Torque and Chrome

2001 PT Cruiser with Chrome wheels keeps getting flat tires.?

I keep getting flat tires on my car. I purchased brand new tires two days ago and again, today one is as flat as a pancake. The "tire store", Dobbs, said that it has something to do with my wheels being chrome dipped and that the chrome is separating from the aluminum, causing flats. He said that it is a Chrysler defect. Has anyone heard of this or had this problem? What can be done other than buying all new rims?

Public Comments

1. Most alloy wheels after abut 5 or 6 year's get corroded on the inner edge of the wheel, to rectify the problem is to remove the Tyre & use a wire wheel on a hand grinder to remove the corroded alloy from the inner edge. then prime the inner side with etch primer . The tyre fitter should have noticed the corrosion on removing the tyres as it can deflate suddenly as you are driving !!!!!
2. The Japanese perfected chroming aluminum,as far as I know no one else has.
3. There is no recall for a problem of this type (to my knowledge; I own a 2001 PT Cruiser with chrome wheels). I'd take it to the dealer and ask them if they know of any problems in this area. If they do not, you're probably going to have to buy new rims or install tubes in your tires. Good luck!
4. While that's possible, I doubt it's true. If there is truth to what they're saying about the chrome peeling, then they should have notified you when they were mounting the tires, and at the very least, used a sealer around the bead area to seal it better. What might be the real problem is that there might be a pinhole leak in one of the wheels. While it's unusual, it does happen. Depending on where the leak is, it might be fixable with a cold-weld (epoxy) compound, or silicone sealer. Another more likely possibility is that someone before had used a bead sealer and they just didn't clean it off before mounting the new tires. Only way to fix that is to clean the bead area, which means dismounting the tires. To find the leak, get a spray bottle and fill it with water and a few drops of dish soap. Then spray around the bead area (where the rubber meets the wheel) with the tire fully aired and look for it to start bubbling. Wherever it bubbles up is an air leak (should constantly make a lot of little bubbles). If it doesn't leak around the bead area, start spraying around the wheel itself and the rest of the tire. Generally, if the chrome is peeling at the bead sealing area, then it should also be peeling off the outside of the wheels as well. ---- salt could be a cause of the corrosion, that would explain why I haven't seen that problem here. Either way, they should have notified you of the problem when you bought the tires, especially if it's something they've seen before. Not letting you know was very irresponsible on their part, and shows that they were only out to get your money, and not at all concerned with customer satisfaction.
5. The tire shop is right - I have the same wheels and the same problem. and have heard of other Chryslers with that issue. I had access to another set of wheels, so I haven't fixed them yet. The chrome on the outside of the wheel is perfect but the inside bead edge is corroded and flaking. I've seen this on other chromed alloy wheels too. Perhaps it's just bad chrome, something about salt working it's way behind the rim, maybe it's agressive cornering causing friction at the bead, who knows. I found this when the car was 3.5 years old and 32K miles - the dealer tried to get the factory to warranty it, but they turned it down flat since it was over 36 months old. I'll never buy another chromed alloy wheel, machine finish is so much better. If you want to take a try at fixing it, you could chisel off the flaky parts and file down the rough edges of the flaking (a wire wheel doesn't do a thing for the flaky part). Use a wire wheel only as a final cleanup once it's fairly smoothp. The idea of acid etching and using a tube of epoxy metal repair seems to be a reasonable idea. Use something like lacquer thinner to clean it up before applying the metal repair, and sand it before it dries completely to make sure it stays smooth and round, and I'd probably paint and sand it afterwards with wet and dry to get it as smooth as possible. You need to get that lip very smooth and round before you bother mounting a tire. As someone else mentioned, using tire sealer on the bead while mounting may help once you get rid of the worst of the flaking. I would never use that tire dealer again - they mount enough tires to know that was going to leak and they should have told you when they mounted the tires. By the way, many of the smaller FWD chrysler products like Neons , Daytona, Stratus/Sebring (sedan/conv only) and even Chevy Cavaliers have the same lug pattern (5x100 bolt circle, 57.1 center hole, high offset, like around 40) so maybe you can find someone changing over to a larger rim who will sell the old ones cheap. My rims are from a 89 Chrysler Lebaron GTC - same size,16x6 and look great.