stl2chi

I read through this post... It appears that most of us with this rim bubbling issue live in the northern / cold climate..... Either way. I feel its a problem...

Noticed the bubbling on my 2005.... Spoke to my service adviser (he's great!!)... Rims replaced with new.... No problem. I have 60k and I'm out of warranty.

- I guess it pays to deal with the same advisor all the time... Just for cases like this.

- Lexus service is much better than BMW. I love my Bimmer... but I am about to call BMWNA now regarding an issue with dealer on a car that purchased 9 months ago!!!

STL2CHI

VictorGX

That is excellent your service rep took care of the problem that easily. Wish all dealerships would handle the situation by replacing the rims.

It is interesting you got new rims even though you were out of warranty...my service rep said if the rims were out of warranty they typically "split the cost with the customer 50/50." Just goes to show you each dealership gets to address this problem however they want to...

cmarshack

I cannot believe that this "third party" did not tke the wheels off of the car before they painted them!!!

Did they paint right over the lug nuts? Did they even bother to sand blast the wheels prior to paining? I would be very dissapointed and would not think that this new finish would last more than a year. If done properly, these would have been better than new...but I would not satisfied with this solution. Now I would ask for new wheels.

As for the overspray on the calipers...not a big deal...but that's your call.

Davido723

I live in FL and all 4 are crap. Bubble and peeling.

We have an 2003 and I will look into new rims one day.

JASP615

[QUOTE=Victor GX;4746908]JASP615 - Here is an update with my rim situation:

Good news. Bad news. The good news is the rims turned out pretty good. The corrosion/bubbling is gone and the rims have been re-painted with silver paint. The bad news is there is now overspray (i.e., mist from the silver spray paint) on my brake rotors, calipers, and generally covering the entire brake housing.

Essentially, the 3rd party that performed the service (Lexus outsources this procedure) left the rims on the GX while performing the work and did not mask properly. In fact, not only was there mist inside the rim, but I could even see slight overspray on the tires themselves from where the tires weren't masked off property.

When I picked up the vehicle today I immediately asked to speak to the Service Manager after I determined there was unacceptable overspray all over the brake assemblies of all four wheels. The SM agreed that the 3rd party that refinished the rims had performed substandard work. He offered to do anything necessary to address the issue...including turning the rotors to remove the paint from the rotors (which I did not want to do), pay for my next service appointment, or even replace all four rotors for free. I told him that the mist on the rotor would undoubundoubtedlyff quickly, but the overspray would continue to remain on the other parts of the brake assembly -- and that is why I was disappointed. At that point he offered to have his service guys try and sand off those parts.

I told him that I would need some time to decide what I wanted to do. The SM told me to call him next week and we can decide what I want him to do (ie. replie rotors, give me a free oil change, etc.). He also asked me to refrain from filing out any Lexus survey until he had a chance to resolve this issue.

BTW - During our conversation the SM mentioned that Lexus has never "officially" addressed this wheel issue -- meaning they have never released a Technical Service Bulletin (TSB). Therefore, each dealership deals with these issues on a case-by-case basis. He did say he has to get approval from corporate before agreeing to refinish a customer's wheels.

Sorry that story got a bit long. Hope it helps. And I hope your refinisher masks properly next week.

VictorGX[/QUOT

Well Victor this doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy. I had to move my appointment to Sept 14 because of being out of town. Now I'm not sure if I should fight to have them replaced or tell them I expect the wheels to be taken off the truck and tires removed before they refinish them. I will be really pissed if this happens to me and no amount of free oil changes will be able to fix this. I will with go from 0 to ***** in a flash if this is not done right. I will for warn them first though.....LOL

Pearlpower

iTrader: (2)

First off, it is painfully obvious the repair is substandard based on your notes. The wheel was never even removed from the vehicle which in itself is appalling. That the tire was not removed from the wheel even more so. So what they did was to just sand down the blemishes and hit it with spray paint. This means the very first time you take it somewhere to have a tire fixed or installed the paint will come right off. The quality of paint is not the same which will lead to issues down the line.

Wheel must come off. Tire must come off. Wheel should be prep'd and repaired properly. Then painted not using a spray can followed with a coat of clear on the entire wheel. The wheel should look new in other words after it is all said and done.

This is why I refuse to let people touch my car, there are so many incompetent people in the world that have such a low level of either work ethic or standards it drags down others with them.
Never accept mediocricy from anyone. Ok, my rant is over.

JASP615

I'm going to have my husband call tomorrow and request that the rims be replaced. This may or may not work but I'm going to try. I just feel if they are acknowledging that this is a warranty issue then painting the rims is not putting this back to factory. Part of owning a Lexus is suppose to be the quality of the product this also should be how they handle a defect in workmanship. I guess we will see what happens.

I6turbo

iTrader: (1)

My '03 has this pretty badly and it's been in Florida all its life. I'm pretty sure they just had some poorly constructed wheels on these vehicles -- it's not a result of abnormal environmental conditions.

Re: refinishing, the bubbling goes DEEP into the wheel surface, and unless the refinisher applies something to fill the void, resurfaces it, then repaints it, the result will look crappy. Even if he does do that, I'd expect the repair job not to last very long -- whether it reappears in that same spot, or in another spot. I'm guessing the wheels are a lost cause in terms of preventing the defect from reappearing.

And BTW, to the member who's Lexus dealer allowed a half-a$$ 3rd party shop that didn't even remove the wheel from the vehicle to work on one of their customer's vehicles.... I wouldn't go near that Lexus dealer again!

JASP615

Well, I called and spoke to the service manager who is very nice and told him that I know he is only doing his job and I'm sure the job will be done right if refurbished but I am not happy with this choice. I feel if it's a defect on Lexus's part then the item should be replaced not fixed. I don't believe this is a cosmetic issue and fixing a rim that may not be the paint but the metal itself is not going to solve the problem it will only postpone it. I also told him that most defects are replaced not fixed. He agreed but told me that Lexus is the one that makes the decisions and that when they call the dealership he will back me up. I called Lexus gave my complaint and should be hearing back from them in 24 to 48 hours.

I have had many brand new vehicles and never even on the Danali's and the Escalade's did the wheels pit. Different rims I understand but if Lexus is going to pride themselves as being one of the superior brands then stand behind the product and don't just cover it up.

I also had to laugh when trying to research this problem on another thread concerning another car that was having the same issue they blamed it on women. I'm more **** with my truck then most men. I do go out and wash my rims even in the dead of winter so that one, they look good and second, because I don't want the salt or the dirt sitting on the rims. I also never had curb rash on any one of my vehicles like they were all complaining about yet it was the women that caused this problem?....LOL

It is also ironic that while trying to search the web for more complaints I am not finding many. Most are from this site. Not helping when trying to get the rims replaced.

kphu

iTrader: (8)

I had this issue too. I purchased my '03 GX CPO and when I noticed it I discussed it with the dealership and they replaced it under warranty. Do a search and you'll see my post.

Not surprisingly its been about 2/3 yrs and I can see its starting to bubble again. If it really annoys you I would suggest to purchase some aftermarket wheels to improve the look of the vehicle.

Good luck

Ken

JASP615

Update:

I had placed a call to Lexus HQ and explained my problem. The women there took the info and said that someone from Lexus would give me a call back with in 24 to 48 hrs.

A very long story short. Lexus said they would refinish I told them I could have had that without calling I want them replaced. They said no I said why they said they reviewed my records I told them there were no records and if getting a defective product replaced under warranty means I have to get my truck serviced at Lexus then it was misleading. The service of my truck has nothing to do with a defect. I told her in other words if I was a repeat customer that had my trucks serviced at a Lexus dealership and spent way more money then I needed to then they would replace my rims. She had no answer. She told me to refinish the rims it would be 640.00 I could do that or I could take the credit and purchase new rims. I told her that was a slap in the face that Lexus was going to give me 640.00 towards the replacement of defective rims and charge me 2050.00 for the new ones. I told her this would be fine if I was the responsible party but it's a defect and now you want me to pay for Lexus's problem. Not a chance in Hell. She told me that they won't use the word defect referring to the rims I said you can use any word you want....lets call it a failure then. What ever word you attach to this it still means that there is a problem with the rims and Lexus knows about it. She told me there is no recall. I told her I guess not. A recall would cost millions and handling this case by case is cost effective. I'm sure your Actuary crunched the numbers and since it's not a safety issue there are 3 kinds of people out there. Those that will accept that it's not covered, Those that will accept refinishing and then there is someone like me that will not back down nor go away. She told me that the tires are only warrant for 12 months. I told her this has nothing to do with the tires this has to do with painted rims. Bumper to Bumper warranty for corrosion is 72 months unlimited miles. This is corrosion and please show me where the rims are excluded. She asked me who told me that the rims had a defect I told her look on the internet. She told me that Lexus does not go by the internet.....well I guess not since one computer can bring together a country suffering from the same problem Just think if we didn't have the computer? We would all be thinking that this is just a one in a million problem.....

Long story short.....LOL The rims are being replaced with new. The dealership in all of this was Wilke Lexus and they were fantastic to deal with. Although the replacement came from Lexus Corp Wilke stepped up to the plate and is doing the replacement for a person that never had her truck serviced there nor did I buy there. I do know that when I buy that new Lexus it will be at Wilke Lexus. If they go to this much trouble for someone that never used them before then just think of what they would do if you purchased from them.

I don't care if Cherry Hill Lexus (who I purchased the new truck from) was giving fantastic deals out I would never buy from them again. Just the excuses that they made up so that they didn't have to deal with this problem were unbelievable. They were unprofessional, disrespectful and unresponsive when confronted.

varcity64

iTrader: (2)

glad it worked out! and i guess you dont take no for an answer, good for you. bringing up the bumper to bumper corrosion warranty was brilliant

I6turbo

iTrader: (1)

Same here. I really don't enjoy doing the mundane maintenance and repairs, but the horror stories I hear from so many people -- like this case -- just make me unwilling to let others do even the simple stuff. I guess that's why I've had a vehicle at a shop only about 3 or 4 times in the past 25 years. Back before that, I used to let someone do some of my maintence and repair work because I had someone I trusted. My dad's good friend was a mechanic and sprint car racer (had his own shop) and always did a fantastic job -- better than I would do -- so I never even felt inclined to even check his work, much less worry about it. After I moved from there I had to start doing all my own.