Today I took the old silver enkies in to Les Schwab because they seemed to have a slow leak (well, 2 of them). They recommended new rims because the old bead was in bad shape. I am not sure what would cause that (curb rash, oxidation, ?). Has anyone else had this problem and is there a solution or just check the air more often?

I thought rims with bad beads you could just clean them up with a wire brush or a grinder if there that bad and all would be well again.

So did they come out and say they would sell you new wheels? You sure it just wasn't a sales pitch?

Take the wheels to a shop that repairs aluminum wheels. Ask them if they think the wheels are okay and if they are not okay, find out what they would charge to fix them. Enkies are hard to come by and they may worth fixing if they really need it.

Ive never heard of a wheel going bad unless it was bent.

Someone there probably wants your Enkies-

They have a goop they use, it's kinda like black RTV but it gets painted on. Basically, take the tire off, wire wheel the bead areas, paint this stuff on, and put the tire on.

At this point, you should take a moment to hope the person taking it apart next time is not you.

They have a goop they use, it's kinda like black RTV but it gets painted on. Basically, take the tire off, wire wheel the bead areas, paint this stuff on, and put the tire on.

At this point, you should take a moment to hope the person taking it apart next time is not you.

 

They did use the goop, they said they put bead sealant on them but it was still borderline. For now i guess ill just check them more often and get a second opinion. I usually have very good info from Les Schwab, I don't think they were trying to sell me rims. I highly doubt they could even get 4x140 rims.

If you ever make it up to Bellingham, I work at one of the Les Schwabs there. I could give you my opinion. Sounds like the wheel had a lot of corrosion on the bead seating area, that's fixable with a wire wheel or sandpaper, but probably not something a store is going to want to spend a bunch of time on for free

 

Ive never heard of a wheel going bad unless it was bent.

mostly, I have seen ones leaking from corrosion alone.

I would ask your Les Schwab people about the "new rim". Something simple, like what do you recomend. He will probly head off to his computer, and come back to you and say something like, "getting your old rims repaired is what I recomend", since you cant find this style of bolt pattern anymore..

 

Just do a simple search on http://www.tirerack.com and you can tell there just arent aftermarket rims available..

 

Also, all you have to do it use a steel wool drill bit, and grind off all the corrosion on the bead. Then paint it with bead sealer, wait a day for it to dry, and reinstall your tire. You dont even need to put the paint bead sealer on, but it makes it so it isnt a problem latter down the line.

 

Lastly, I would have asked to see the leak at the bead. I realize that alloy wheels do have a tendency to leak air, for some reason its just the nature of the beast. But I have seen more tires go flat from a bad valve stem than anything else (besides a nail or screw puncture).

I'd be interested in those wheels if they are the eight spoke style like in my profile picture. Shoot me a PM if you're interested in selling them.

if the wheel beads are garbage, then i would like to buy them. send me a pm if you want to sell

Whatever happened to these wheels?

I just keep pumping them up :cool:

 

No i really do not look cool because i don't have a compressor so I use my bicycle pump. And yes they are silver like the gold ones in your avatar. However I do not want to sell them unless you want to take the RX too.

Edited June 2, 200916 yr by Major Lazy