Flipsonic

The Lexus dealership put an ugly curb rash about 2 inch long on the lip of my aftermarket wheel. The lip is polished. The service manager said he would take care of it. He said he has a guy than can fix it on the spot.

Question - Can someone really fix it on the spot? How would this be done?

I don't want to come pick it up and it doesn't look right. I want it to look exactly the way it did when I dropped it off.

sockfocks

iTrader: (1)

what kind of lip does it have? it probably wouldn't look right. The proper way to fix it is to mount it and mill it down to remove the damage and repolish it. Unless i'm wrong...

Flipsonic

The lip is polished.

So when they mill it down, wouldn't the lip look uneven where the rash was? Does this mean it will never look the same?

sockfocks

iTrader: (1)

depends on who does the repair, I went to a shop and asked about my curb rash, they said they use a grinder and grind the damage away and remove material all the way around the wheel lip so it wouldn't have a dip and then they would polish it. That was unacceptable to me, I called the manufacturer and they would do it for 80.00 returned to me in a "as new" condition. The mill would take material from the whole wheel that way it is smooth all the way around and then would repolish the lip. I hope that explains it. If it was me, i wouldn't trust them to fix it.

Flipsonic

Grinding metal down can weaken the wheel. There is a shop here that will weld over the damaged area. Then they will shape it back down to match the original shape.

http://www.wheeltechniques.com/wheelrepair.html

Seize

It can be fixed on-spot. My brother works for an autobody shop and usually they'll have a mobile wheel repair guy to come in and deal with the curb rash. If it's something major like a bent wheel then it get's sent somewhere else.

Flipsonic

It depends on the type of wheel and the damage. IMO, for a curb rash, I would rather have them weld over the damaged area and refinish the wheel. This way, the wheel keeps the same shape.

One other thing, the Lexus dealer here curbed one of my wheels and hired a "on the spot" guy to fix it. They didn't even look at the other wheels and just grinded the outer edge of the lip down to fix the damage. Now it doesn't look the same as the other wheels because the outer edge is now rounded opposed to squared. Also the damaged wheel is no longer shiny. Obviously, this guy is incompetent. To make it even more complicated, the wheels are discontinued and we couldn't find a replacement until after a couple months of calling people.

So be careful who works on your curbed wheels.

VroomVroom

Dealers and wheels...I've had a couple of horror stories over the years.

Any chance you can share a pic? Without really seeing it, the answer is...it depends. If the rash is minimal there probably is a good chance it can be quickly polished by a pro. I've seen bare polished finishes repaired with great results.

Good luck on this. Probably goes without saying, but just stick to your guns with respect to your expectations. The last time I went through this I got four new BBS wheels. It was painful, but ultimately came down to a frank discussion with the service manager. "Here's what I want: four wheels that look exactly as they did when I came in. Make that happen however you want, but make it happen now."

Flipsonic

Another wheel shop tried to fix the incompetence of the other guy but they couldn't make it look the same as the other wheels. The wheel was grinded too much and they were afraid to weaken it. I don't have pics. Basically, there was a one inch gash on the outer lip. The wheel would have been fixed properly had it been taken to the right wheel shop. But I'm getting a replacement wheel now so everything is good.

BTW, I bought a set of TPMS adaptor kit from iForge for my JDM wheels so I can finally put the sensors in the tires. The dealer will install this for free.

Seize

True, it depends of the severity of the damage. Although in most of my experiences, people who say they have really bad curb rash, usually don't. Majority of the time it's something that can be polished out quite easily without really compromising the integrity of the wheel.

The method which you have described where they weld a piece of metal, shape it and then polish it, I would assume would cost much more than your typical polish/reconditioning job. I would only opt for this method if the typical polish/reconditioning job were to compromise the integrity of the wheel (which is most cases, it doesn't)

Flipsonic

In my case, the curb rash was deep. If grinded, the outer lips won't look right. I found out the hard way, thanks to Lexus.

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

hope they don't mount it like this... the sensor needs to be oriented the same way it came out of the OE wheel... valve stem pointing outwards... if not, there's a possibility the sensors won't turn on... (very common issue in Chevy trucks) but it's recommended that way for all vehicles...

Flipsonic

FYI, the sensors are already mounted (like the pic) and no issues. This is the only way it can be mounted on my wheels. I don't think the valvestems need to point outwards. As long as the sensors are in a pressurized environment, it will work just fine. Case in point, I've had all four sensors in a pressurized canister ever since I got the aftermarket wheels. They were in there laying flat inside the canister in the trunk for 6 months. I never had any issues with low tire pressure warning.

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

ya know, now that I think about it, Lexus does do something a little different with their sensors - they have a timed "beacon" they transmit... Every other company uses g-sensors to get the sensor to send out the signals... good information...

Chevy actually has a TSB regarding this... cool it doesn't matter on the Lex's though...

VroomVroom

Good information. I was familiar with the GM TSB on the issue and I'm still learning about TPMS in general. For something that's going to be standard across the board it'd be nice if all of the manufacturers did things identically.