I washed my truck yesterday and low and behold, my brand new Mickey Thompson rims are rusting and pitting. The center caps are the ones rusting and it's pretty nasty. The wheels themselves are pitting and look almost like they are corroded a bit. I've been mudding once with this truck since I lifted it. I waxed the wheels as soon as I pulled them out of the box. I'm calling Mickey Thompson tomorrow to see what kind of warranty I have on the finish since the wheels are so new. Yall got any ideas on how I can fix them or what caused this?

 

put the quality stockers back on I know the feeling, just dont make stuff like they used to. Read once a gut in the snow country would spray clear coat on em but I dont know about that, also coating them with vaseline in the cold wet months. Good luck.

 

Get aluminum.

Ill never buy a chrome steel rim again. I had a set of 15x10 chrome spokes on a jeep. I was always fighting alittle rust in the center. If exhaust pipe exits in front of a wheel , exhaust will kill a chrome rim. Then I parked it in the back yard at my new place where my hunting dogs could pee on them. Cats like to sit up in a chrome rim and pi** too. Cat pi** is the worst

 

The mickey thompson are cast aluminum. The center cap is chrome. These are the front two rims. The rear two are fine. And my exhaust ends in front of my rear axle and points straight back.

 

on the caps, you can take and rub the rust off with some steel wool. I like to use the SOS pads, cause they have a little soap mixed in with the steel wool. Works purty dang good

 

I'll try that. What about the rims themselves? They are pitting and some spots look like they are starting to corrode. I'd show yall some pictures but all I have is a camera phone so the pics suck.

 

My Welds starting doing that after the first winter.

As you don't get the salted roads down there, don't know what to tell you.

Only thing I can think of, since it's only your front wheels,
is maybe the brake dust somehow reacting with the finish on the wheels?

Most aftermarket wheel companies offer a 1year warranty, are you past that?

Oh, my center caps are still great, but they are centerline caps, not Welds.
(Tire store didn't have any generic ones, and I really didn't want to spend 15 bucks per for the Weld ones,
this way my rims look cheaper than they really are, so thieves won't want them )

phox

 

phox, my rims are barely two months old. I've still got the receipt laying around the house somewhere for them.

 

RUST IN TEXAS!!!!!!! That's almost unheard of!!! Sounds to me like you have a couple of rims with a defective coating. Take them back for an exchange.

 

My buddy has...HAD a set of M/T classic2`s on his truck, they did the same thing, like phox said it`s brake dust. On my friends truck it ate right into the aluminum, and this guy is SUPER **** about keeping his stuff clean. To say he was pi$$ed was an understatment. He wound up buying new rims (Ultra`s) that are chromed aluminum, so far so good. As far as the caps rusting I have the same problem on my truck, they just don`t make anything good anymore, I`ve cleaned mine but the rust reappears in a short time. I have a set of stainless caps from my old rims but they are kinda beat up, but not rusted, thinkning of swapping them back on.