace the two tires long enough to drive it to a tire store for the fix.

Just remember if you go to tire shop make sure they sell that brand of tires you have on the car now. You don’t want mismatched tires with ABS and other safety features.

If you have AAA, call them. They will send out a tow truck.

^^ Listen to us women!

“Just change the tires.”
Do you men realize @Jeruba is a woman over 60 that has no clue as to what Walmart or EBay may have that would fit her car? I certainly wouldn’t.
The advice to have it towed to a reputable tire dealership is the best advice for her.

@chyna If she doesn’t know, she can call them and ask. It isn’t hard, especially with cell phones. You can be at the tire looking at it and asking them on the phone at the same time. They can walk you through what they need. Additionally, most tire stores (Walmart included) have programs that if you tell them the make, model and year of your car it will tell them what tire goes on it. There are even some tire store web pages that walk you through it.

Another option, if she doesn’t have someone in the family that knows about this sort of stuff is to ask a neighbor. I’ve had some of my wife’s friends ask me questions about their cars. Not that I could fix it, but I can narrow down what is wrong and give them ideas of where they could go with it.

Ditto that with changing the tire. While I personally believe every adult in the US that has a chance of driving needs to know how to do basic things like changing tires, not everyone does. But there is likely someone nearby that can walk her through it or do it for her. When I suggest changing tires, I’m merely giving guidance on actions that can be done to get the car fixed with a minimal of cost.

How fortunate that all you guys are not small, elderly women. I have changed bunches of tires in my life, and I would not want to do it now. I have been through a bunch of stuff, and loosening lug nuts that have been tightened by a machine is beyond me, even with a T and my my not inconsiderable weight (jumping up and down on it).

Call AAA, @Jeruba, and save yourself a load of frustration and possible injury.

^^ When they stopped routinely hand-tightening lug nuts I stopped being able to change a tire; some men even have trouble with them.

Un-fortunately, it doesn’t matter what physical condition one is in. It is often the financial aspect that is motivation for us to try to accomplish something as cheaply as possible.

Luckily. The op claims her son is some help. I don’t believe any of us, were expecting @Jeruba to do anything physical herself.

There are many occasions where one can pay exponentially less for a service, if they don’t use a professional.

In cases where air-wrenches tightened the lugs, you can add a hollow pole to the tire iron, creating far more torque than without. The longer the extention, the more you multiply your torque.

Money is tight though, these days. A few years ago, I’d have bought my own power tool to do the job, then returned it to Walmart.

The wheel probably could be repaired (there is a such thing as making the wheel round again) but I would just buy new wheels and tires. Your insurance should cover it less your deductible.

Get local recommendations for a tire store near you. As neighbors and friends. You can use the nextdoor app too. Call the store and see what they recommend. You can call a couple of places and compare.

My insurance doesn’t cover road hazard on tires and rims @JLeslie !

@Tropical_Willie What about the wheels?

My insurance does not cover tires or rims . . .does cover glass !

@JLeslie does you insurance cover tires and rims ? ?

@Tropical_Willie I don’t think it does cover tires. You actually reminded me that the tires wouldn’t be covered, but the rims I don’t know, that’s why I asked you.

@Jeruba I know the car can’t be driven you have stated that, so you will have to get AAA to come and load the car on a deck wrecker and deliver it to a shop of your choice ,unless you get someone to repair it in your driveway.

You guys are wonderful. >> Smooch << Thanks for all the great recommendations and advice.

I didn’t think this part was necessary, but I guess I was wrong:

The car is my son’s. I have him on my AAA account and have been paying for premium coverage for decades. But his registration is not current, so AAA won’t tow him.

I don’t want him to be unable to drive, but I also don’t want to lay out a load of cash because of his negligence, especially after I covered the commercial tow (actually flatbed—is there a verb for that?) home, an hour’s drive.

Oh no. If you pay to update his registration, which should be done anyway, then can you get towed to the shop where it can all get fixed? Will AAA or regular insurance do that?

Does his car have a spare tire? Maybe you can use two spares to get to a shop, you would have to borrow a spare from a friend or neighbor. Or, there might be a mobile tire service in your area, but in the end I doubt it saves money.

If the place you’re paying to tow to is over an hour away, I am guessing the tow will be at least 100 dollars, if not more.

Your son should be able to take the bad tire off and replace with spare, but if the registration is not current, he won’t (or shouldn’t) drive it. I was going to say he could then drive to a tire shop to get a new rim with tire (or two tires because sometimes they will recommend replacing two, because the car will be wobbly if there’s one new tire and three old).

@JLeslie there may be a reason the car is not registered, like there’s a block on the registration (maybe he owes tickets or something). It might not be an easy “just register the car.”

Agreed with the other ladies on here that it is probably not going to be easy for @Jeruba to change the tire herself. Now that I know the car is her son’s, I feel (just my opinion) that the son should take some responsibility and maybe try to change it himself or assist with the decision making process.

I know maybe if my life depended on it, I could change a tire but it would be way easier for me to have someone else do it. Good points by others that with lug nuts done by machine, it’s almost impossible to get them off by hand for me. Plus the car would have to be jacked up and if you do that wrong, you could mess up the car. Kind of beyond my pay grade haha.

@jca2 True. We don’t know why it’s not registered. Yet, she has AAA insurance. I don’t know how that works. Why pay for AAA if it can’t be used? I thought maybe they just missed renewing the registration. Or, maybe the OP was driving or a passenger and didn’t know at the time the car wasn’t up to day on registration. Can AAA be used if a passenger has it?

@JLeslie Yes, AAA can be used for the passenger. I have AAA and if I’m a passenger, they will still cover towing and other things.

I am guessing @Jeruba is paying for AAA because she has a car of her own which she uses it for, and the son’s car is an add on.

^^I didn’t know that about AAA. That’s great!

@JLeslie Yes, they told me that and I’ve done it at least once, called when I’m a passenger and they come.

Not worthy of a dealer and the price would be outrageous. This could vary based on the car and age of car.
I would suggest a Tire Store. AAA or even some auto Insurance policies have tow coverage to get it where it needs to be.

Maybe you could contact a local general repairman who could locate a wheel and get it fixed and installed for you. Some tire stores have winter wheels and you could get a set for not too much.

Go talk to a repair shop about best next steps. I have no idea what a repair would cost. I gave a truck away because the blue book was less than what a new clutch was going to cost. Do you know the value of your vehicle?

My son and I went over all the suggestions.

We took the option of purchasing a paIr of new tires with rims at a tire store. My son did the work. Seems like it turned out okay. Thanks to everyone for helping.

Glad it worked out to your acceptance. Thanks for the feedback.

Thanks for letting us know. I’m glad it’s fixed.