Who agrees these should be replaced under warranty? If not why not?

Have you a wheel sealant or wax on them, and how often do you clean, or leave salt on them, and also is it you who cleans them or do you take to a car wash, most car washes spray acid on them!

these 2 are rears

Have you a wheel sealant or wax on them, and how often do you clean, or leave salt on them, and also is it you who cleans them or do you take to a car wash, most car washes spray acid on them!

Always cleaned by me from new and I don't put salt on em

tbh I only cleaned it cos it needs some new front tyres at 18k miles.....

think I'll take it to the dealer and complain - we don't do enough complaining/demonstrating in this fcked up country

Always cleaned by me from new and I don't put salt on em

Don't drive on the road then?

The wheels on my 4 year old vrs are in better condition,I would be kicking off if I was you :wonder:

Edited 27 January, 201214 yr by 2WSR55PB

So no protection on them then . The inners look ingrained as well, if they looked spotless I think you would have a case, and as you say you only cleaned it because you needed tyres

Good luck! I only got them to replace one of mine after a year which had a small crack in the lacquer(after they said it could've come from a stone, but it would been unbelievably unlucky to get hit where it was!) after going to several dealers, phoning and writing letters to SUK then resorting to contacting Auto Express who showed an interest and did an article with my pic standing next to the wheel.

Oddly enough, Skoda were very helpful after that and it got replaced fairly quickly.

Long, long route though. Wheels are a nightmare to get any comeback on.

Mazda replaced a full set for me on my old mazda 3, no quibbles and again MINI replaced a full set on my old cooper s but then again it was a common issue with both manufacturers

Always cleaned by me from new and I don't put salt on em

tbh I only cleaned it cos it needs some new front tyres at 18k miles.....

think I'll take it to the dealer and complain - we don't do enough complaining/demonstrating in this fcked up country

What do you use to clean them and how often?

I'm struggling with the "I only cleaned them because I needed tyres" bit!

So basically your wheels were left uncleaned for 18K? If thats the case then it's no suprise whatsoever that the brake dust has eaten into them - it is corrosive after all.

I reckon you have no chance whatsoever of getting that as a warranty job............unless of course you tell porkies and say that you cleaned them with Bilberry Safe Alloy Wheels Cleaner at least once a month, dried them off afterwards and waxed them........... :-)

ok this is getting quite interesting :wonder:

when I first got the car I told the dealer not to bother cleaning the car and I meticulously waxed it myself with some finish kare 1000p including the wheels - look at my sig to see how 'nice and shiny' it was....

I cleaned it meticulously since as per the manual

ps the bodywork is pretty much immaculate apart from a couple of bonnet chips - actually one is quite bad, will post a pic...

Edited 27 January, 201214 yr by adder

I guess the point being that they will argue that you haven't followed the care guidance in the owners manual which no noubt states that it should be kept clean and all contaminates removed etc etc.

ok this the original pic after more cleaning! the lacquer has defo come off! what a POS! :'(

this is the inside of the rim - think that will clean up ok!?...

can't get anymore pics at the moment, the snow has arrived!

I guess the point being that they will argue that you haven't followed the care guidance in the owners manual which no noubt states that it should be kept clean and all contaminates removed etc etc.

I'd love see the parts which say 'brake dust' must be removed within 1 week, 'pigeon plop' with 3 hours...... it must be great being a lawyer, knew I made the wrong career choice

Personally I would remove them from the car and clean them thoroughly with a non acidic wheel cleaner (inside and out) before going to the dealer, you can then tell them you have cleaned them regularly and IMO you stand more of a chance of them getting covered.

Initially I though the bubbling was purely from stone chipped areas, BUT they all appear to be in the same area of the wheels (apart from the big blister on the inside of the last photo).

(apart from the big blister on the inside of the last photo).

I think that's a water droplet! :p

I'd love see the parts which say 'brake dust' must be removed within 1 week, 'pigeon plop' with 3 hours...... it must be great being a lawyer, knew I made the wrong career choice

P208 of the (Superb) manual:

"Wheels

Light alloy wheels

Regular care of light alloy wheels is necessary in order to retain their decorative appearance over long periods. It is particularly important to remove any road salt and brake abrasion from light alloy wheels every two weeks, otherwise the light metal will suffer. Wash thoroughly and then treat the wheels with a protective product for light alloy wheels which does not contain any acidic components. You should provide the wheel hubs with a hard wax layer every three months. You must not use any products which cause abrasion when treating the wheel hubs. Any damage to the paint layer on the wheel hubs must be touched up immediately.

We recommend using a preservative from Škoda genuine accessories offered by your Škoda dealer."

So IMO any blisters appearing on the wheel where the paint is not chipped is clearly a claim, otherwise you may struggle.

P208 of the (Superb) manual:

"Wheels

Light alloy wheels

Regular care of light alloy wheels is necessary in order to retain their decorative appearance over long periods. It is particularly important to remove any road salt and brake abrasion from light alloy wheels every two weeks, otherwise the light metal will suffer. Wash thoroughly and then treat the wheels with a protective product for light alloy wheels which does not contain any acidic components. You should provide the wheel hubs with a hard wax layer every three months. You must not use any products which cause abrasion when treating the wheel hubs. Any damage to the paint layer on the wheel hubs must be touched up immediately.

We recommend using a preservative from Škoda genuine accessories offered by your Škoda dealer."

So IMO any blisters appearing on the wheel where the paint is not chipped is clearly a claim, otherwise you may struggle.

fair play, i'll give you 10/10 for that interesting piece of research, mind you wheels and wheel hubs are slightly different things, again it's no wonder lawyers are minted....

have a great weekend!

Knowing people that have tried to claim for similar with Skoda, it's a very difficult and drawn-out process. And one of the owners had wheels that were immaculately clean.

He did get a resolution eventually, but Skoda still refused to accept that the finishing on the wheels was sub-standard or that there was a problem.

So good luck trying, but as mentioned above, it would be advisable to clean them properly before starting proceedings with your local dealer.

if it makes you feel any better mine are just as bad and I do wax mine.

Mine have never had salt sitting on them and been waxed regularly and I don't have anything like you show in your pictures. What I can see though is that the paintwork is pretty shoddy on the oblique surfaces and inner rim. Thin paint and small stone chips would be enough to get salty water under the surface of the paint after which it just sits there corroding away.

SWMBO's fabia vrs wheels were worse than yours and they were sealed and washed weekly. We owned her car from new and at the end of the warranty I was asked for a list of faults from our current servicing dealer of which the wheels were one of my concerns. They promptly told me that there was nothing they could do as they had been repaired/resprayed (which to my knowledge they hadn't).

After a couple of meetings with a main dealer the warrenty replacement/refurb was rejected on a number of grounds

* There were chips in the paint and the spidering was from where water had go under the paint. This is caused by stone chips and therefore NOT a defect of the wheel/paint

* As they weren't the supplying dealer for the car and they only had the service history/receipts etc togo off they refused to accept that the wheels hadn't been refurbished and unless I could proove they hadn't then they weren't prepared to take the investigation any further.

This was on a 3yr old Fabia vRS bought from Lightcliffe but serviced by Bickerton when Lightcliffe became DMKeith, in the 3 yrs it only had 29,000miles on it and it was treated to the recommended Autoglym Protection at new and before every winter after that.

They were happy to replace the gearstick of which the laquer was peeling off (not on the warranty list) as it was caused by SWMBO's engagement/wedding ring

Matthew

edit. we've not had this problem with any other manufacturers wheels, my current skoda's wheels are in a really bad way

Stone chips, that's what it looks like to me. Nothing a dealer will give a **** about.

However, i did have 2 alloys replaced on my old Mk1 vRS under warranty after 2 1/2 years. They had little spots of corrosion that looked like woodworm.

This wheel has been resprayed.

the rest look awful (no offence) i would ask the dealer...you dont ask you dont get.