I wanted to share my experience with powder coated wheels with respect to using my car on track on one occasion. This is not intended to be a discussion thread but purely advisory.

Any are welcome to comment but I shall not be posting further once I have shared this.

 

My wheels were prepared by The Wheel Specialist of Fareham in accordance with their warranty conditions and seemingly global policy, so expect the same procedure to have been followed by any branch.

 

The overall finish and appearance of the wheels was completely satisfactory, however, the area of concern in my instance was both the hub face and tapered wheel bolt seats. These had been powder coated fully.

During my time on track the coating became sufficiently hot to melt this coating on both the hub face and tapered seat.

 

I have received advice from well respected businesses who have experience in preparing vehicles for track use and they have advised that this could have potentially had serious consequences such as wheels parting company with the vehicle had I persisted in using the vehicle.

The trader has resolved my issue by stripping, masking off appropriately and re coating.

 

As I have said, this thread isn't intended to discuss the process of powder coating wheels or indeed the trader but to highlight a potential safety issue. It is for the individual to decide what to do with this info, if anything.

 

Weirdly, I'd never heard of/thought about this before but a workmate had the same problem with his wheels on his Focus ST. I put it down to the place he had them doing being a bit of a jack-of-all-trades powdercoating place... Would have thought better of TWS.

 

Getting mine done next month so will make sure thats checks out!

good post and a good heads up. Though after the other days GP I'd be more worried about your Pirellis if you're on track

Common issue with powder coated wheels, seen it happen on road and once on mates track car,

Usually find quick rub with emery cloth round hub surface and bolt holes sorts it

Powder coated or painted you should never cover the mating surfaces of the bolt seats.

Having had a long day, assume that this means the bolts work loose?

Yes, reduced friction due to them being tightened on a painted surface.

Yes, reduced friction due to them being tightened on a painted surface.

That and/or the paint on the bolt land cracking and flaking (note, this should only apply to paint and not to powder coat). DAMHIKT!!!

Interesting info - I had better check my wife's MX-5 wheels later then, as they were powder coated by TWS Fareham - not that she takes it on the track.

 

Paul

I've had this a couple of times with freshly powder coated wheels done by a couple of different places. The first time it did catch me out and I very nearly lost a wheel on the M1.

 

I just expect it now and after running them for a while (whilst being vigilant), I'll just unbolt them, pull the little ring of powder coat out from the bolt seat and re-bolt them.

Yep, you are ideally looking for something like this.

 

 

Nearly lost a wheel off my Rover due to this problem when competing. I thought the knocking was a cv joint giving up. I've got plenty of spare drive shafts so I pushed on. Turns out the wheel nuts had worked loose