2007 Rusty Wheels

[rrichard7]

Anyone having their steel wheels rust? Mine are rusting between the wheelcover spokes. It is as if the sun destroyed the paint. Looks terrible.

Ray

[Exitium]

My Steel Wheels did the same thing on my 07 so last year I bought a set of alloy wheels from ntb looks beter than the spoked wheel covers with rusty wheels

[rrichard7]

Thanks, I have been looking.

[alligatorgar]

My 03 corolla rims rusted to the point I took them all off the car sanded primed and painted black with rustoleum. So far the rust has not returned. Every corolla Ive checked in parking lots with steel rims are rusted. Its a toyota quality problem.

[tigerclaws1318]

I thought I rusted mine by spraying wheel cleaner on the hub caps while washing my car. I was thinking the cleaner was so strong it started to eat away the steel wheel but now it seems like a normal thing.

[mikered30]

My 05s did the same thing, although not as severe. I waxed the wheels 2 times a year and they still look bad.

[JasonA]

Mine had about 25k miles on them when I replaced them with alloys. I noticed that the "exposed" paint did look lighter (faded I guess), but there was no rust. Whenever I rotated the tires, I made sure to keep the wheels cleaned under the hub caps.

Once it has a good coat of paint on it, I think it'd be hard to get rust to form again. The paint would have to fade away first I'd think.

[HarryTacoma]

My GF's 05 steel wheels are rusted on the exposed areas too.

Thinking about painting them. Or find someone selling some alloys cheap.

[dorman68]

My rims are doing the same thing. Never got around to do anything about it.

[mikered30]

Mine got significantly worse since my last post. Rust is now forming. I will have to prime/paint/clear coat them.

[NMGeorge]

Originally Posted by mikered30

Mine got significantly worse since my last post. Rust is now forming. I will have to prime/paint/clear coat them.

That's a lot of work for steelies! I too, replaced mine with a inexpensive set of alloys. Looks tons better and seemed to actually drive nicer as well, but thats just what the seat of my pants tells me.

[AlaricD]

I've seen that on quite a few of this gen Corolla. My sister in-law has an '06 with the same problem, and I've seen this on others of this generation in parking lots here and there. Definitely not an isolated occurrence.

[mikered30]

Originally Posted by NMGeorge

That's a lot of work for steelies! I too, replaced mine with a inexpensive set of alloys. Looks tons better and seemed to actually drive nicer as well, but thats just what the seat of my pants tells me.

I painted them. I followed the guide from here: http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...d.php?t=901753

It was a fair amount of work, most of it was prep time. I am convinced from reading and my experience that the wheels were not properly clear coated from the factory. My first picture indicates that. You can see the outline of the wheel cover (spoke pattern) that was hit by the sun (I did not intentionally make a spoke pattern when I waxed). Even the part that was not rusted look dead and dull. Wheels are only 5 years old and are on the car for about 9 months of the year. All the wheels look similar to the one shown, it was not just one side of the car, but they are rotated. The rust was on the surface, but I did not want it to go deeper.

I take very good care of my car, and my wheels were no exception. Washed every 3 weeks or so and waxed twice a year (Zaino and Collinite 845). Obviously the inside of the wheel does not get the sun, and it looks ok. Not a real nice finish after waxing/polish though.

Before (Rusty spoke pattern):




After (shine is from clear coat):

[rrichard7]

They look nice. Did you sandblast?

[mikered30]

Originally Posted by rrichard7

They look nice. Did you sandblast?

Thanks. No, I used sand paper on the rust, I never took the tire off the wheel, too much hassle and expense.