Chrome Lexus Wheels On 1998 Leaking Around Bead

[DM Rood]

One of my Chrome Lexus wheels on my 1998 LS400 continues to lead and the tire shop says it is because the chrome is coming off in chunks on the inside bead. I have owned the car 7 years and put 100K miles on it. Current is 120K.

Solution tire shop says is to get a new wheel. Aftermarked wheel shop will dip and rechrome my wheel for $150 and that might fix it for awhile. Used Lexus LS400 wheels are $250 at wrecking yard and $500 at Lexus.

Any other ideas or experience with this??

[SW03ES]

Thats really all you can do. The wheels were chromed aftermarket, and thats very common. In fact you're lucky they lasted that long...

[Threadcutter]

One of my Chrome Lexus wheels on my 1998 LS400 continues to lead and the tire shop says it is because the chrome is coming off in chunks on the inside bead. I have owned the car 7 years and put 100K miles on it. Current is 120K.

Solution tire shop says is to get a new wheel. Aftermarked wheel shop will dip and rechrome my wheel for $150 and that might fix it for awhile. Used Lexus LS400 wheels are $250 at wrecking yard and $500 at Lexus.

Any other ideas or experience with this??

DM:

"Bill Bailey for Tires" in Mount Vernon fixed mine......same problem, '95 400. The buggers wouldn't tell me what they did/what they used. BTW....they fixed the two rear wheels last October. No leaks since. If I remember correctly, they refused to take any money for it either. Whatever they did, it was done to the original wheels in about one hour. It was about the same amount of time it would take to get new skins all the way around.

Bill Bailey Map

[marlon08901]

One of my Chrome Lexus wheels on my 1998 LS400 continues to lead and the tire shop says it is because the chrome is coming off in chunks on the inside bead. I have owned the car 7 years and put 100K miles on it. Current is 120K.

Solution tire shop says is to get a new wheel. Aftermarked wheel shop will dip and rechrome my wheel for $150 and that might fix it for awhile. Used Lexus LS400 wheels are $250 at wrecking yard and $500 at Lexus.

Any other ideas or experience with this??

DM:

"Bill Bailey for Tires" in Mount Vernon fixed mine......same problem, '95 400. The buggers wouldn't tell me what they did/what they used. BTW....they fixed the two rear wheels last October. No leaks since. If I remember correctly, they refused to take any money for it either. Whatever they did, it was done to the original wheels in about one hour. It was about the same amount of time it would take to get new skins all the way around.

Bill Bailey Map

THE SAME THING WAS HAPPENING TO ONE OF THE TIRES IN MY 90 LS400 - I WAS GOING TO PURCHASE A CHROME WHEEL OF E-BAY MY LOCAL MECHANIC SUGGESTED THAT HE COULD TRY TO GRIND OFF/SAND THE CHROM ON EDGE OF THE RIM FROM THE INSIDE...HE DID IT AND THE TIRE HAS NOT LEAKED SINCE AND IF YOU SEE THE RIM...YOU CAN'T TELL THAT THE CHROM WAS REMOVED BECAUSE IT WAS ONLY REMOVED FROM THE INSIDE EDGE.

[DM Rood]

One of my Chrome Lexus wheels on my 1998 LS400 continues to lead and the tire shop says it is because the chrome is coming off in chunks on the inside bead. I have owned the car 7 years and put 100K miles on it. Current is 120K.

Solution tire shop says is to get a new wheel. Aftermarked wheel shop will dip and rechrome my wheel for $150 and that might fix it for awhile. Used Lexus LS400 wheels are $250 at wrecking yard and $500 at Lexus.

Any other ideas or experience with this??

Apparently using the tire fix a flat stuff makes it worse.

My plan is to get new tires and have the shop look at each wheel we take off. If they are pretty good I will just replace the one. Thanks for the reply.

[Bulls I]

I worked at a tire shop. When there were leaks from the bead area we used an air grinder with a wire wheel to clean the bead area of the wheel and tire (aluminum wheels are actually worse because they corrode more). Then we used a black goop that sealed the bead. Worked excellent. I'd take it to a different tire place because this is very common and 99% of the time you DON'T need new wheels or new chrome. I never, never saw the need for a new wheel.

[Threadcutter]

I worked at a tire shop. When there were leaks from the bead area we used an air grinder with a wire wheel to clean the bead area of the wheel and tire (aluminum wheels are actually worse because they corrode more). Then we used a black goop that sealed the bead. Worked excellent. I'd take it to a different tire place because this is very common and 99% of the time you DON'T need new wheels or new chrome. I never, never saw the need for a new wheel.

Bulls I:

Thank you very much sir.....

I'd take it to a different tire place because this is very common and 99% of the time you DON'T need new wheels or new chrome. I never, never saw the need for a new wheel.

That's what a buddy told me, which prompted me to take it to this particular tire shop.

What was the black goop? I was thinking 3M black Autobody gasket adhesive might work pretty well, but that's just a guess

[Bulls I]

It's specifically for sealing tire beads. There are many different brands - just google bead sealer. I have used the stuff that looks like black rubber cement but we mainly used stuff that was in a bucket and looked like sticky wheel bearing grease.

[The Kid]

someone!!! PLEASE TELL ME where can i find a chrome set of 98 rims!!! i have been looking for ages since my brother took his back so he can sell his LS....

I NEED THOSE!!!

[SW03ES]

In the future please start a new thread as opposed to dragging the old thread off topic...

Lets keep this thread for discussing the issue of leaking tires on chrome rims...