Project Description

This red Audi A4 estate in Wigan had a set of alloys that were replaced under warranty 18 months previously but as you can see from the photos they had soon corroded around the outer rim which is diamond cut. The customer wanted the corrosion removed and the outer rim re-cut and the centres painting in a gun metal colour (anthracite).

Common Problem With Diamond Cut Alloys

Diamond cut alloys are prone to corrosion issues. If your car has had these alloys fitted from new then you may be able to claim for new alloys under your warranty so long as they are not kerbed, please feel free to call us for any advise relating to warranty issues as one of our specialist areas is vehicle manufacturers warranty policies. White specs will start to appear on the alloys normally around the area where the bolts go or around the outer rim. They sometimes look like spiders webs and then eventually as they get worse they blacken and start to flake.

What Causes Corrosion on Diamond Cut Alloys

To understand what causes the corrosion you must first understand how these alloys are manufactured. They are machine lathed and then a type of plastic coating is applied over the lathed area. The coating is quite brittle. When you have tyres changed the process used to remove the tyres can break the seal behind the edge of the alloy. Once this seal is broken water can get between the coating and lathed area and create little white water marked areas. The corrosion around the wheel bolts is normally caused when removing the bolts, if a torque gun is used it can quite easily damage the plastic seal which then allows water ingress between the plastic and the lathed area.

Our Warranty On Diamond Cut Alloys

Due to the on going problem of theses wheels we are unable to offer any form of warranty but we are confident in our repair process and give you plenty of guidelines of how to take care of your alloys once you have had them repaired by us. As long as you follow our guidelines you should not encounter any further problems with them.

Our Repair Process

As you can see from the photo library we have split these rims repaired all the corroded area and re-cut them to give the same effect of a diamond cut alloy. We then painted the centres in an anthracite colour which is a gun metal colour. The wheels were then reassembled and put back on the car.