Is-F Wheel Refurb

[Cougar]

Hi Guys

A friend of mine had managed to get hold of a second hand set of IS-F wheels that need refurbishment.It's not major work just a bit of slight curbing thats all. Can anybody recommend a good company in the south that could carry out a good job. He wants to keep the same colour so as to keep original.

I cant believe how light those wheels are without tyres too. Does anybody know what they are made of and how much they are new?

Many thanks

[Tango]

Hi Guys

A friend of mine had managed to get hold of a second hand set of IS-F wheels that need refurbishment.It's not major work just a bit of slight curbing thats all. Can anybody recommend a good company in the south that could carry out a good job. He wants to keep the same colour so as to keep original.

I cant believe how light those wheels are without tyres too. Does anybody know what they are made of and how much they are new?

Many thanks

I've just had a new set on mine under warranty, and the Service Manager said they were £5000.00 for the set of four. They're German manufacture (BBS).

[Cougar]

Hi Guys

A friend of mine had managed to get hold of a second hand set of IS-F wheels that need refurbishment.It's not major work just a bit of slight curbing thats all. Can anybody recommend a good company in the south that could carry out a good job. He wants to keep the same colour so as to keep original.

I cant believe how light those wheels are without tyres too. Does anybody know what they are made of and how much they are new?

Many thanks

I've just had a new set on mine under warranty, and the Service Manager said they were £5000.00 for the set of four. They're German manufacture (BBS).

£5K !!!! Thats a lot of money for 4 wheels. What can they be made from to warrant that sort of money ??

[Tango]

Hi Guys

A friend of mine had managed to get hold of a second hand set of IS-F wheels that need refurbishment.It's not major work just a bit of slight curbing thats all. Can anybody recommend a good company in the south that could carry out a good job. He wants to keep the same colour so as to keep original.

I cant believe how light those wheels are without tyres too. Does anybody know what they are made of and how much they are new?

Many thanks

I've just had a new set on mine under warranty, and the Service Manager said they were £5000.00 for the set of four. They're German manufacture (BBS).

£5K !!!! Thats a lot of money for 4 wheels. What can they be made from to warrant that sort of money ??

BBS developed them specifically for the IS-F, so based on the exclusivity issue, added dealership profit, and you would be in the same ballpark price of my Volks Rims which were over £3K.

[Parthiban]

Probably best to wait for the them to corrode (which they will) and get the set replaced under warranty free of charge :)

[fjcfarrar]

Hi Guys

A friend of mine had managed to get hold of a second hand set of IS-F wheels that need refurbishment.It's not major work just a bit of slight curbing thats all. Can anybody recommend a good company in the south that could carry out a good job. He wants to keep the same colour so as to keep original.

I cant believe how light those wheels are without tyres too. Does anybody know what they are made of and how much they are new?

Many thanks

I've just had a new set on mine under warranty, and the Service Manager said they were £5000.00 for the set of four. They're German manufacture (BBS).

Recently I stupidly managed to scrape the paint/lacquer from about 7 cm of the very edge of 1 rear rim, and of course the bare silvery metal stands out like a sore thumb against the dark lacquer on the rest of the wheel. I enquired with Lexus about possible touch-in paint, and there isn't one. I also emailed several paint-matching specialists, none of which bothered to reply. Sadly, the tin lids in Halfords are no longer colour samples - e.g. the lids for silver cars are all the same silver colour regardless of contents, so you can't attempt a nearish match by eye. I have now emailed BBS to see if they suggest anything and await their reply which I will put up on here.

What is it about Lexus and corroding wheels? They use 9 different manufacturers from 5 countries for their supplied and optional alloy wheels, so this suggests it is probably due to what people are doing to them. Could it be using the very corrosive alloy wheel cleaners from most of the major car cleaning accessory companies? The T***le Wax one comes in a trigger-spray bottle, smells acidic and rots away and jams the pump mechanism, and if you then apply it with a brush from a saucer, will eat the glaze and pattern from that unless it is rinsed. I think maybe a pin-hole or two in the lacquer finish, and it will start to attack the alloy underneath. Some of the newer gel cleaners have a strange organic chemical smell to them, and don't seem to attack metal to the same extent, so maybe the problem will lessen as they become more common??

[Tango]

What is it about Lexus and corroding wheels? They use 9 different manufacturers from 5 countries for their supplied and optional alloy wheels, so this suggests it is probably due to what people are doing to them. Could it be using the very corrosive alloy wheel cleaners from most of the major car cleaning accessory companies? The T***le Wax one comes in a trigger-spray bottle, smells acidic and rots away and jams the pump mechanism, and if you then apply it with a brush from a saucer, will eat the glaze and pattern from that unless it is rinsed. I think maybe a pin-hole or two in the lacquer finish, and it will start to attack the alloy underneath. Some of the newer gel cleaners have a strange organic chemical smell to them, and don't seem to attack metal to the same extent, so maybe the problem will lessen as they become more common??

I use Bilberry wheel cleaner when necessary as that doesn't damage the rims, and then seal with Poorboys wheel sealer. Allegedly as long as a regime of washing with shampoo and resealing with the Poorboys is maintained then it should not be necessary to use wheel cleaner again.

The problem with the IS-F wheels is the brake dust apparently. The brake pads certainly have a high ferrous content which can be seen as a rusty deposit on the wheels after wet weather. I sorted the dusting on the 250 by using the OEM ceramic based front brake pads so I'm picking up a set of Hawk ceramic pads for the IS-F next week while I'm in the U.S.

[fjcfarrar]

I use Bilberry wheel cleaner when necessary as that doesn't damage the rims, and then seal with Poorboys wheel sealer. Allegedly as long as a regime of washing with shampoo and resealing with the Poorboys is maintained then it should not be necessary to use wheel cleaner again.

The problem with the IS-F wheels is the brake dust apparently. The brake pads certainly have a high ferrous content which can be seen as a rusty deposit on the wheels after wet weather. I sorted the dusting on the 250 by using the OEM ceramic based front brake pads so I'm picking up a set of Hawk ceramic pads for the IS-F next week while I'm in the U.S.

The issue of ferrous brake dust with the ISF is well known. I have found that as far as the wheels are concerned, now that the wheels have weathered and the lacquer surface has shrunk and hardened over a couple of years, this dust is much less inclined to embed itself in the lacquer and the problem has mainly gone away by itself. The same applies to the paint on the side of the body which seems increasingly immune to having brake dust embedded in it. I am not sure the ferrous content is from the pads though, and tend to suspect abrading of the discs. However, I would not describe this as as corrosion anyway.

What I was questioning was the general issue of Lexus alloy wheel corrosion and whether this is really caused by proprietory wheel cleaner chemicals. Purely out of meaness & because I had a large otherwise useless barrel of the stuff - Swarfega - which had turned to liquid, I have mainly used this for years on alloys, put on with a plastic wallpaper brush and then rinsed. It dissolves tar etc. but does not eat into anything because it is close to being an emulsion of paraffin & washing-up detergent. It leaves a slight oily film which seems to shuck off a lot of the dirt and smells horrible at first - but I have never had any sign of corrosion on an alloy wheel. Mercifully, it doesn't seem to affect tyres either.

As for the price for a set of ISF wheels: They may be wonderful and light etc but are not hand-crafted from Welsh Gold, so £5k is taking the p**s because they can!!

[fjcfarrar]

11/06/10 I have now emailed BBS to see if they suggest anything and await their reply which I will put up on here.

As above, I emailed BBS to enquire if any "touch-up" paints are available for the dark alloy wheels they make and supply to Lexus for the ISF. I did this via the "contact us" portal on their website. As I expected, they have not responded in any way.

[ACLex]

We use Pristine Wheels for refurbishing and they do a good job and not expensive either :)

Their number is 01908 282628, just give them a call for a quote.

Andy

[yemgi]

As above, I emailed BBS to enquire if any "touch-up" paints are available for the dark alloy wheels they make and supply to Lexus for the ISF. I did this via the "contact us" portal on their website. As I expected, they have not responded in any way.

The paint code for the wheels has never been disclosed so no touch up available. There is a close enough Toyota reference that can be used for touchup : 1E3 Phantom Grey

I had mine resprayed under warranty due to corrosion and they did a great job. They have used a 3rd party, the cost was about 200€ a wheel, cheaper for them than a new set...

[lexus456]

What is it about Lexus and corroding wheels? They use 9 different manufacturers from 5 countries for their supplied and optional alloy wheels, so this suggests it is probably due to what people are doing to them. Could it be using the very corrosive alloy wheel cleaners from most of the major car cleaning accessory companies? The T***le Wax one comes in a trigger-spray bottle, smells acidic and rots away and jams the pump mechanism, and if you then apply it with a brush from a saucer, will eat the glaze and pattern from that unless it is rinsed. I think maybe a pin-hole or two in the lacquer finish, and it will start to attack the alloy underneath. Some of the newer gel cleaners have a strange organic chemical smell to them, and don't seem to attack metal to the same extent, so maybe the problem will lessen as they become more common??

I use Bilberry wheel cleaner when necessary as that doesn't damage the rims, and then seal with Poorboys wheel sealer. Allegedly as long as a regime of washing with shampoo and resealing with the Poorboys is maintained then it should not be necessary to use wheel cleaner again.

The problem with the IS-F wheels is the brake dust apparently. The brake pads certainly have a high ferrous content which can be seen as a rusty deposit on the wheels after wet weather. I sorted the dusting on the 250 by using the OEM ceramic based front brake pads so I'm picking up a set of Hawk ceramic pads for the IS-F next week while I'm in the U.S.

Hey, Ive got an IS-F and was wandering if the Hawk ceramics are any good - im getting the rust on my rims and so was thinking about getting the Hawks. Thanks