Leaking because of chrome wheels?

[myoldsca]

Hi Folks,

I am looking at a 2nd gen Aurora with chrome wheels. I have been warned that because the chrome "flakes" it is hard to get a good seal with the tire. What this means is you will have to top up the tires every couple of days.

Anyone else had this problem or heard of this problem?

Thanks,
Wayne

[aarcuda]

YES! I have a 2nd gen and it has the chrome wheels and YES one of my tires has a slow leak at the rim. I took it to the shop saturday and the tire guy said exactly that- the olds chrome rims are infamous for this chrome pealing and slow leak. The entire rim is chromed - inside and out- and water gets trapped between the bead and the rim and eventually causes it to peal and then leak.


I had him pull my tire so I could see it and yes, it was exactly like he said. He also said that it isnt worth just cleaning up the spots that are flaking because it will continue like wildfire.

I wonder though, if you could take ALL the chrome off the bead area around the entire rim- but I suppose then the chrome would start to peal off the outside after a while

[ntrenn]

I have an 01 with the chrome wheels. Bought the car second hand three years ago at 44K (currently at 87K). Within a month or two I got a valve stem leak that became a regular recurring problem until the wheel corroded through - INSIDE OUT just last month. All the markers say that the previous owner used fix a flat on the wheel. The three others are just fine. Yes, chrome is prone to peeling - especially in the rust belt, but you could do a lot worse to your baby with the fixaflat. From a metallurgical standpoint, aluminum is about as non-reactive as you can get in a metal short of stainless steel, but it really does NOT like salt in continuous contact. If you clean your wheels regularly all over and don't put ANYTHING inside except dry air or nitrogen, the wheels should last the life of the car, even if they have a little peeling going on.

[aarcuda]

I was actually thinking of using fixaflat or tire slime or something like that and the tire guy said dont do it- it wouldnt work and might even make it unbalanced

[lanceslambos]

i wonder what would happen if a person filled their tires with helium? any ideas?

[aarcuda]

I think helium molecules are smaller than air (20% oxygen and 80% nitrogen with a bunch of trace gases in there) so the helium would leak quicker.

Dry air or dry nitrogen will help reduce the water moisture in the tire so it will help reduce corrosion. Nitrogen also doesnt expand as much as oxygen when its heated or cooled so the tire pressure doesnt change by much when you drive and the tire heats up (Nascar and other race cars that use tire pressure for setting up the handling of the car use nitrogen filled tires). Nitrogen for passenger cars is one of those snake oil sales pitches that tire dealers like to sell to people at an extrodinary high price. not really worth it really. Im not sure if the nitrogen used by tire salemens is "dry" or "wet" (it can be dry or it can have just as much water moisture in it as regular air). you need to ask what the water moisture content is.

the problem though is that when a tire is installed, they lube up the bead area on the tire with a water based mixture. this water just sits betweeh the tire bead and the rim bead seat and the corrosion begins. some of the lube will be pressed out when you inflate the tire (it will squish out) but it wont all come out.

they DO make a waterless bead sealer/lube but its REALLY expensive and hardly anyone uses it.