Leaking seal on 15 yr old alloy rims I imagine from corrosion. What should the tire shop be doing to fix it properly, short of repainting?
I disagree, and I think it's a poor excuse for shoddy work. Tires on aluminum wheels won't leak if they're done right.quote:
Originally posted by CapriRacer:
Guys at the shop say aluminum alloy is a bunch of air held together with a matrix of metal.
I have not heard of anyone going to such lengths, but a full stripping and refinishing should make it last a while longer. And take it to a trusted shop for mounting and balancing, take extra care of the wheel and use sticky/tape-a-weights instead of the normal kind that you would hammer onto the wheel's outer lip, which, as you can imagine, can take off your clearcoat, paint and sometimes even the aluminum itself. Using the sticky weights with the adhesive strip on the backside of it would reduce this. All you would need is for the wheel to be clean before applying the weights (the shop should clean the immediate area of the weight before placement... brake cleaner and a rag work wondersquote:
Originally posted by cangreylegend:
Buffing the corrosion works but only a year ago, this was done and the corrosion is back.I thought there was a fast drying type of sealer that could be used. So I imagine the best way is to repaint, and if so might as well repaint the whole wheel while I'm at it.
A glycol-based brake fluid will do that, yes. I'm not so sure about brake-cleaner, however. I use it all the time, it's our shop's standard for cleaning wheels to get a sticky-weight to take hold. I havn't seen any problem with it stripping off paint yet. It could also be the brand/type we use that's not harmful. I just honestly have not heard of brake cleaner being damaging to automotive-grade paints. Brake fluid, on the other hand.... look out. There's a reason there's no paint left on the surface of one of our 4-post hoists. The mechanics do some brake jobs on there and after they bleed the brakes, they never bother cleaning up the fluid... They let it sit there and now all the blue paint that was on that nice rotary lift is simply gone. Bare metal at this point.quote:
Originally posted by 4DSC:
Be very careful not to get any brake cleaner on painted surfaces, as some wheels are painted inside and out. Brake cleaner has been known to strip off paint, much like paint stripper (methylene chloride). I've experienced this while prepping my wheels for painting, and was surprised that it was that effective.