Wheel Corrosion

[Mr Pants!]

I know this topic has probably been played out here, but I have to share this with you and would love to hear your thoughts.

I have a Lexus RX400h '56 Plate which I purchased nearly new as it was previously a Lexus owned vehicle with hardly any miles on it, it is well below average mileage at 64k miles and is now 7.5 years old.

My wheels are in a shocking state, they have never been kerbed, never bashed or mistreated and I have only ever used Supaguard cleaning products on the car as recommended by Lexus and the paint is bubbling and falling off the wheels. I have been with Lexus 10 years and spent well in excess of £80k with them over the 10 years and they are not prepared to help me, which has really upset me.

I know the car is 7.5 years old, but I would have thought that Lexus would recognise that their wheels are not up to a good enough standard?

Anyway, I emailed matt.harrison@tgb.toyota.co.uk who is the GB CEO of Lexus and got a response from Samantha Betts, which I think is a made up name that the department uses and I also believe I got a standard letter from them.

I appreciate partly what Lexus are saying, but I have purchased all my cars through Lexus, 1 new and 2 nearly new, spent a fortune with them and they have just shut me out like it counts for nothing with this rediculous response. I feel helpless and really disappointed in their complete lack of support.

Am I being unreasonable to ask Lexus to come to the party on this? Should I expect a set of well treated wheels to only last 7 years?

I have been asked by our President and Managing Director, Matt Harrison, to thank
you for your email dated 24
March 2014 and to respond on his behalf.

I was sorry to learn of the difficulties you

have experienced with the alloy wheels on your Lexus RX 400h and apologise for
the disappointment this has caused.

I appreciate you have taken every care to protect your vehicle and having
discussed the matter with Lexus Reading, it is clear this unfortunate corrosion
has not been influenced by you in any way.

When product issues arise outside of the manufacturer’s warranty period we do try to
provide an out of warranty goodwill contribution, especially for our loyal and
longstanding customers. Unfortunately,
we cannot offer this support indefinitely and I regret to advise you we are unable
to offer a contribution towards repairs costs on this occasion. I am sorry for the additional disappointment
this will cause.

We work in conjunction with Pristine Alloy Wheel Refurbishers to offer customers
quality replacement wheels at a reduced price and I understand this is the
wheel Lexus Reading have suggested.
Whilst I understand your comments, I would like to assure you about
their refurbishment process. Pristine
individually inspect wheels before the work starts and follow an 11 step refurbishment
process. We have found the wheels they
produce to be of exemplary quality.

I am sorry we are unable to respond in a more helpful and positive manner and I
realise our response will come as a further disappointment to you. For this I can only apologise.

Yours sincerely

Samantha Betts

Customer Relations Executive

[Stuno1]

Same story with Mazda wheels and maybe Nissan??? Won't get any support out of warranty for any of them chap. To be fair if they did it for you they would have to do it for every owner with the issue without warranty. Not a cost id expect them to bare.

The wheels should be better quality from all jap manufacturerss who have this issue. A lot of people get wheels replaced in the last year of warranty to get max life out of them as possible. Full refurb starts at 50 ish per wheel so not too expnsive.

Stu

[Mr Pants!]

Thanks Stu, good reply.... Makes sense.

[Stuno1]

Fact remains they need to up their game so their wheels can deal with the UK climate, damp, salt etc etc

If it mkes you feel any better, i had a lexus extended warranty claim for my 2008 ISF wheels bubbling declined. They offered a contribution but it was silly money so got them refurbed myself in the end.

Stu

[Mr Pants!]

Interesting, yes that does make me feel a little better, thanks, sorry for you though.

THey did offer their exchange program on a set of refurbed wheels from Pristine Wheels, but what concerns me is I know my wheels have never been so much as tapped let alone bashed through a pot hole or anything, I go to great lengths to look after my car. If I buy a refurbed wheel on their exchange program what is to say that the wheels I am getting have been bashed, repaired and resprayed.

I think I will take the hit, lose my car for a couple of days and get my wheels done myself so i know my wheels are in good nick, other than the paint.

[Stuno1]

Makes sense :)

[Mr Pants!]

When I say offer me, they meant for me to pay, they offered it as a cheaper option than £1.5k for a set of 4 new wheels

[Stuno1]

How generous of them ;)

[Boxbrownie]

I have a set of original 300/400 Mk2 wheels I have been using on my Mk1 for the past 7 years, they were good when I bought them but now they look like they have been passed through every knocking shop in Portsmouth and not been treated after! As scabby as scabby can get, and its not the kerbing that does it, mine have never touched a kerb, but they rot from the inside edge of the spokes worse and the corrosion just propagates from there.

I have been looking round at getting them refurbed, and most "good" places are around the £280 a set mark, in the end I decided to buy a complete alloy wheel and tyres package from Mytyres the alloys (although I went down to 17" for more comfort this time) worked out at £78 each within the package, pretty good and a decent make of wheel TUV approved.

[Mr Pants!]

I have a set of original 300/400 Mk2 wheels I have been using on my Mk1 for the past 7 years, they were good when I bought them but now they look like they have been passed through every knocking shop in Portsmouth and not been treated after! As scabby as scabby can get, and its not the kerbing that does it, mine have never touched a kerb, but they rot from the inside edge of the spokes worse and the corrosion just propagates from there.

I have been looking round at getting them refurbed, and most "good" places are around the £280 a set mark, in the end I decided to buy a complete alloy wheel and tyres package from Mytyres the alloys (although I went down to 17" for more comfort this time) worked out at £78 each within the package, pretty good and a decent make of wheel TUV approved.

Can I see a pic of them on the car? I considered buying another after market wheel, but its do hard to get something that looks good on a car....

My wheels are the sort of smoked silver ones....

[Boxbrownie]

These are my new 17" wheels, I kept them simple to clean and along the "5 spoke" original design......not to flash for the car IMO....basically "just" alloy wheels and also with the added advantage of one of the correct sizes for my model.

They only worked out at about a fiver more each than having the original 18" Mk2's refurbed!!!

[Mr Pants!]

Yeah they look good, did it affect your insurance?

Sent from my iPad using Lexus OC

[Boxbrownie]

No, they are the same size as the winter set, I told my insurance I was fitting winter tyres and wheels and as long as they are an approved size for the vehicle (which they are) there were no issues.

These are now my summer set of course.......the first morning after change over we had the hardest frost of the year