Hi guys,

The paint on my stock 18" alloys is blistering in places and chipping off around the centre cap. Anyone know why this is happening or what's causing it? Seems to be a common problem with these rims.

Thanks in advance!

 

Post a picture. I have yet to see blistering wheel paint.

 

Mine started doing the same thing. Its just caused by normal tear and wear

 

How many miles on them? Are you driving them in winter? What are you cleaning them with? IIRC, these alloys are very sensitive to certain cleaners, especially those that are alkaline.

 

pics ?

 

Never heard of this happening. My wheels were swapped out around 22k miles and no issues with the paint. Pics...

 

I put 57,000 miles on my OEM's and they were washed almost EVERY single weekend with wheel cleaner and there's been no blistering on the paint.

 

I can't take pics as the wheels are gone to be refurbished. How could it be wear and tear? I had a '99 BMW 3 series a while ago and the alloys on it were there since it left the factory and I didn't see 1 bit of this happening. In Ireland we don't bother with summer/winter wheels. It's the same rim for the life of the car, just change tyres when tread is low

I use Turtle Wax Wheel Cleaner once a week on them. Thing is though, the rims with the blistering I bought as a 2nd set. Getting them refurbished, putting them on my 8 and selling the ones on it at the moment. However the same thing did happen the ones on the car now and it was there before I bought the car!

 

If you have a look on the UK RX8 owners club forum you will see that most of the owners there have bubbling around the centre cap of the alloys - it's a design flaw made apparent in the UK and Ireland due to the crappy weather and tons of salt shovelled onto the roads.

If your car is in warranty Mazda will replace them for free. Some people go through a set a year.

 

Thanks Mike. Thing is it's a 04 and WELL out of warranty I don't think there's any primer under the paint on them so I'm getting 2 coats of 2-pac primer, 3 coats of 2-pac paint (colour as close to original) and 5 coats of 2-pac lacquer. The main thing I want is for them to look as original as possible with an extra-high shine

 

Yeah that should work pretty well. A few people have got them powder coated which seems to do the trick also but stops them looking original.

I have the sports pack wheels on my car which are made by Radius, so am hoping they don't suffer the same fate..