Pitted Factory Wheels

[bill Snyder]

'04 LS 430, ~40K miles. I have had the car back to the dealer several times for slow leaks, and been told the wheels are pitted and I will soon need to buy new wheels. Bought new tires (from the dealer) and they said they polished the wheels prior to mounting tires, problem remains. Doesn't seem wheels with 40K miles, 5 years old, should need to be replaced, especially on a Lexus. Anyone seen problem and/or solution?

[1990LS400]

'04 LS 430, ~40K miles. I have had the car back to the dealer several times for slow leaks, and been told the wheels are pitted and I will soon need to buy new wheels. Bought new tires (from the dealer) and they said they polished the wheels prior to mounting tires, problem remains. Doesn't seem wheels with 40K miles, 5 years old, should need to be replaced, especially on a Lexus. Anyone seen problem and/or solution?

I've never heard of painted wheels pitting so badly that they leaked. I used a set of Lexus painted wheels on my first LS through 13 winters and they still looked pretty good. The car and its winter painted wheels were in quite a bit of winter salt since salt is routinely used in the Kanas City metro and in Iowa and Nebraska where we frequently drove.

Chrome wheels are a different matter. I bought my 2000 LS400 at 38,000 miles just after it came off a three year lease. It's chrome wheels were badly pitted and were replaced under the car's 4 year / 50K mile warranty. I have to assume that they were used through three winters by the lessee. I don't know if the pitted chrome wheels leaked. I immediately bought painted wheels for winter use and use the chrome replacement wheels only in the spring/summer/fall. After 6 years, the replacement chrome wheels still look perfect and are like new.

Several years ago, a coworker bought a then five or six year old 99 LS with what appeared to be the Lexus chrome wheel option. His chrome wheels were even more badly pitted than mine were but I don't remember him mentioning air leak problems.

If your wheels are chrome they can be refurbished and rechromed. Painted wheels can be refurbished and resprayed. My next door neighbor had the chrome wheels on his LS refurbished during the winter while his car was on its painted winter wheels and snow tires.

Does your car have painted or chrome wheels? If they are chrome, have they been used in winter? If they are painted wheels, then I don't think your problem is at all common.

[karasdad]

'04 LS 430, ~40K miles. I have had the car back to the dealer several times for slow leaks, and been told the wheels are pitted and I will soon need to buy new wheels. Bought new tires (from the dealer) and they said they polished the wheels prior to mounting tires, problem remains. Doesn't seem wheels with 40K miles, 5 years old, should need to be replaced, especially on a Lexus. Anyone seen problem and/or solution?

Hi Bill, about a year ago I bought a preowned '04 LS430 with 50K miles. came with beautiful spotless 17 inch six spoke chrome alloys. I had one wheel that constantly leaked slowly, I took it to Discount Tire and they told me it was pitted on the inside where the tire bead was mounted. They did the wire brush job and deburred it and put some adhesive sealer but it was not enough. They found me a used factory chrome wheel with lots of curb rash but it held air. About nine months later the remaining three wheels started slow leaking, a couple of pounds every few weeks. I bought a used set of painted alloys on Ebay which I had mounted this week and seems to be the solution.

I was shocked to see the condition of the inside of the original chrome wheels. the chrome not only was peeling (like razors) along the bead, but there were large pitted areas some as big as my thumb along the inside edges that ate into the wheel. These were actually holes in the metal. Most of the damage was on the inside edge of all the wheels, the face and outside edges were in excellent shape. I found some original paperwork in the car, it came from Salt Lake City, UT where it was probably exposed to road salts and didn't get cleaned properly after exposure. This is the second Lexus I have had with leaky chrome wheels. I am done with chrome.

[SRK]

There are products that will cure the problem. One of them looks like a thick black tar, and it's applied to the rim in the bead seating area. It's designed to seal truck tires mounted on steel wheels. It should not be a big problem. Certainly new wheels are not needed.

I've sand blasted the bead areas on some wheels and used epoxy paint, like PPG DP-40, applied with a brush, to cure the problem. A bit time-consuming, but cheap.

[Paul Calderon]

'04 LS 430, ~40K miles. I have had the car back to the dealer several times for slow leaks, and been told the wheels are pitted and I will soon need to buy new wheels. Bought new tires (from the dealer) and they said they polished the wheels prior to mounting tires, problem remains. Doesn't seem wheels with 40K miles, 5 years old, should need to be replaced, especially on a Lexus. Anyone seen problem and/or solution?

Yes, I have on my '05 RX330 with chrome wheels. The tire shop (Discount Tires and Costco) has a rubberized (neon greenish)compound they coat the inside of the rim with that touches the mounting bead on the tire. That cured it for me. Good luck!!