Wheel problem

[louiegz]

I have a question about my wheels. I have my winter tires on with the original turbines. The problem is with my summer wheels, so I'm not driving with this problem right now. It's something I have to take care of over the winter. My summer wheels are the 16 in Y33 wheels in chrome and Falken Ziex ZE-512 255/50/16. The problem is that I'm loosing air from two of the wheels. One of them, I'd have to fill with air once a week. My tire guy showed me that the chrome is flaking off from the inner edge and that the air is coming out of there. Is there any way of repairing this? I'd like to fix this because of the obvious safety issue of driving with low air and it’s a pain to have to fill the tires all the time. I don't want to have to buy new rims and if it comes to that, I'd just use the turbines all year round, but I like having the two sets of rims with the summer and winter tires. So what do you guys think? Is it repairable, or do I need new rims?

[Q45tech]

Besides the flaking, the very act of chroming degrades the stregth of the aluminum..........................aftermarket [or non oem] chrome would be the last thing I would buy in a wheel.

You are lucky the slow leak pointed the problem out!

Must be somebody in JC, NJ that will rechrome for $200 per wheel

http://www.4chrome.com/index.htm

[maxnix]

Besides the flaking, the very act of chroming degrades the stregth of the aluminum

There is a TSB on this wherein Infiniti says SOL on warranty if the owner has his wheels chromed, although some dealers seem to have done it prior to or inspite of.

[DrewQ45]

If the picture in my head from your description is right, then the flaking is ocurring on the inside section of the rim (out of view) right where the tire's bead seals on the rim. Just unmount the tires and get it sanded down smooth (this might also stop the flaking). Personally, I would have the wheels dipped in water then carefully observe where the air bubbles are originating from. Not impossible but a bit hard for me to believe it's only from your chrome stripping.

PS: I doubt if chrome stripping is a big danger to anything other than the owners vanity.

..Drew...

[louiegz]

If the picture in my head from your description is right, then the flaking is ocurring on the inside section of the rim (out of view) right where the tire's bead seals on the rim. Just unmount the tires and get it sanded down smooth (this might also stop the flaking). Personally, I would have the wheels dipped in water then carefully observe where the air bubbles are originating from. Not impossible but a bit hard for me to believe it's only from your chrome stripping.

Yea Drew, that's where the flaking is. You can't see it when the wheels are on the car. With a 12 year old car and all the dents and scratches I have, looks are the last thing I'm worried about. My tire guy did dip the tires in water to see where the air was coming from. It was leaking from where the tire meets the rim. He sanded the rim down a bit to smooth it to one of the wheels. It slowed the leak. I'll do it to the other one. I don't want to have to rechrome the wheel because I,ll probably have to do the other ones to match. At $200 each, I'd be better off getting 17in rims where I'll have more tire option.

And yes, I find it hard to believe that the flaking is causing all the air loss. I one read a reveiw on the Falken tires that I use and the guy mentioned something about having problems with air loss. So I don't know

PS: I doubt if chrome stripping is a big danger to anything other than the owners vanity.

No, the chrome stripping is not the danger. The driving around with low air in the tires is.

[deepsouthq]

Ask your tire store to get some tire sealing stuff from Tech Tire Repair (they run a truck like Snap-On), it comes in a red can, looks like silicone, goes on with brush and will fix your problem. Merry Christmas.