NHTSA Complaint #11508924 — 2011 MERCEDES-BENZ SL550

The contact owns a 2011 Mercedes-Benz SL550. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the dashboard suddenly illuminated red indicating that the tire air pressure was alarming. The contact also felt an imbalance with the weight of the vehicle as if one side of the vehicle was lower than the other. The contact discovered that the rims had fractured. The failure had occurred while driving on roads with rough surfaces. The contact had taken vehicle to a body shop to repair the rims by welding the fractures a total of 4 times. The contact was told that the fractures occurred due to the factory rims being fragile, causing the rims to fracture easily. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline. The approximate failure mileage was 39,000.