•Modification of the balancer to the rim material condition measurement system.•Health of the rim: -new and good, -used and suitable for further use, -unusable.•Processing of vibration data using ANN as a rim material integrity classifier.•Comparison of AHC with SOM and MLP as classifiers for the examination of the rim. Some vehicle damages can be related to the wheels' functional state, defined by rim and tire conditions. The technical condition of the rim is not simple to identify as it is related to the state of material structure. So far, little information has been presented about measurement systems and methods dedicated to rim technical condition identification that are acceptable by car service stations. Thus, the new measurement system and method are proposed in this paper. The identification process uses forced vibration spectra measurement and data processing with neural network use. For this purpose, the existing wheel balancer has been integrated with the computer coupled to a shaft actuator, vibration exciter, and accelerometer head. The developed software provides automation of measurement procedure and results classification, while the algorithm of data processing enables the proper detection of the three states of rim: new, used, and fit for further use, and not usable.