General Lacquer peeling off wheel

[vindaloo]

Just noticed whilst washing my 500 that the lacquer is peeling off my off-side front wheel near the tyre , so a trip to my friendly Fiat Service garage is on the cards for Monday. The wheels are the multi-spoke 16's

 

[Nuova500]

Thats awful, Ive never seen that on Fiats unless they are much older Your dealer will almost certainly say you are using the wrong shampoo/detergent on them!

 

[Venters]

Thats awful, Ive never seen that on Fiats unless they are much older Your dealer will almost certainly say you are using the wrong shampoo/detergent on them!

It's been happening on some of the GPS 130 wheels. Polished and laquered parts.


Vindaloo what finish is on the alloys where they are peeling?

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

About 3 weeks after the 500 was released I went to our local Fiat dealer in Gt Yarmouth, and on the forecourt they had a lovely 500, but the first thing I noticed was the lacquer coming off of the center 500 logo on the alloys. I assume this is the big you on about in the middle of the wheel? Because at the time I thought thats strange on a new car! So if they say your using the wrong stuff, then they obviously do to! I've got a pic somewhere if wanted I think.

Jon.

 

[vindaloo]

About 3 weeks after the 500 was released I went to our local Fiat dealer in Gt Yarmouth, and on the forecourt they had a lovely 500, but the first thing I noticed was the lacquer coming off of the center 500 logo on the alloys. I assume this is the big you on about in the middle of the wheel? Because at the time I thought thats strange on a new car! So if they say your using the wrong stuff, then they obviously do to! I've got a pic somewhere if wanted I think.

Jon.

No as I have said it's coming off the wheel spokes near the tyre not the centre caps & no I don't use any wheel cleaners at all just the same mild car shampoo I use on the bodywork. The wheels also have 3 coats of Jetseal109 & 2 coats of CG wheel guard on them & I remove brake dust at least twice a week. So I'm not having any excuses from Fiat about a replacement!

 

[vindaloo]

Vindaloo what finish is on the alloys where they are peeling?

TB, I'm not sure what you mean by the finish, it's peeling from the spokes & rim edge by the tyre, the finish is whatever Fiat have applied from the factory

 

[vindaloo]

Your dealer will almost certainly say you are using the wrong shampoo/detergent on them!

I'm most definitely not

 

[Venters]

TB, I'm not sure what you mean by the finish, it's peeling from the spokes & rim edge by the tyre, the finish is whatever Fiat have applied from the factory

When I say finish I mean the surface under the lacuer. It should either be a painted finish or a metal finish. On the Grande Puntos they all have paint finishes apart from the standard Sporting 130 alloys where they have a metal finish, these are the wheels that have been having peeling problems.

 

[vindaloo]

When I say finish I mean the surface under the lacuer. It should either be a painted finish or a metal finish. On the Grande Puntos they all have paint finishes apart from the standard Sporting 130 alloys where they have a metal finish, these are the wheels that have been having peeling problems.

I get ya. It's difficult to tell really, but I'd hazard a guess it looks like metal rather than a painted finish

 

[Venters]

I get ya. It's difficult to tell really, but I'd hazard a guess it looks like metal rather than a painted finish

Well in that case I'm sure the GP guys were getting their wheels recoated under warranty with no problems.

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

No as I have said it's coming off the wheel spokes near the tyre not the centre caps & no I don't use any wheel cleaners at all just the same mild car shampoo I use on the bodywork. The wheels also have 3 coats of Jetseal109 & 2 coats of CG wheel guard on them & I remove brake dust at least twice a week. So I'm not having any excuses from Fiat about a replacement!

I miss understood, I do appologise.

According to 'The Beast' it happens often, but as also said take them back to Fiat and get them to respray them.

Jon.

 

[vindaloo]

No need to apologise old chap

Yes, I'll be knocking on Fiat's door in the morning

 

[white 500]

i would ask for a new wheel instead of some bodge job done by the local touch up man 16"multis are around £185 each

 

[Most Easterly Pandas]

i would ask for a new wheel instead of some bodge job done by the local touch up man 16"multis are around £185 each

:yeahthat:

 

[Venters]

i would ask for a new wheel instead of some bodge job done by the local touch up man 16"multis are around £185 each

You may find having them redone by a professional will give a better more durable finish. I've been playing with alloys for years and have always found the original finish on all alloys to be substandard when compared to wheels that have been redone.

 

[vindaloo]

You may find having them redone by a professional will give a better more durable finish. I've been playing with alloys for years and have always found the original finish on all alloys to be substandard when compared to wheels that have been redone.

I agree with some makes, but I've never seen a redone BMW wheel look as good as an original.

The difficulty in getting one re-lacquered is the match with the other three. I'm going to proceed down the 'give me a new wheel, please route' & see how I get on. Will report back tomorrow.

 

[The Sultan]

yess indeed for some years now we havnt seen a single wheel problem except some corosion on the back of some of the wheels in the accesories magazines from fiat as these are made in uk and not as good

but the original fiat alloys from factory have been truly excellent anyone that fits tyres on a regular basis has the best idea of how good certain manufacturers wheels are

but i have noticed since fiat started using this lacquered polished finish on the gp sporting we have had to re do some of them with local painter who i must say did an excellent job on them but because of the way the metal is polished behind before it is lacquered when it peels off the alloy corrodes and the original finish can never be restored so there's no choice but to paint all 4 alloys in normal fiat metallic silver but they still locked fine

so you may be in for some new alloys not redone ones if you want to keep the original finish witch off course any one would

personally so far i haven't seen any 500's give the same trouble but as soon as i saw that lacquered finish again i was weary but like most things i'm sure the quality will be improved like they have been in the past 10 years with there normal alloys

just to give you my sperspective on good bad alloys

good paint finish that lasts and doesn't corods

audi porshe ferrari fiat alfa volvo lexuus and obviously most super expensive super cars pop to mind

butwait here are the crap ones the ones i have had to sand repaint to get a tyre to seal onto the inside the ones i couldn't balance simply because they were so corroded i couldn't get the sticky weights to stick

now a few of these may shock a few of you some of them the last you would expect to give trouble but i see these ones on a regular basis in a sory state

vw seat scoda honda toyota anything american jaguar and ford

and if your after the worst most awfull alloys in the hole wide world there's only one place to look

ROVER MG
say no more

o and to give you all some hope that this should be an isolated thing in most cases i had to fit a new alloy on one of our demos as a customer unfortunatelu curbed it on a test drive and the earea around the damage didnt suffer any paint flaking the paint was only removed were the alloy was actually damaged so that must have been a gulden it was one of the 16" but not the multi spoke and it now lies happily on the wall at work and serves as a very stylish air line tidy and as yet the damaged alloy has not even begun to corode

 

[vindaloo]

Just arrived back from the Fiat service garage and the guy was just about to order me a new wheel when the Fiat factory rep turned up, took a look at it & asked if the garage could re-lacquer it, at which point the garage unfortunately said yes, but assured me he would match the finish & make it more resilient. He then proceeded to tell me if I had any more trouble with it or didn't think the finish was a perfect match the Fiat guy told him to replace the wheel if it came in again.

 

[white 500]

You may find having them redone by a professional will give a better more durable finish. I've been playing with alloys for years and have always found the original finish on all alloys to be substandard when compared to wheels that have been redone.

i do agree to an extent when they are done by a paint shop/wheel refurb shop where they are fully re-laquered/painted yes they are perfect, but most of the dent men also offer alloy re-touching which tbh is a bodge used to make 2nd hand cars look tidyer. fair enough that fiat have said if you arn't completely happy they will replace it with a new wheel, just check for any overspray on you'r car's body when you pick it up.

 

[vindaloo]

i do agree to an extent when they are done by a paint shop/wheel refurb shop where they are fully re-laquered/painted yes they are perfect, but most of the dent men also offer alloy re-touching which tbh is a bodge used to make 2nd hand cars look tidyer. fair enough that fiat have said if you arn't completely happy they will replace it with a new wheel, just check for any overspray on you'r car's body when you pick it up.

This Fiat agent has a fully approved bodyshop & has assured me the wheel will be removed, completely stripped & re-lacquered.