Aluminum rims corroding, leaking air, help needed

[someotherguy]

I’ve cleaned up a bunch of corroded aluminum beads. Worn out flapper discs, roloc cookies, soft wire wheels, then some of that black tire pooky. Same thing with the valve stem.

Discount tire is pretty “corporate“ so they might not fix a bead. A little brightly colored, ex gas station with hand painted signage-tire shop would do it for ya though.

Exactly. The black goop works on aluminum wheels just fine - but not if they're lazy and don't clean the beads first. Discount pretty much has to follow the path that won't put them in any possible liability so it's not on the menu there.

Richard

 

[South VA]

I have this problem with my ‘08 HHR SS, which has aluminum wheels. I took it back to the shop where I bought the tires, because there’s a slow leak, but they couldn’t find it. I’ll take it back and ask them to break the bead and check for corrosion.

One of the first items I plan to buy for the new garage is a manual tire changer. Between all of the vehicles and mowers on the farm we have 44 tires on the ground, several of which have slow leaks. Given the cost plus the inconvenience of taking them to town 15 miles away to get fixed, I’m thinking the tire changer will be a pretty handy thing to have.

Come to think of it, I probably should just get one now.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I think they're trying to take advantage of him. They only saw corrosion from the outside, they didn't break a bead. With steel, the edges can be ground (wire wheeled?), and a black goop can be applied to seal them up. Does this not work with aluminum? My dad said that he did some checking with soapy water, at home, and did see bubbles, some of which were from the valve stem area. Do rims corrode around the valves, too, or is that more likely the stem itself?

They're absolutely taking advantage of him. While it's not in Discount Tire's line of work to repair wheels, it's certainly doable. There's a place here in OKC on the south side that does wheel repair. My right rear '96 Corvette Grand Sport wheel had a nasty curb rash and a bend. They straightened it, built the lip back up with weld, ground it smooth, and repainted the wheel to match the rest. It was far less than the cost of a new wheel.

If they didn't break the bead, they didn't remove the valve stem, and more often the valve stem is cracked rather than the stem area being bad. I'd get a second opinion. If you have a used tire store in your area, usually they do patches, plugs, and valve stem replacements dirt cheap.

 

[Scooterwrench]

I have this problem with my ‘08 HHR SS, which has aluminum wheels. I took it back to the shop where I bought the tires, because there’s a slow leak, but they couldn’t find it. I’ll take it back and ask them to break the bead and check for corrosion.

One of the first items I plan to buy for the new garage is a manual tire changer. Between all of the vehicles and mowers on the farm we have 44 tires on the ground, several of which have slow leaks. Given the cost plus the inconvenience of taking them to town 15 miles away to get fixed, I’m thinking the tire changer will be a pretty handy thing to have.

Come to think of it, I probably should just get one now.

Careful with those things. I pulled on one for 25yrs and have a crippled shoulder to show for it. Keep a weather eye on FB marketplace,you may find an electric rim clamp type for only a little more money.

 

[GoToGuy]

When my uncle still had his small service station , they repaired a lot of Ag equipment tires. This machine would grab it laying down , lift up , move it to right , and lower it into a round water tank. Hold it under water and look for the air leaks,. I thought that was pretty cool deal, the way it pick up even tractor tires. I was young in high school shop classes.
There was a wheel repair shop in , that had adverts in car mags for custom wheel repairs.
" Stockton Wheel Repair "

 

[Hipster]

Careful with those things. I pulled on one for 25yrs and have a crippled shoulder to show for it. Keep a weather eye on FB marketplace,you may find an electric rim clamp type for only a little more money.

I bought my own machines years ago when I was doing a lot of bikes. Basic machines but they get it done. Bought the tire machine and atv clamps new and later scored a used balancer with the m/c attachments. Around here if you walk in a shop they want $25 to swap a car tire and balance it. At one time I had 4 bikes. Couldn't say what they get to do a bike but it used to be $100 bill. The machines paid for themselves.

Only thing I can really say is, the more narrow the rim or the smaller diameter the wheel the more of a PITA the process becomes. Not sure I would waste time with a manual machine. I've had an 8 inch turf tire kick my ass more than once.

 

[RichLo]

I just had a bad experience with a simple re-seal also that I put in the 'Grinds my Gears' thread.

Its not that hard for a high-school kid to properly fix any bead/stem leak but pride in workmanship has seemingly disappeared from the current workforce. I used to take pride in making sure a bead was completely scrubbed and cleaned before re-mounting in my high school shop class and early college shop rat job.

I think the pay per job is hurting quality drastically in shops today. If you get paid 30 mins for a tire repair and get it done in 10 mins you can go onto the next job 20min early or F-Off for 20 mins.

 

[Hipster]

I just had a bad experience with a simple re-seal also that I put in the 'Grinds my Gears' thread.

Its not that hard for a high-school kid to properly fix any bead/stem leak but pride in workmanship has seemingly disappeared from the current workforce. I used to take pride in making sure a bead was completely scrubbed and cleaned before re-mounting in my high school shop class and early college shop rat job.

I think the pay per job is hurting quality drastically in shops today. If you get paid 30 mins for a tire repair and get it done in 10 mins you can go onto the next job 20min early or F-Off for 20 mins.

I worked in both salary and commission/flat rate shops. In a comission shop you don't get paid a second time to redo your work, There's more incentive to get it right. In a salary shop there's more incentive to huddle up around the coffee pot. You can hire an entire grad class from Vo-tech. 10 will be clueless not knowing the difference between a ball-peen or framing hammer, the next 8-9 will be more worried about their phones and packing a bowl, and you might end up with one guy, maybe a so-so second one that took the schooling and takes his/her job seriously. Tv glamorizes it and these young guys spend much time fantasizing and patting each other on the back that a vo-tech cert is going to get them a show on Discovery. Weeding through the clowns is a management problem. The conscientious, those that want to continue training, move up the pay scale, be the better tech's, don't stay a tire changer or at a tires only shop very long.

 

[someotherguy]

Lemme tell you about weeding out clowns. Y'all have heard me complain about can't get good people in the door where I work. Wanna weed someone out? Put them in a truck and tell them you only get paid for what you load. The weak ones peter out in the first shift or two. Produce, or starve. This really should be the way of the world..

Richard

 

[Hipster]

Lemme tell you about weeding out clowns. Y'all have heard me complain about can't get good people in the door where I work. Wanna weed someone out? Put them in a truck and tell them you only get paid for what you load. The weak ones peter out in the first shift or two. Produce, or starve. This really should be the way of the world..

Richard

Have to agree, you should see the the look on some of these guys faces where you tell them they don't get paid a second time to fix their eff up. You turn around an quit and I have pay someone else, you won't get paid for the first time either. Simply glamorous lol.