interlagos wheel blemish

[brendan]

hi all, post winter wash on sunday last [the Roc,not me!!!], noticed a blemish on driver side rear wheel, about 1cm diameter,under the lacquer coating. its not at rim edge. anyone out there got this also? are wheels covered by warranty for the likes of this?

[gavmac89]

My dad had the exact same thing on his Passat, something to do with the lacquer. Think within the 3 year warranty he had all 4 replaced. The dealer said there was a bad batch of alloys and a lot were replaced.

[brendan]

thanx gavmac89, blemish is small at mo but will be keepin very close eye on it, would be very noticeable/ugly if it spreads.will keep you posted on progress.

[ashley1407]

I'd at least make the dealer aware of it at the stage it is now. You don't want to end up leaving it too long and risk anything else that potentially invalidate the warranty.

[maisbitt]

Might have to try a few dealers to get a result. This happened to the standard MK5 Golf GT 16" wheels (Hockenheim?). My dealer said I must've had stone chips on teh lacquer, so I challenged him (the warranty manager) to find the stone chip that had compromised the lacquer, he couldn't find it, but the oxidation was spreading under the lacquer. He wouldn't risk wheel replacement as he said they might not get reimbursed by VW. I took him around the dealers own nearly new cars and every GT with 16" wheels of the same type had the oxidation.

Took it to another dealer and they replaced all the wheels no problem, and were fully aware of the issue with those type wheels.

Better to raise this with a dealer sooner rather than later - if the oxidation gets really bad, then the lacquer my start flake and they'll make out that the laquer flaked and caused the oxidation, not the other way around.

If your dealer doesn't want to sort it, then try another.