Losing air - alloy wheel refurb required ?!?

[Garf]

Not my Cat wheels but the other halfs StreetKa!

She had some new tyres fitted (at KwikFit ) and a few months later we noticed the front was losing air. It loses about 20psi in 2-3 weeks!! She took the car back to have the tyre/valve checked and it turns out that the inside of the alloy wheel is blistering/corroded and not holding a good seal (the wheels are 7 years old) - she did get to see the damage so it wasn't just KF saying so.

 

Questions are:-

1) Can only the inside of a wheel be refurbed (i.e. brushed down and re-lacquered) ?

2) Realistically should the whole wheel be refurbed ?

3) If 1 wheel was done is it likely to come back looking a different colour/shade? (not saying the others might not need doing aswell)

4) What would the rough cost per wheel expected to be?

5) Can anyone recommend a good place in Essex ??

6) Is it safe for her to drive on when the tyre is on full pressure ? (she's desparate to get out in it now the weather has improved )

 

Thanks as always .......

 

Neil Wilson

Garfield - M100 EOW - Yellow/Green 1.4K SS

 

Edited by - Garf on 9 Apr 2010 14:45:07

[tbird]

Quick cheap fix may be to get a decent fitter to wire brush inside of rims, circular wire brush on drill best but technicaly elf and safety now precludes the use of these, then coat the mating surface with black sticky gunk (technical term 😬) (tyre fitters usually have this to hand) then refit tyres.

works on my Audi which had same problem

 

Tim

[Stationary M25 Traveller]

Strip and powder coat/bake whole wheel about £35. Pretty good at colour matching. I use Rim Tec in Meopham, NW Kent.

[acw]

Hi

 

Did you see this thread?

 

Andrew

[Irrelevant]

I have had numerous old tintop wheels sealed using the method explained by tbird.

It's a standard tyre fitter bodge and works fine

[tbird]

should have thought of this earlier, you could always have them tubed a little used but excellent fix for all things leaky 😬

 

Edited by - tbird on 10 Apr 2010 18:16:21

[Garf]

Thanks all for your replies.

We've decided against the "quick job" of a wire brush etc as the other half isn't keen on that route for her "baby"

 

acw - I did see that thread but the place was Birmingham and I felt it was too far for 1 wheel - end up more in fuel than the cost for the refurb

 

tbird - inner tube was a good idea which I hadn't thought of 😳 but did some surfing and, although not illegal, is not recommended. An inner tube wants to become round when inflated and for low profile tyres this is not good and can create undue stress on the walls - so decided not to go that route.

 

SM25T - your Kent option sounds good and I'll chase some others in Essex now that a full refurb is the decision.

 

Thanks again

 

Neil Wilson

Garfield - M100 EOW - Yellow/Green 1.4K SS

[tbird]

Good point about LP tyres hadn't realised it had 45s fitted, the black tyre stick is not really a bodge the guy who fits the racing tyres to Brothers GT40 (rep) always uses as standard just to "make sure", although obviously a strip and re powder coat is the best option

[Team Escargot]

Just a thought

If the tyre was not loosing pressure before Quick Fit got at it why should it leak now?

 

They presumably changed the valve but may not have properly cleaned around the valve / wheel interface - I have experienced this and by simply removing the valve - properly cleaning the faces around the valve on the wheel then fitting a new valve solved the problem.

 

Hope this helps

Nick