Aluminum rims corroding, leaking air, help needed

[454cid]

This is actually for my father and his GMT-900... 08, I think?

He's in his 70's and doesn't drive it much since he's retired. The tires leak air, and he's getting tired of having to air them up when he wants to use it. He took it to Discount Tire, and they went straight for an $1100 aftermarket rim sale, re-using his tires, but further said his front tires really needed to be replaced due to age (They're probably older but not super old).

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?

 

[Hipster]

I haven't come across an aluminum wheel I couldn't clean up, but basically you're polishing the inner bead seat up. It's been A awhile but used to use this tire lube at install that was kind of milky looking. It claimed to have gluing and sealing properties. No wire wheels, nylon bristle discs get it done.

All that being said, rubber can become porous over time, fluid lines can sweat fluid, A/C lines can bleed freon, the tire can bleed air. stems can leak. New wheels don't need to happen. I've re-poshished some really crusty ones back to like new, but maybe it's time for a set of treads. There's a date code on the sidewall

 

[Schurkey]

I'm on my last round of having tires dismounted, taking the tires and wheels home to clean the bead area, and then hauling them back to the tire shop for re-mounting.

About 20 dismounts so far, all of them for bead leaks, or valve-stem leaks, or both--stuff I can't fix at home. Four tires replaced with new, and some tires/wheels sourced from the Treasure Yard because one of my wheels was cracked, and several of my tires were too-far gone to be worth re-mounting.

The last five are awaiting my lazy, unproductive self to clean the bead areas of the wheels. Things were going great until I wore-out the wonderful, thin-wire steel brush on my angle-grinder. All I have left is a coarse-wire brush that I don't want to use.

I had another shop try to seal some bead leaks. The guy "broke the beads" and applied some black "sealant" goop to the bead area, and then just re-inflated the tires. He did this twice, and they still leaked. Once I had the tires entirely dismounted, and cleaned the bead area of the wheels, they're holding air OK.

I've seen numerous lawn-and-garden tires become porous. They leak EVERYWHERE, and FAST. Not so many porous automotive tires, although it does happen, and generally not as bad/not as fast as the turf tires.

 

[Scooterwrench]

This problem is caused by the "tire lube" most shops use to mount tires. It is actually soap that is caustic and eats the aluminum. It worked OK on the old steel wheels but not so much on AL. Once you get the bead seats cleaned MAKE the tire shop use WD-40 to mount the tires. A good way to clean aluminum corrosion is navel jelly and a nylon brush.
Stopping the leak around the valve stem may need a different approach. After cleaning the corrosion off apply a little black sillycone to the valve stem before pulling it into the hole. Unfortunately the hole will become a little oversized after the corrosion is removed and you will need the sillycone to fill in the gaps.

 

[Hipster]

This problem is caused by the "tire lube" most shops use to mount tires. It is actually soap that is caustic and eats the aluminum. It worked OK on the old steel wheels but not so much on AL. Once you get the bead seats cleaned MAKE the tire shop use WD-40 to mount the tires. A good way to clean aluminum corrosion is navel jelly and a nylon brush.
Stopping the leak around the valve stem may need a different approach. After cleaning the corrosion off apply a little black sillycone to the valve stem before pulling it into the hole. Unfortunately the hole will become a little oversized after the corrosion is removed and you will need the sillycone to fill in the gaps.

the stuff I'm referring to was labeled for aluminum wheels conversely we didn't use it on steel. i typically use high pressure stems in most everything these days as the typical indo-chichina imports don't seem to last a set of tires.

 

[GoToGuy]

The Naval Jelly your referring to is one type for Rust, iron, ferrous materials. The other is naval jelly for Aluminum materials. Some aluminum wheels do have porosity issues being cast material. Some wheels were painted/ coated with Algrip or Alumagrip ( ?) It's a aluminum specific high adhesion paint, flexible, tough. I prefer to use the metal screw nut type valve stems, in aluminum wheels.
Whatever brand the tires are there is date code a quick Google will get you how to decode it. Ten years is generally the limit. After my dad passed the K2500 wasn't used that much and the RR tire unpeeled the tread at 65 mph, the tire had been on 13 years. Scared the crap out of son in pax seat.
Those who live rust belt have an ongoing battle with corrosion . It's just another part of periodic maintenance battle.

 

[Orpedcrow]

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.

 

[Supercharged111]

I thought 6 years was about as long as you wanted to go on a set of tires?

 

[Hipster]

I was thinking 7. !0 years you're riding on Maypop's. How good they "look" isn't in the equation.

 

[Hipster]

A little brightly colored, ex gas station with hand painted signage-tire shop would do it for ya though.

I know the place. Habeeb & Sons used tires etc. Inc. If you need your turban re-wrapped and balanced they can help with that too. lol