Alloy Wheel Corrosion

[nailya]

Would welcome comments on the cause of the corrosion pitting on the attached picture. This is occurring in similar positions within all wheels on my car. The wheels were fitted in March last year as replacements for the original set on the car when bought new 7 months earlier.
The wheels have no kerb damage or scratches whatsoever and not been exposed to much winter road driving. The car is cleaned regularly using simple basic turtlewax as the car had a supagard system applied.
Someone suggested that there could be an electrical fault causing this but who knows?
The dealer has washed their hands of the problem saying the cause is due to an "outside influence", despite the manufacturer already replacing the first set under warranty.
Interested to hear what people think may be causing the problem and also ask for anyone who has had similar problems to tell me what happened, what was deemed to cause this and what action was taken.
Also have a problem with the front grille which has its 4th set of fixings in place

[snuffle]

The wheels corrode because they use cheap lacquer over bare metal.
The grille fixings corrode because they are bare metal with no protection.

ask the Dealer to supply zinc coated fixings and to refurb/replace/cash settle the wheels.

Thats the easy part , getting them to do it maybe more troublesome.

[nailya]

The dealer has already changed the wheels once and the screws 3 times.

I did not say earlier but these problems are on a Bentley Conti that is less than 2 years old.
The first set of wheels (rear) lasted 7 months and the fronts 1 year. Screws changed 3 times in 15 months.

Trying to tell me it is due to the climate where I live!!!! One of the mildest parts of Scotland!!

[Mr GrimNasty]

Well it would hardly be a mission to source a stainless steel replacement screw of the correct size, why a 'Bentley' dealer can't manage that is stunning.

The wheels is obviously a manufacturing/materials defect.

Just because you buy a Bentley doesn't stop them attaching bits of probably Chinese sourced cheap ste to it.

[davepoth]

nailya said:

The dealer has already changed the wheels once and the screws 3 times.

I did not say earlier but these problems are on a Bentley Conti that is less than 2 years old.
The first set of wheels (rear) lasted 7 months and the fronts 1 year. Screws changed 3 times in 15 months.

Trying to tell me it is due to the climate where I live!!!! One of the mildest parts of Scotland!!

Have they passed it up the line to the factory? The alloys are a manufacturing thing which may be difficult to rectify, but the grill screws is just sloppy purchasing of a very cheap part.

[ST170Bird]

disimilar metal corrosion on the grilles?

[nailya]

I have yet to come across another Bentley with the same issues. I don't think it is a manufacturing issue with the wheels as the odds of me getting two sets of duds whilst everyone elses are ok are very high.
I have had loads of other issues with the car, mainly electrical, which has required the car to spend on average about 1 day in 11 back with the dealer having work done.
I believe the car has some inherent problem which is unique or at least very rare for Bentley.

[Mr GrimNasty]

nailya said:

I have yet to come across another Bentley with the same issues. I don't think it is a manufacturing issue with the wheels as the odds of me getting two sets of duds whilst everyone elses are ok are very high.
I have had loads of other issues with the car, mainly electrical, which has required the car to spend on average about 1 day in 11 back with the dealer having work done.
I believe the car has some inherent problem which is unique or at least very rare for Bentley.

Well I suppose you could try poking a test meter around between various points on the body/trim/earth and see if there's readings?

[David87]

Perhaps requesting to have the wheels refurbished to a high standard would be a better bet than another set of new ones that'll probably do exactly the same thing again?

[R300will]

nailya said:

I have yet to come across another Bentley with the same issues. I don't think it is a manufacturing issue with the wheels as the odds of me getting two sets of duds whilst everyone elses are ok are very high.
I have had loads of other issues with the car, mainly electrical, which has required the car to spend on average about 1 day in 11 back with the dealer having work done.
I believe the car has some inherent problem which is unique or at least very rare for Bentley.

Too late to throw in the towel and ask for a complete replacement? nothing major wrong with it but a Bentley driver being inconvenienced? now that's just not cricket! time to break some balls.

[snuffle]

nailya said:

The dealer has already changed the wheels once and the screws 3 times.

I did not say earlier but these problems are on a Bentley Conti that is less than 2 years old.
The first set of wheels (rear) lasted 7 months and the fronts 1 year. Screws changed 3 times in 15 months.

Trying to tell me it is due to the climate where I live!!!! One of the mildest parts of Scotland!!

No offence meant, but I don't care whether the parts are fitted to a bentley or a micra,

The parts are corroding due to poor or non existent coatings on the parts, nothing to do with electrical faults, climate or little green aliens trying to have sex with your wheels.

Go and give the dealer a kick in their collective nutsack.

Edited by snuffle on Wednesday 2nd May 18:31

[hman]

doesnt matter if that was a vauxhall vectra you'd still not expect to see that on a 2 year old car

[thinfourth2]

No idea about the wheels but the grill screws you have 2 possible solutions

1 Keep pushing bentley, get stressed and pissed off, spend hours on the phone, taking the car back and forth eventually having a mental breakdown ending with the police turning up dragging you off some poor sale men as you beat him to death with a coffee cup etc and so on.

2 Spend 5 minutes and a tenner buying 4 replacement screws

How much is your time and blood pressure worth?

[Mastodon2]

The wheel looks unusual, is it a two piece split rim? Looks almost like something has been rubbing it. It is happening behind every spoke on the wheel or just in that one place? I think the probably cause will more than likely be identified as cheap materials in the end though.

As for the screws, if they keep fitting cheap crap that rusts quickly, source some zinc coated stainless steel items yourself.

[nailya]

I have asked for Bentley to take the car back. They have told me where to go.

The wheels are split rims. The first set also showed blistering around the nuts which I thought could have been resulted from poor workmanship when bolting the pieces together.

The pitting is happening at roughly the same pot on several spokes. The previous set had it on virtually all spokes. I will obviously be monitoring what happens with these and suspect that the problem will spread as before. The front wheels, fitted 5 months after the rears have just started to suffer the problem.

I hear what some of you say regarding quality issues but why does this appear to be unique to my car? Bentley put out thousands of these wheels yet so far I have not come across anyone else reporting the problem.

[kambites]

As above, the grill screws are a joke - a mainstream manufacturer wouldn't use untreated mild steel screws in an exposed place like that so Bentley have no right to be doing so.

The wheel looks like a manufacturing fault - either a poor quality lacquer or a poorly applied one.

[FoundOnRoadside]

I had corrosion on the wheels of my Lancer after 8 months. Mitsubishi sent a new set of alloys from Japan, and they had at least double the thickness lacquer on them. They didn't corrode.