Leaking Chrome Rims Repairable?

boznian2 · August 10, 2009

Our 2000 ES300 with 176k miles and original factory chrome rims leak air badly (2 of 4). The dealer says that they are pitted and there is nothing that can be done. Anybody know if they can be gently sandblasted on the inside or hand-sanded or anything else?

gbhrps · August 10, 2009

Absolutely! Mag wheels are porous and will leak a certain amount. The ones that you have seem to be very much so. If the tires are removed from the rims, and the interior of the rims are properly prepped and then epoxy primered with several coats, your problem should be solved. Just make sure that when remounting the tires that care is taken to not scrub off any of the epoxy. The stuff is pretty tough, but insist that the tire tech take some care. Good Luck!

homemechanic · August 12, 2009

hard to say: yes or no. . i had the same problem before.

the tire tech used a wire brush and scrubbed off the corroded chrom area inside the rim and then put some tire bead seal on it. sometimes this trick works, and sometimes it doesn't. in my case, it didn't work.

two options:

1. have the chrom rims re-chrom. this can run $200-300 per rim, which is probably not worth it on a 9 yr old car with a lot of miles.

2. i went ahead and bought some alloy rims from tirerack.com

they were like $80 a piece shipped to your door and put them on at the next tire change. i don't really care too much about the look, so this off market rims are ok for me.