Hi, couple of years ago I was warned by a Tyre place that my rims were damaged and may give me problems. This makes sense, about 4 years ago I got a puncture from a pothole and the tyre place had to take a rubber mallet to the rim to get it to seal (freakin potholes). Anyway, I now have a slow puncture on the front offside tyre, loses about 1.5psi per week in summer and about 1psi per day in winter.

I have had the tyre removed and put back on once already (the tyre place showed me the leak, it was between tyre and rim), I also had the front wheels swapped with the rear. I have been living with this for over a year now and am fed up with pumping up the tyres every week (or couple of days in winter)!

The current rims are the ones that came with the car (6.5J x17 ET 46 with 4 bolts), I cant find any of these online as they seem somewhat non-standard. Also I still have lots of potholes on my route to work so the same thing will probably happen in a couple of years.

Three questions
1. Is the issue likely to be the rims? (it would be annoying to replace them if it wasn't).
2. Can I fit steel rims? (look is worse but stronger vs potholes im told).
3. Can I go for 6J x15 ET 43 steel rims without changing the brake disks/calipers? (the manual lists these rims as ok but some sites warn that smaller rims may be incompatible with existing break disks etc).

i.e. what I am planning is to replace all 4 wheels with 15 inch steel rims and generic branded all season tyres, is this an ok idea?

15"' rims from a punto evo or grande should be a direct fit
Alloys do tend to have pressure leakage as the rims get older, but any tyre fitter should be able to clean (wire brush flap wheel etc) the inside of the rim and re-seal (sticky paint like stuff) before putting tyre back on (providing rim isnt buckled) i just had mine done.
Are your current tyre 40/45 profile?
Where in the country are you ?
someone may have a set of steelies going spare i do