Hi guys,

Well after washing the car yesterdat, noticed some white marks on ond if the spokes of my front alloy, felt the laquer , no damage so appeared to be water ingress.

Phoned dealer today and called in to see the service manager, car put on ramps for close inspection of all four alloys, result is i need two new alloys and four centre caps, on a 5 month old car which is washed every week without fail.

Not a good advert for a 24 grand car but there you go.

Cheers

Dave

What do you use to clean the wheels?

Anthracite Gemini wheels are diamond cut, painted and lacquered I believe, they'll all go that way in time just the nature of the beast.

I had a full replacement set of dark chrome gigaros (again diamond cut) on my old Fabia vRS after only 9 months and at 18 months when sold the new set were started to go the same way, with the threadworm moisture under lacquer ingress.

Probably doesnt help that the wheels are fairly cheaply produced but happens to pretty much all diamond cut wheels.....try and find an E46 M3 BMW running on the 19's that either havent been refurbed or are in a ****e state. MK5 golf GTi the same with the 18's.

If I happened to buy another vRS i'd probably tick the silver gemini option just that v reason......diamond cut wheels are also a royal pain to get spot/smart repaired.

Edited 31 March, 201412 yr by pipsyp

Hmm....maybe I should change my order to the silver....hmmm

Hmm....maybe I should change my order to the silver....hmmm

Silver gemini's are the same.

Do you get to keep them perchance?

 

I'm presuming they aren't covered on the paint warranty

If the silver are as bad ill stick with plan a......be lazy, dont wash often and let the black brake dust 'blend in' with the anthracite wheels 

I'm presuming they aren't covered on the paint warranty

Probably not the paint warranty but provided they're not damaged they should be replaced under warranty.

I have the same problem with the diamond cut wheels on my C220. They are a nightmare to keep in good condition without lacquer damage or water ingress from the smallest chip. They also cost £100 per wheel and a week to sort any Kerb damage. That's why the only option for us was the Pictorus wheels.

Hmm....maybe I should change my order to the silver....hmmm

 

 

Silver gemini's are the same.

I specified silver Geminis for my VRS (a) because I'm not keen on grey wheels and ( because I was concerned about the durability of the diamond-polished anthracite version. I don't think it's correct to say that "silver geminis are the same". I'm no expert on the manufacturing process, but I think the silver Geminis are conventional powder coated (?) alloys. They don't have the polished outer faces that are on the anthracite version, and all the styling features look more rounded - presumably because of the powder coating.

I've been told never to use wheel cleaners such as McGuires on wheels (yes really even though it is 1st April) they are strongly acidic and eat through the protective coatings very quickly. Once road salt gets on the unprotected aluminium you've had it. I use double strength car shampoo to wash mine now, and the results every bit as good..

 

Even so, the Skoda badges in the wheel centres on my car are degrading around the edges and will raise it when the car goes in for its first service.

Edited 1 April, 201412 yr by Timoctav

Hi all,

 

Only ever used water and shampoo on my wheels, with a wash mitt I keep for the wheels only and use a 2 bucket method. Car is washed every week by me, dont trust anyone else to do it and the wheels are always wiped dry with a soft cloth....

Not that impressed with the quality of the wheels, but I do like the Anhtracite wheels as the car is white with black pack.

Dealer was honest, said they have had a load on other models , not seen so many Octy Vrs ( yet) as I dont know how many they have sold.

Wheels and caps were ordered whislt I was there, takes a couple of days and then get them fitted, sadly no I dont get to keep as they go back to Skoda as a warranty claim.....Did joke as to how many wheels I will have over the length of the pcp if 5 months is the time for the damage to appear.....

Will keep you all posted

 

Dave

The silver geminis are powder coated, painted and lacquered. They will not degrade in the same way as the diamond cut anthracite versions though admittedly lacquer on any alloy wheel does break up eventually.

If it were me Id either get silver gemini or pictoris and have them 3rd party painted anthracite or black. A guy on here has had his pictoris wheels painted black, dont like them in silver bit look great in black IMHO.

Edited 1 April, 201412 yr by pipsyp