Washing the car today and got to the rims and noticed that the finish on the inside of the wheels is completly gone I live in Buffalo NY, so we get plenty of snow and salt here, and I am assuming it is from the snow/salt wearing away the paint on the inside of the wheels.

Not sure exactly if it was caused by the fronts or the rears, cause I rotated the wheels about 2 weeks ago....But it is on only 2 of the wheels right now that are on the rear.

Bought my car on 9-7-05 and its got about 10K on it right now
I could see if the wheels were old, but after 3 months I am pretty pissed about it.

I took a wheel off to take some pics of the problem: You can see it from the outside/face of the wheel, looks bad.

Anyone else experience this? and what you did about it?

 

damn , what did you use to wash off your wheels; acid?

 

I knew somebody would say that I only use soap and water and Its only on the inside of the wheels

 

looks like buffalo uses some strong rock salt!
but try asking these guys
www.evo-ny.com
one of them might have or had your problem

 

That sucks, at least you have an excuse to go buy some Volk's

 

Had mine about to do the same thing, not as bad. Took back to the Dealership and they replaced for free .

 

Good to hear thanks

 

Actually - I think that is normal. I recall taking off my brand new Enkei's when I initially got the car and they were similar to your as well. In my case, I noticed that there simply is no clear coat on the inside of the rim to begin with. I also noticed that there is actually no paint on the inner rim lip at all. So, the raw aluminum is exposed and it simply turns black and you can never get that off. I actually see that in one of your pics there (but mine unpainted part goes all the way up unlike yours).

Your rims do look a bit worse than mine, you may have had additional help:

One way it could have dulled like that is if you had something scraping. If you had snow stuck between your front caliper and the inside rim (from doing slides on parking lots and did not clean it out before you parked for the night, then overnight it turned into a chunck of ice. As you start driving the next morning, the chunck of ice was scraping on the inside of your rim until the brakes heated enough to melt it away. Since the inner part of the rim is not clear coated, the chuck of ice may heve dulled out your thin layer of unprotected paint that was there. This could make sense as you did say these 2 rims were on the front.

 

just imagine what will happen to your $2k Volks if you buy them ....

 

Just paint em black.

 

Sure I agree and I am know to frequent some parking lots by my office but all I can say is that out of all the cars I have owned this is pretty lame for only 3 months old. Its a "rally inspired" car and cant hold up to some snow in the wheels, wtf? end of my complaining and *****ing...
I will let you know how things go at the dealer when I get some new rims
Thanks everyone for your info