Anyone else seen this issue with LE wheels?

[dogteam7]

I noticed these lines developing on my wheels. I don’t think the wheels are cracking but the finish is showing these lines. Not sure what may causing it. The car is garaged, not driven a lot and always put away clean.

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[WD Pro]

That is corrosion (the very early stages) …

Very common to see it on diamond turned wheels, it’s accelerated by salted roads and aggressive wheel cleaners (so we see it a lot in the U.K.).

The weakness is the edge between the base colour and the diamond turned area - the clear is thin in that area and easily pics up micro damage from road debris. Once some damage is there, the corrosion starts to creep like fingers under the top coat (just like your photo).

The clear doesn’t adhere well to the diamond finish so once it starts, it progresses quickly.

I think Kia put 12 (maybe 16) wheels on my sportage during the seven year warranty for this exact problem. First time it did it out of warranty I got the wheels coated in a single colour and they have been fine since.

WD

 

[Sound Wave]

My wheels were way worse than that. Yeah, like WD Pro said, that is corrosion. It is the third vehicle that I have had this problem with. There are no shops in my area that can properly fix it. The shop I took it to removed the clearcoat and ended up polishing the surface. Now the diamond cut surface has a mirror finish instead. Not ideal but much better than the corrosion I had.

 

[Sound Wave]

This is the way it turned out. I think they look REALLY good, but it isn't the way they are supposed to look. I guess most people won't know.

 

[dogteam7]

That actually looks pretty good! Was it expensive to have that done?

 

[Sound Wave]

That actually looks pretty good! Was it expensive to have that done?

Thanks. I think it actually looks better than stock.. Just that it isn't the correct finish. The shop I went to charged me $1,150 to repair the curb rash, remove the clearcoat, and polish all 4 wheels. They said they could put clearcoat again, but that I would end up with the same problem. I was advised just to use wheel polish to maintain the finish.

At that price, I could have put that money towards aftermarket wheels but it was important to me to keep the stock ones on the car.

I had my friend's shop paint an extra set of center caps velocity blue. That was free.

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