[Snake Pliskin]

Just a quick one guys.

Have seen a couple of M Sport's down the dealers with 18" alloys & have noticed that on the inner rim / hub area, there is heavy rust.

Has anyone else had this occur on thier 18" M sport wheels or does it show just with the car being stationary at the dealers maybe.

Hopefully, you guys will have not had this problem in which case I would say it maybe does show just on cars which haven't moved for a while.

Its just that it did look rather unsightly and seamed to be isolated more to the front rims and was noticeable on at least 2 cars I saw.

[MattOz]

I had that with mine. There was a considerable amount of rusting around the bell housing and also the disc itself was rusty and not fully utilised. It's taken about 5k miles to sort the disc rust out and a whole day of wire brushing, scrubbing and re-painting (bell and caliper) to do the rest.




I always use a long brush to clean the inside of the alloy every weekend too. Keeps them looking as good as new. It's no use having a clean outer and dirty inner with these wheels. Just looks wrong IMO.

Matt.

[NFS]

Originally Posted by Snake Pliskin

Just a quick one guys.

Have seen a couple of M Sport's down the dealers with 18" alloys & have noticed that on the inner rim / hub area, there is heavy rust.

Has anyone else had this occur on thier 18" M sport wheels or does it show just with the car being stationary at the dealers maybe.

Hopefully, you guys will have not had this problem in which case I would say it maybe does show just on cars which haven't moved for a while.

Its just that it did look rather unsightly and seamed to be isolated more to the front rims and was noticeable on at least 2 cars I saw.

I've noticed that the brake calipers, brake discs and the rear brake drum (for the handbrake) tend to rust on BMW's.

I don't think this is anything to do with the wheels, just that with some types it's more visible.

A bit of spirited driving should scrub it off the front and reat discs, but the drum at the rear is a bit more difficult. Ony way would be to periodically take of the back wheels and wire brush it off.

It's cosmetic and apparently it may be affected by the chemicals used when you wash your car.

Some people paint their calipers etc.. to prevent this. I say life is short enough already.

[Snake Pliskin]

hmm ... will have to keep an eye on those then.

But i totally agree that with the insides being so noticeable on the 18" m sport wheel, the last thing you wanna see is unsightly rust that totally detracts from the asthetics of the car.

Its the kind of thing that would drive me mad, as I always like my cars to look their best and religously clean once a week, with particluar care always taken with the alloys.

One of the things I did like about the 18" m sport alloys was that they looked easy to clean the inside of the rims, from a practical / cleaning point of view.

They are also a stunning alloy design, which is also why i do not want rust showing through them.

Cheers.

[NFS]

Originally Posted by Snake Pliskin

hmm ... will have to keep an eye on those then.

But i totally agree that with the insides being so noticeable on the 18" m sport wheel, the last thing you wanna see is unsightly rust that totally detracts from the asthetics of the car.

Its the kind of thing that would drive me mad, as I always like my cars to look their best and religously clean once a week, with particluar care always taken with the alloys.

One of the things I did like about the 18" m sport alloys was that they looked easy to clean the inside of the rims, from a practical / cleaning point of view.

They are also a stunning alloy design, which is also why i do not want rust showing through them.

Cheers.

Should be easy to clean - you just need a wheel brush (I got one from tesco for a pound or so).

If it really bothers you painting the callipers drums (and apparently even this discs) is an answer as is being VERY careful about the chemicals you use when you wash your car.

My e60 has very open style 19inch rims and I have very little rust showing through.

(I have also stopped washing it .... cause I am looking forward to the next one)

[Snake Pliskin]

Originally Posted by needforspeed

Should be easy to clean - you just need a wheel brush (I got one from tesco for a pound or so).

If it really bothers you painting the callipers drums (and apparently even this discs) is an answer as is being VERY careful about the chemicals you use when you wash your car.

My e60 has very open style 19inch rims and I have very little rust showing through.

(I have also stopped washing it .... cause I am looking forward to the next one)

Yeah will invest in a wire brush for the new mott

I only use autoglym shampoo in the wheels, as I do the car, so that aint harsh and should be ok.

If you keep ontop of the wheels and don't allow the muck to build up, they are usually ok.

Just clean them and rinse ... plus the occasion bit of autoglym alloy wheel seal is good.

Sounds like a manufacture problem though, if this rust is a "potential" problem for every car.

As my car now ... yeah it aint getting the weekly wash it used to ... also lost interest in it

Its every 2 weeks now and sometimes just plain water .. and yesterday the no drying as the rain kept wetting it

[castleking]

When I purchased my 330 Msport SG I too noticed the rust on the calipers it worried me a little so I looked at others in the show room and all the others were just the same.
It looks awful and when you show your pride and joy to friends etc they all comment on it. I cured the problem by painting with hammerite silver paint from Halfords. I painted them through the wheels with an artists brush didnt take long about half an hour. looks top now!

[Snake Pliskin]

hmm .. that sounds like a good idea castle king.

But it does sound like this rusting issue really is a common problem .. and it DOES look unsightly.

Why on earth are BMW allowing this to happen.

If i experience this problem, I will be asking the dealer to resolve the problem 1st.

Failing that, I may have to try the wire-brush or hammerite treatment ... but why should we have to do this to our brand new cars if its an established fault ... why aren't BMW painting the affected areas ?

Yo NFS, we'll have to monitor our wheels for this issue, when we get our motts next month ... you'll have a week's head start on me so keep us posted

[NFS]

Originally Posted by Snake Pliskin

hmm .. that sounds like a good idea castle king.

But it does sound like this rusting issue really is a common problem .. and it DOES look unsightly.

Why on earth are BMW allowing this to happen.

If i experience this problem, I will be asking the dealer to resolve the problem 1st.

Failing that, I may have to try the wire-brush or hammerite treatment ... but why should we have to do this to our brand new cars if its an established fault ... why aren't BMW painting the affected areas ?

Yo NFS, we'll have to monitor our wheels for this issue, when we get our motts next month ... you'll have a week's head start on me so keep us posted

It is something I've noticed, but my e60 isn't too bad, I think because I don't wash it that often and don't use any chemicals on the wheels.

I just was them with ordinary car shampoo and use a little wheel brush (a brush with stiff plastic bristles shaped like a bottle brush), I also drive with a degree of enthusiasm and so the calipers and discs are pretty rust free.

The only place there is any rust is on the outside of the rear handbrake drum - but you really have to look for it.

[booforty]

Sorry to hear about this guys. I haven't noticed this problem with the 162's. I agree this is not something you expect from BMW.

[Snake Pliskin]

Originally Posted by beauforty

Sorry to hear about this guys. I haven't noticed this problem with the 162's. I agree this is not something you expect from BMW.

It won't be an issue with your SE alloys as they are not as "open" as the M Sport type .. so you may find you have this issue behind your alloys, but as you can't really see it, its not really an issue.

However, it is highly visible on the M Sport rims and its something that I would not want to see on my lovely new motor in a few weeks.

[NFS]

My current rims are like this:



So you see EVERYTHING through them. As I said though - I don't have much problem with rust.

This is my car when clean:

[Snake Pliskin]

Maybe its just a problem on the 3 series E90 ?

Or just the M Sport alloy wheel in the 3 series ... that's certainly the only car I've noticed the problem on.

[NFS]

Originally Posted by Snake Pliskin

Maybe its just a problem on the 3 series E90 ?

Or just the M Sport alloy wheel in the 3 series ... that's certainly the only car I've noticed the problem on.

I'm sure I've seen a fair few BMW's with rusty calipers etc... I do tend to believe the argument that it's a chemical reaction and I also think they probably don't get driven enough.

It's cruel not to drive a bmw hard. They are like racehorses.

[Snake Pliskin]

Totally agree ... and for those reasons I hope to avoid the rust issue then

thoroughbred Bimmer indeed ... needs to be given the opportunity of regular excercise