Rim Oxidation

[Diddy74]

My mother has a 05' merc sable. She had a chronic slow leak in the front driverside tire. She replaced them twice this year under warranty and had them re stemmed etc.Well she was about to replace the entire rim, when I convinced her to take them to a rim shop to see if maybe it was bent on the inside or something. The guy there took off the tire and showed me what he said was oxidation all around the lip of the rim which was enough to let air from the tires escape over time. So for $70 he would machine the insides down so it would form an air tight seal against the tire again...I guess my question to yall is has anyone experienced or head of this?

 

[toypaseo]

I have never heard of that. Weird.

For $70, I would get one off eBay.

If he machines it down, then there would be more unfinished surface awaiting oxidation. Is his machining creating balancing problems, or structural problems?

 

[hunterdan]

I've heard of oxidation and I've had a shop use a die grinder and sanding wheel to remove it. Im sure machining won't hurt as it would only be a small amount of material removed, but I would see if they would spray something on there to help minimize the chance of more oxidation.

Dan

 

[9GUY9]

I work in a tire shop in MN where salt is spread all over the roads every year. We see this all the time on Alu rims. What we do is use a wire wheel to remove all the corosion and then apply a bead sealer which is like a strong rubber cement on the bead contact surface of the rim. I have never head of actually machining the rim, and unless they apply somthing to prevent future oxidation. And $70 is a crazy high cost to fix a corossion problem. We do it for $17 a wheel, and all other local shops I know of charge uder $20.

 

[Diddy74]

Well I may have used the wrong terminology to describe what was done but something like you said but and yes $70 was bit high thats why I asked thanks for the replies..

I work in a tire shop in MN where salt is spread all over the roads every year. We see this all the time on Alu rims. What we do is use a wire wheel to remove all the corosion and then apply a bead sealer which is like a strong rubber cement on the bead contact surface of the rim. I have never head of actually machining the rim, and unless they apply somthing to prevent future oxidation. And $70 is a crazy high cost to fix a corossion problem. We do it for $17 a wheel, and all other local shops I know of charge uder $20.

 

[IZwack]

Dont most OEM aluminum wheels have a clear plastic coating over them?

 

[Charlie]

I have never heard of that. Weird.

For $70, I would get one off eBay.

If he machines it down, then there would be more unfinished surface awaiting oxidation. Is his machining creating balancing problems, or structural problems?

I agree, might as well just replace. Perhaps it was a problem in manufacturing, so might just as well replace it for that cost. That way you know it's good.