This is a bit of a departure from my usual stuff. It’s an article about a particular problem that was encountered and how someone dealt with it. If this proves popular, I’ll do more.
First, if you have safety problems with a vehicle or related products, and you think it’s a problem the manufacturer isn’t addressing properly, report it to NHTSA. Here’s a link:
Report a Vehicle Safety Problem, Equipment Issue | NHTSA
Choose the appropriate button. There are options for vehicle, child seat, wheels, tires, etc. In this case, the wheel category is a subcategory of Vehicle.
Reporting the problem to NHTSA doesn’t mean they will fix it, but it will make them aware of the problem – and manufacturers pay attention to what is reported. It might help, and can’t hurt!
The Cracked Wheel Problem
Here’s a photo of the problem:
The yellow arrow is pointing to a crack in the wheel flange. Here’s a photo of the leak that crack is causing:
Here’s the story as it was emailed to me by Michael. Please note the vehicle is a 2025 Chevrolet Equinox EV RS with 21″ wheels.
“What happened is around 27K miles on our 2025 Chevy Equinox EV RS one of the tires started losing air quite rapidly. I looked at it and and saw there was a crack in the actual wheel.
The dealer said it’s not a warranty issue and would cost $900 to replace the wheel. After being unable to find a cheaper stock replacement wheel anywhere and with the knowledge that replacement tires for the stock wheels were about $400 each, we decided that we wanted a cheaper, more robust solution long term.
17″ Colorado Wheels – Not Recommended
A few people online in discussions about putting winter tires on Equinox EVs mentioned that 17 inch wheels off a Colorado fit and I was able to find those on Marketplace at a very reasonable price. Unfortunately, these had two problems. First, the clearance between the brake calipers and rear suspension components and the inside of the wheels was so close with the 17s that I had to move the wheel weights to a different spot to even install the wheels on the car. Second, the overall larger diameter tires of the Colorado rubbed on the front inner wheel liner on sharp turns. Ended up reselling that tire and wheel combo so no big deal – but my point in mentioning this is that the Colorado 17s are NOT a good idea, although you can make it work, and the “Equinox EV Z71″ as I called it while it had those wheels and tires did look rather cool.”
Barry’s comments: The original tire size was 275/40R21 107H, inflated to 42 psi front and rear. Those have a diameter of 29.7″. In another discussion, Michael said the tire size for the 17″ Colorado wheels was 245/75R17. Those have a diameter of 31.6″. That’s 2″ larger in diameter.
I looked up on Tire Rack and they don’t recommend a 17″ wheel. Michael might have saved himself some grief if he had looked there, too!
And for reference, the original tires and wheels appear as the header photo to this page. Here’s a photo of the 17″ Colorado wheels that didn’t fit particularly well:
18″ Blazer Wheels – A Better Solution
Continuing the narrative:
“Anyway, I looked on Marketplace again and found the set of used wheels and tires off a 2020 gas Chevy Blazer. Those came with 235/65R18 tires that were close enough in diameter to the original Equinox EV tire and wheel combo to ensure we liked how it looked and to get us by until we could buy good tires for it.“
Here’s a photo of the 18″ Blazer wheels with the 235/65R18 Blazer tires:
Barry’s comments: According to Tire Rack, the OE tire size for a 2020 Blazer was 235/65R18 110H, 35 psi front and rear, with a diameter of 30.0″.
“Eventually I ended up picking the Michelin Defender 2 XL tires in 245/60R18 which is just about the perfect overall size. These tires are XL (Extra Load) rated like the Equinox EV’s stock tires as opposed to the SL (Standard Load) tires that came on the gas Blazer, so while I’m far from an expert on tires (that’s why your website exists), given that all these GM Ultium platform vehicles are quite piggy, I think this may be important.”
Barry’s Comments: A 245/60R18 XL Michelin Defender 2 is a 109H, with a diameter of 29.6″. This appears to be a much better fit. According to Tire Rack, that is the size they recommend for 18″ wheels.
“So not only have we almost halved the replacement cost of replacement tires for the vehicle (which matters since we drive A LOT… on track to do about 30K miles/year in the car), but also the ride quality with the 18″ wheels is substantially better. Cosmetically it may be a downgrade but as you can tell by how dirty the car is… we prioritize function over form. Initially I was worried that high speed handling would be affected in some way, but with the XL rated Michelins on the 18″ wheels it feels just as stable and safe on the highway as the stock wheels while soaking up the bumps and defects and overall lousy roads we have here in California.
Here is a visual representation of the original Equinox EV tires and the tires Michael ultimately put on this Equinox EV:
Not Covered Under Warranty
“In the months since, multiple other people with the 21″ wheels on Reddit as well as various Equinox EV Facebook groups have posted that they also cracked the 21″ Equinox EV wheels in about the same way… and pretty much everyone else also claims that no unusually severe potholes were encountered. So personally I think this is a defect in the wheel (whether it’s materials, design, or manufacturing, I don’t know) but I didn’t want to deal with fighting GM and the dealer. Although I am slightly disappointed that being a long-time GM owner who has bought multiple gas and electric GM vehicles they were less than helpful and not even willing to take a look at it before telling me it would cost me a lot of money.“
Barry’s Comments: The crack in the wheel is a bit unusual. Not only doesn’t it appear to be road hazard related (no dent), but it doesn’t appear to be a fatigue crack (which would be fairly uniformly circumferential). The crack is in the flange only and in the radial direction. This doesn’t fit anything I know about how wheels fail! The crack also doesn’t appear to be a manufacturing defect. So I don’t know what it might be. I would recommend all those folks report this to NHTSA and let them sort it out.
Side note: Michael said the dealer said it was road hazard related. The dealer knows that if they accept the wheel as a warranty item, they have to send it in, and it will be looked at – and if GM’s engineers don’t agree, the dealer will be stuck with the cost. I wonder if that is what happened to the other folks. If so, there is a way to escalate this to the Regional Service Manager for GM and he has the ability to absorb contested warranty claims.
Other GM Vehicles with the Same 6x120mm Wheel Bolt Pattern
Continuing Michael’s narrative:
“In the end, the 18″ gas Blazer wheels look acceptable and fit well when used with a suitable tire. In case you’re looking for your own set of wheels to downsize to, here are some of the Chevrolet vehicles that share the same 6x120mm bolt pattern the Equinox EV has:
- 2019-2025 Chevy Blazer (gas, not the Blazer EV)
- 2018-2025 Chevy Traverse
- 2015-2022 Chevy Colorado
Other GM vehicles that may have compatible wheels:
- 2017-2023 GMC Acadia
- 2015-2022 GMC Canyon
- 2018-2024 Buick Enclave
- 2017-2023 Cadillac XT5
- 2020-2025 Cadillac XT6
- Cadillac Optiq (the Cadillac brother of the Equinox EV)
In Conclusion (Michael’s Thoughts)
“The Equinox EV is a fantastic vehicle and while we absolutely love it, this entire ordeal taught me to be more attentive to the tire & wheel combo that comes with a vehicle. If I were to buy the vehicle again or recommend it to someone else, I would have gone for an LT trim that comes standard with 19″ wheels (although you should be careful, 21s are an option on the LT as well). The LT 19s still looks nice, but will offer better ride quality and hopefully durability than the RS 21s, as well as a lower tire replacement cost.
That said, the 18″ gas Blazer wheels and 245/60R18 tires deliver even lower tire replacement cost, and given that we’re going to have this vehicle for a long time and will put many miles on it, I’m happy with the result of our wheel and tire swap. Honestly, GM’s choice to put such large wheels on what is a value-oriented mainstream family vehicle and not a luxury or performance car is baffling to me.
The only other thing I could mention is how these wheels and tires affect the range. It’s logical to me that a narrower, lighter tire with a smaller wheel would be more efficient, however we are going from an “Electric Vehicle Tuned” original tire to a “normal” tire, so maybe it’s a trade-off and ends up a wash. I’m not sure – in our case, I think it overall improved the efficiency slightly, but we did this swap around the time it got warmer outside, so I don’t have precise numbers for you.
Now, if you leased the vehicle, you’ll want to put the stock tires back on before you turn it in, but if you bought it, like we did, I hope this information helps you – whether you have a cracked 21″ wheel, just want better ride quality, or are in a place where winter tires are a thing. And yes, I know I need to wash the car. Sorry!“
Barry’s comments: Michael – WASH THE CAR!! LOL
But seriously, the rolling resistance of tires is not so much dependent on tire size, and very much dependent on the properties of the tread rubber compound. GM, like most car manufacturers, specify low rolling resistance tires, which they get by sacrificing treadwear and/or traction, especially wet traction. I can guarantee the rolling resistance – and therefore the EV’s range – of those 245/60R18 Michelins are worse and hurt the range. The good news is that those Michelins will have much better wear properties.
Michael concludes:
“PS: Remember that you’ll need to either buy new TPMS sensors or move the Equinox EV’s original TPMS sensors over to the “new” wheels as the older GM vehicles like the Blazer and Colorado that the wheels may come off use a different frequency. I initially tried buying sensors from an auto parts store, but we couldn’t get them to program, so ultimately we put in Autel sensors which did add about $200 to the cost of this whole endeavor.“
Barry’s Editorial Comment: I don’t understand why EV manufacturers use such large diameter wheels and their required low profile tires (to fit in the wheel wells.) It might be because they look futuristic, but it makes the wheels more prone to impact damage and ride worse. It also makes the tire expensive!