Over the last few years, we are seeing more and more car manufacturers fitting alloy wheels to car, they look great and give a bling feel to your most prized possession. They cost more than standard painted alloys and some believe improve the look of your car.
Now back in the day these alloys were commonly only fitted to Mercedes, Chryslers and BMW M3s. And if you’ve owned one of these vehicles fitted with this type of alloy wheel you will know the outcome of the look of these wheels after owning them for a couple of years. They develop spider like cob webs under the coating that then turn black and eventually start to flake. This deformation of the alloy most commonly forms on the outer edge and centres of the central badge and bolt areas.
We have heard from customers that have owned their car for a few months, bought it brand new and spent an additional money to have the diamond cut alloys fitted to their car as an optional extra! For them to start to show signs of corrosion in the form of spidering and discolouration under the coating of the alloys with in the first year of purchase. Luckily for the owners, if this happens in the first few months of owning a brand new vehicle they are with in their 1 to 3 year warranty period, and can have their wheels replaced.
How the Manufacturer avoids replacing wheels under warranty?
The warranty period varies depend on who the manufacturer is. A few years ago, alloy wheels would come under the body warranty and not the trim, giving you 3-5 years warranty. More recently we have found that alloys are now coming under the trim warranty giving you 12 months warranty which is conveniently far less than the body warranty. We feel the manufacturers have found a way of getting rid of their problem of having to replace these alloys under warranty by placing them under the trim section.
A nice get out for the manufacturer is if you have kerbed your alloys, they claim that the corrosion or the discolouration is due to the fact that you have kerbed your alloy wheel, eventhough the damage is located to the outer rim of your alloy and the corrosion/discolouration of the diamond cut alloy is located around the inner centre of the wheel nut area, a fair old distance from the damage! This is another feeble get out.
What causes the little white spidering that appears more commonly on the outer edge of the alloy and around the wheel bolt areas?
In order to answer this question you need to understand the make up of these alloys. Now the face of the alloy is lathed so if you look closely you will see little lines going around the face of the alloy. The inner parts and sides of the spokes are painted and lacquered. Now there is a lot of hear say about the coating that is placed on top of the machine finished face of the alloys and we believe this is a plastic coating, not a powder coat or a wet lacquered finish. Once you break the seal of the coating the spider effects start to appear. Now there are many ways that this coating can be broken.
But you don’t need to worry when the alloy wheels have corrosion and scratches, you can find a auto repair center to use wheel repair machine to repair them. It is a easy work. This diamond cut wheel repair lathe can make your wheels to shiny again and like new wheels.
