gebo

I just had a gold guy come to redo my Gold emblems. As he was starting, he showed me that I had fake LExus centers. I had my wheels chromed and they stuck the funny looking "7" in the center of the cap. Where can I get official chromed centers for a GS300? He can do the gold plating?

squarehat

The two Lexus dealerships I've been to sell chrome wheels for the IS, LS, RX, and ES that look like OEM, but like you say, have a gold 'L' that resembles an upside-down numeral '7' than the Lexus 'L'. I never thought to check to see if they had "Toyota" stamped on them, to see if they were OEM or replicas.
I actually meant to ask this question after my last oil change, when I saw a whole display of these in the waiting area.

gebo

The back of my centers have "made in Taiwan" printed on little white labels. THey are not the lexus "official" logo. I did check my wheels and they have the little stamp that tells you it is official OEM. Why would they "cheat" me on the centers?

APLUS

Why would they "cheat" me on the centers


Let's ballpark some figures right here.
Chrome centers (guessing and exagarating) - made by a company who has to pay fair wages
$.75 a piece in bulk
The centers you happened to get - made by a company who pays people a $1.00 a day
$.15 a piece in bulk

Make enough centers for a 100,000 cars... cost of first company 400,000 x .75 = $300,000.00.
Make enough centers for a 100,000 cars... cost of second company 400,000 x .15 = $60,000

DIFFERENCE in price $300,000 - $60,000 = $240,000

First company has to mark up 25% which turns out to be $375,000
Second company has to mark up 25% which turns out to be $75,000

Second company (which is probaly a supplier) is able to make a larger profit and in turn able to charge larger companies ( Like Toyota) less which probaly orders millions of those little things. They win ( second company) the contract and the larger company saves millions in cut backs on wheel caps. Consumer ( you ) gets the cheap centers.

First company doesn't lose out either because they will now sell their centers to smaller companies ( wheel manufactures ) and double the price which means the consumer ( you ) gets screwed twice

gebo

I realize the monetary "savings."

It's really distasteful that I would send my wheels thru Lexus to have them chromed and get the center pieces "golded" and I find out 3 years later that what they replaced my centers with "knockoffs."

Okay, just for you guys, I didn't even notice it. The guy who is "redoing" my gold because it is coming off told me. Funny thing is, I probably would have never noticed it. How many of you, never noticed?

WoofGS

Do you have a picture of the fake centers? I never knew they made fake lexus centers. Thanks for warning people about fake centers.

VVT-i

They look like "7" upside down. They use to sell these chrome wheels at Lexus dealer as a options. Both wheels and center caps are Made in Taiwan and the quility of the chrome is very poor. I think they stop doing that now.

gebo

WoofGS,

Don't have pictures but all you have to do is compare the logos on the trunk lid or front end with the logos in the center caps and you will definitely see the difference. You won't have to wonder. It will be very obvious that it looks like a "frilly" upside down 7.

The way you can tell if your wheels are OEM is look for the little stamp in the rim. It's about 1/2" by 1/2" and it looks like a hieroglyphic symbol. On my '00 GS3 it is in the cutout right beside the valve stem. On my '98 LS it is almost directly across from the valve stem. Go look and let me know. I was buying replacement wheels for my LS400 for snow tires and the wheel company I was dealing with told me about this. Also, the wheels on my GS300 were chromed and you can barely see the "mark" on 3 of them under the chrome. On the 4th, you can't see it. I used my spare to find location on an original OEM wheel because it hadn't been chromed. The chroming process will make the "mark" less noticeable.

squarehat

Here's an example:

http://www.aaarims.com/wheels/74148_chrome.JPG

This is the "upside down 7" I see at the parts counter. That little symbol by the valve stem, does it happen to look like "JLL" That's a Japanese certifying mark, and not a manufacturer. They appear on a lot of brands of wheels. Most Lexus OEM wheels have "Toyota" stamped somewhere, sometimes on the back of one of the spokes.

gebo

Squarehat,

THat is exactly the emblem I'm talking about. It says on the back, "made in Taiwan."

Gebo

link13

Do those gold emblems on the chrome wheels come as part of the MLC package?

cyclemax

According to the original owner of my 98GS4, GS's weren't available from the factory with chrome wheels in 98, so they were installed either at port or at the dealer. So, you would get a set of wheels that came off another car that had been chromed here in the US. This is why my spare is not chrome.

My car has the Toyota factory wheels (they have "Toyota" cast into the rear of the spoke), but the center caps are made in Taiwan and indeed are the strange looking "L". These are what was on the car when it was delivered, but certainly aren't a Toyota part.

When I brought the car to the Lex dealer in RI for a warrantee claim on an out of round wheel (not bent, mind you) causing a vibration, the svc mgr looked at them and said "Those are aftermarket wheels, I can tell by the center cap". Once he saw the "Toyota" though, I was back in business.

Another strange thing about the chrome wheels- the quality of the chrome of the replacement wheel was much lower than what was on my car. I personally opened this Totota box myself, so I know it was a factory replacement part, but the chrome was not nearly as smooth. Almost like "orange peel" finish. The wheels on my car were like mirrors. I've since noticed that most newer factory chromes have the same "orange peel", and I believe that they all came from the fact with the chromes.

I'm thinking that the dealers had a company that provided the chroming and maybe even supplied a new chrome cap, which would be cheaper than rechroming the original one. Either that or my car got the caps as part of the "gold package", which has since been removed

So I think there are several versions of chrome 17" GS wheels.

1. Genuine Toytota wheels that have been chromed thru the aftermarket (I think I have 3).

2. Genuine Toyota chrome wheels (chromed under the supervision of Toyota, delivered on a new car or replacement part. I have one on my car).

3. Aftermarked chrome wheels. Basically replicas. Not marked "Toyota"


It's still a bit of a mystery though. Anyone have any information to share?