I'll start off with this - I love how wheels with deep chrome lips look. They're just works of art. I will happily clean wheels with what little time I have to spare to keep them looking fabulous. That being said, I'm at the end of my rope. Not because I don't want to clean wheels. It's because my beautiful wheels are leaking to the point that I have to inflate them on a weekly basis to keep them from going flat!

Of course, I did what all of you would have done. I went to my trusted tire shop and had them take a look at WTF was leaking. The valve stem? Air from the bolt line?? NOOO - it's leaking at the bead, and the reason is that the chrome has corroded / peeled and air is leaking out!



Earlier this year, I just put up with it. My wife kept throwing barbs at me - "see how that car wastes your time?!?" Defiant, I said it was no biggie, I can handle adding air every several weeks... But that was months ago, now it's much worse. I actually had one of the wheels rebuilt last year because of the same issue - peeling chrome. DPE was nice enough to offer to re-chrome the wheel for free, but I instead opted for a whole new lip - I wanted to be rid of a tiny bit of curb rash that was on the lip. OK now, that wheel is not leaking so much, but the other three which have the original chrome lips are all peeling and leaking 7-10PSI / week.

I want to ask the others who live in the not so temperate climes - have you also run into this problem with chrome lipped wheels? The manufacturer says that it's because of the salt used in deicing here in Oregon (actually it's calcium magnesium acetate or magnesium chloride) - but don't others in the Pacific NW or the NE not suffer from this same anguish? I am at the point where I don't want to gamble $350 / wheel to change out the lips again - to have them fail in another year?? I am ready to buy new wheels without the chrome -- but the LA kid buried inside still wants chrome!

Someone please tell me that chrome lipped wheels can last for years in regions where deicer is used? Or even salt??

 

sorry to hear that happened, but I don't understand, did you drive it in snow?

 

Nope, no snow driving. But here in Portland, if it gets near freezing (which it does routinely each winter, the DOT has trucks that spray deicer on the roads to prevent freezing. And then it rains from Nov-May, so the manufacturer said that it was the deicer mixing with the rain that caused the chrome corrosion / peeling.

 

Maybe you can just switch to stainless steel polished lips, with no clearcoat. They won't corrode like that, and you can always polish them to look new.

 

I have had new chrome wheels(factory) on my last chevy truck do this too. Dealer replaced them once. Seemed that any place the chemical gets under the chrome thru a chip or scratch this is what will happen. I ve seen this with clearcoats too. Like V35 stated maybe pick a different wheel material. This is from the northeast snowbelt.
PS, we all know your wife is right!! LOL

 

+1, have them refinished in polished instead of chrome, had mine for eight years now w/o problems. I did have a slow leak but it was due to a loose valve stem, had it tighten and never leaked again.

 

From what I understand, the chroming process itself weakens the metal underneath. I am no metallurgist, but ever since I read that, I try to stay away from chromed wheels.


p.s., (don't kill the messenger and perhaps I should verify the information above).

 

Thanks all for your input. I would get my chrome lips refinished to polished, but the problem with my concave wheel centers is that I would have to get in between each spoke to polish the lip, not so easy. Would work much better if it was like a Champion RG5 - no spokes in the way when polishing - then I would do it...

Might have to go wheel shopping again...

 

[QUOTE=cab83_750;3915470]From what I understand, the chroming process itself weakens the metal underneath. I am no metallurgist, but ever since I read that, I try to stay away from chromed wheels.
/QUOTE]

I can't verify that, either, but I even emailed HRE (because I might go with them next) and asked them about chrome and they said that they discourage it because it is a "weaker" finish.

 

The wheel refinisher would just disassemble your wheel and remove the face to polish the entire lip and then reassemble the wheel and torque down the hidden hardware.

 

Aaron, I haven't ever used the services of a wheel specialist - any ballpark figure on how much they charge to tear down and rebuild a wheel?

Ron

 

If all they were doing was disassembling the wheel to polish the lips, I would guess 150 per wheel. There's a shop in Beaverton called Skip's Wheelwerks. Give them a call to see what they can do for you.

 

I don't think you'll have any luck in removing the chrome from an aluminum wheel. Chrome and aluminum make a great galvanic couple in the presence of moist chlorides.

You will be much better off with polished clear powder coated outers. I tried chromed outers once. I replaced them with polished coated aluminum outers from Forgeline. Never had a problem with those.

 

That deicer used on the road is usually a type of salt. Salt causes corrosion. Just to be safe you should get the underside of your car checked for rust. I live up in Canada where we get copious amounts of snow and the salt they often put on the roads is terrible for the car. They only apply the deicer here when it's close to freezing, as it doesn't help during a deep freeze (they use a sand mixture at low temperatures to help with traction).

I never drive my car in the winter and rarely when it's close to freezing due to the salt they put on the roads. My Toyota 4x4 is all rusted underneath from my winter drives...

 

Can you just seal the inside of the wheel with a sealant of some sort. I seem to remember back in the day that one of my track cars that I had to do something similar due to three piece construction.