My alloy wheels need to be refurbished. 2 wheels keep slowly losing pressure which is not caused by punctures. I took it to my local tyre place and they said that the alloys are leaking round the rim. The tyres where taken off, the rims cleaned and the tyres resealed back on and they both still leak.

 

Will refurbishing them help fix the problem? I have been told it would, but spending a few hundred on a refurbish is not what I want especially when I am saving up to get new wheels.

 

Any one reckomend a good place to get them done?

 

Stuart

Have inner tubes fitted.

 

Try your local Yellow pages; not worth spending loads

on carriage.

 

(I paid £100 for refurb.)

Srrae

 

try alan at pem tyres or there is a place at prescot that will do it sameday

 

 

wez:duffer:

Dumb question Stuart, are they OEM wheels?

 

http://www.wheelrefurbishing.co.uk/

 

http://www.lap-tab.co.uk/lapalloys.htm

 

http://www.lepsons.com/index.html

 

http://www.spitandpolish.co.uk/

 

http://www.wickedwheels.co.uk/

 

Cheers - Gio

Yeah I have still got standard wheels.

 

 

Wez. I will try Pem-Tyres but every time I have been in there and some one has asked, they usually say contact the place yourself. Not in a nasty way, it just cuts out the middle man.

 

Considering that I am saving for new wheels, should I have a little play and get thses painted? The alloys I am saving for are white. Should I get these done white to see if it looks good, rather than spend thousands on white alloys and then dont like it?

 

Stuart.

Yeah, I don't think Pemberton Tyres do the rim re-furbs in house. They seem to use a few other specialists, especially Image wheels in Birmingham. The main advantage of going through Pemberton seems to be that they can sometimes sort out some spare wheels for you while yours are away, but I guess you'd have to pay for that.

 

There are quite a few places about doing re-furb and if you are going the painted rims route than I believe that the work is less specialist than refurbishing an alloy finish, so you might find loads of people able to do it for you.

Stu, phone Alexanders Garage on 01942 223448.

He was actually furbin' some rims (hey, I'm getting the lingo!) for Pem Tyres when I was there once.

Originally posted by NigelBoyd

Yeah, I don't think Pemberton Tyres do the rim re-furbs in house. They seem to use a few other specialists, especially Image wheels in Birmingham. The main advantage of going through Pemberton seems to be that they can sometimes sort out some spare wheels for you while yours are away, but I guess you'd have to pay for that.

 

There are quite a few places about doing re-furb and if you are going the painted rims route than I believe that the work is less specialist than refurbishing an alloy finish, so you might find loads of people able to do it for you.

 

 

I dont think Pemberton Tyres will charge to use spare wheels if then have any in. I go there often enough ;)

 

The need refurbishing too though. The problem I have is the alloy wheels have become pourus and are leaking. Plus there is a little bit of kurbing on the wheels.

 

What you think of painting them too though? Should I do it? Or do the stock wheels look better the colour they are?

 

Stuart.

Stuart, apparently the OEM wheels are painted to begin with (source lymon & http://www.hankoe.co.uk).

 

Here's an after / before

 

slightly the wrong shade (not quite enough shine) but they do have one that looks pretty close.

 

My wheels are 13 years old and don't lose air - would suspect mechanical damage putting them out of shape before alloys suddenly "becoming porous".

 

HTH - Cheers - Gio

There is quite a bit of rim damage round the errrr............ rims ;)

 

There also hundreds of little pits around the edge of the wheel. They are not stone chips, it lookes like something has reacted from inside the wheels.

 

Plus there are a few big scratches on the alloys too. Caused by airguns when putting the wheels on after a tyre change.

 

Stuart

Stu, in my experience the only way alloys leak is the seals. On a single peice rim this can only mean the seal with the tyre, which may be weak if your rim damage has distorted the shape of the rim enough to cause a problem.

 

I was talked into replacing some lovely (but old and chipped) Volk racing wheels with some cheaper Jap alloys just because they were leaking. Pemberton looked after me well enough, but once I had spent nearly £600 Alan told me that the Volks looked ok and it was most likely the valves that were the problem -ie I could have had them fixed for about £20!

 

I'd find someonw to try to sort the seal out first before you spend serious money on a paintjob. Paint won't seal the wheels!

The tyre was taken off, a wire brush taken to the inside of the rim and then some sealent was slapped on the inside and the tyre put on. This was done 2 times on each leaking wheel but the air was still leaking out from the where the rim meets the tyre.

 

I dont just want them painted. I want them reconditioned, stripped down cleaned and then relaquered. I have been told that will stop the leaking.

 

It is not leaking around the valve

 

Stuart

If the wheels are damaged enough to lose air (and you've already tried to re-seal once and you know it's not the valve), it sounds as if they're out of shape quite a lot - which sounds expensive.

 

Try the links I gave above to see what they say - Lepsons and Spit n Polish seem to have good reps but I haven't used either.

 

Your damaged wheels aren't the front 225s by any chance are they?

 

Cheers - Gio

No they are the rears.

 

The fronts look nearly new, while the rears are in terrible condition. :(

I've not looked for it for a long time but you

used to be able to get an aerosol that injected a

sealant that would deal with tiny leaks.

 

(There a franchise operation that does it professionally

but I've lost that link.)

 

Seem a pity to spend money when you're saving to change.