Corroded Diamond Turned Alloy Wheels
A common problem we see very regularly is corrosion on diamond-turned alloy wheels, with more and more manufacturers fitting alloys with this type of finish on their cars as standard.
Don’t get me wrong, when brand new, they look great. the problem is keeping them that way! And sometimes, the harder you try to keep them in ‘tip top’ condition, the worse it can make the problem.
To get the polished appearance finish on diamond turned alloy wheels, the process is normally as follows;
The whole wheel is primed and painted
The wheel is then placed on a lathe and face of the wheel is machined off with a diamond tipped tool to give a polished appearance
the whole wheel is then lacquered
Because the diamond turned alloy wheels face has had the primer and paint turned off it, the lacquer does not bond to it as well as the primed/painted surfaces. That leaves this polished face more susceptible to the lacquer being chipped off by stones, light curbing, wheel nut removal, and even cleaning.
The sharp edges of spokes, wheel nut recesses and rims are prone to small areas of lacquer being chipped off. This then allows water to get under the lacquer, creep along the grooves of the diamond turned alloy wheels face (helped by centrifugal force as the wheel rotates) and corrodes the alloy, which manifests itself in the form of a white, almost talc appearance, and opaqueness of the lacquer.
Many prestige brands such as BMW, Mercedes, Bentley, Porsche, as well as more budget conscious cars from Ford, Kia and Skoda to name but a few, offer this type finish on their wheels. And all of them suffer with this problem, particularly during the winter months, when our roads are treated with rock salts in icy conditions. This salty solution speeds up the corrosion process, and can ruin a very expensive set of alloys in the blink of an eye.
They say that prevention is better than cure, so we’ve come up with a range of preventative measures and solutions for this dreaded diamond turned alloy wheels problem, and you can find out more by clicking here.
