Wheel Delamination

DETAILROOKIE

DETAILROOKIE

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Hello all,

I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July!

A client I have schedule for her first detail next week crashed her car and the body shop told her that her wheels are delaminating from tire shine. From what i saw it looked like they were peeling, kind of like clear coat failure, but never thought it could be from tire shine. Im not sure how that much tire shine got onto the wheels, but never heard of it damaging wheels. It is a 2013 toyota 4 runner and i will try and post a picture when she gets the car back. Has anyone heard of tire shine causing this much damage to wheels? Anyway to fix it?

Thank you for all of your help!

She sent me this picture of the damage to the car, but I posted it so you can see what type of wheels I am talking about.


View attachment 58351

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I've not heard of tire dressing causing wheels to delaminate.

I've owned one Subaru and two Toyota's with the problem you describe. In all three cases, the wheels had problems on the areas where the surface was brushed aluminum/alloy covered with a clear coat. The painted areas of the same wheel did not have any problems. I can't tell from the picture whether those 4Runner wheels are a similar design.

What I noticed was the issues started when a rock or other road debris chipped or put a tiny hole in the clear coat. From there moisture got in and slowly caused the coating fail and later the wheels started to corrode.
 
Sounds like BS to me.

I've seen lots of clear coat failure on factory aluminum wheels and I doubt most ever saw a drop of tire shine.


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The body shop couldn't explain it so they made something up to convince your friend to replace/refinish them so they can give out a nice bonus to their managers. It's tire shine, it won't destroy rubber but when it comes to hardened clearcoat it'll delaminate it? You should send a bill to the body shop for them making stuff up and maybe attach a brochure to some basic chemistry courses at the local college to the bill.. We can use acidic wheel cleaners on wheels and they don't harm clearcoat as long as you're careful in how you use them but it turns out the foe of clearcoat is tire shine.
 
Thank you all for your feedback! Thats what i figured, she said he told her it allows moiture and dirt to seap into the wheel, doesnt make sence since it is non acidic and the wheels are clear coated.

The issue is the same as yours and is where the aluminium is and not where the wheels are painted.

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De-lamination of clearcoat on wheels is almost always due to water penatration.

On factory finished wheels this is normally a none issue as they use special process and products.

The moisture can enter the clearcoat from hot brake dust hitting the wheel while driving in the rain for example.

Now if the wheels are repainted, then usually bad prep between basecoat and clearcoat application.

Had this happen on 2 out of 4 wheels I painted myself last winter for use this summer.

They looked perfect yet, 4 weeks on car and I could pull 2" c 4" swaths of paint ofg in sections.

Had to repaint.
 
Crispy said:
De-lamination of clearcoat on wheels is almost always due to water penatration.

On factory finished wheels this is normally a none issue as they use special process and products.
Click to expand...

Oddly enough it is an issue with factory wheels, or at least those on cars from Japanese automakers from my personal experience. I've also heard similar complaints and seen pictures of BMW factory wheels with the same issues. I can't speak for those on US, other German, or Korean vehicles

The clear coat on the brushed metal areas doesn't seem to bond to the surface and seems to be quite brittle. Road debris appears to easily put tiny pinholes or fractures in that clear coat, and failure is certain at that point.
 
My '04 4Runner had what Desertnate described. It was only where there was clear coated brushed aluminium. The body shop that repaired mine said what others here have said. When tiny holes go through the clear, moisture and other contaminates get under the clear and spread. He told me the only prevention was to keep them cleaned and sealed. He never said anything about tire shine....and I didnt use any kind of tire dressings at the time anyway.

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