IgottaWoody

My 07 LS has dealer installed wheels, do not know the make,,yet,,5 spoke chrome, dual bolt pattern center of spokes recessed radially.
Think thay may be the source of a slight vib thats been there from day 1, as the tires wore in it balanced out( was in a few times for it and always cannot find anything) anyways...the real problem was found today when I took in in to Firestone for a slow leak on the rt front... he tanked the tire and was leaking on the inside rim bead, broke the tire down and found a spot inside the rim about 2 in long and width of a thumb severly corroded and bubbled.
This was pressing against the bead and allowing it to leak.Told him to seal it best he can, its going back to the dealer...its not leaking now but still... theres no reason a 2 year old rim should be corroded on the inside...been having problems with the outer surface too with pitting around the midpoint of the wheel,just behind the spokes. So if anyone is having leakage problems and they have the non-stock wheels,,,you know where to look.
So, I see some rims..new shocks and struts and a paint touch up in my future...

Old Lar

When I had my 99 Buick Regal GS with chrome plated wheels they corroded the same way. Those wheels leaked after about a year. I ended up getting another set of chrome wheels from a junkyard (@$200/per wheel). They had cleaned up those rims cleaning off the delaminated chrome coating on the edge of the rims. I was living in upstae New York then and I believe that the salted winter roads caused the delamination or the chrome job GM did was a poor job.

After that experiece, I vowed not to have GM chrome rims or chrome rims. My HHR LT1 came silver ice painted wheels and I have had no issues with leakage. Of course I now live in Florida and no more salted roads.

sleeper

IgottaWoody-

Have you ever used a magnetic based dial indicator to check the rims for run-out ??

That will tell the tale..

& are the rims "hub-centric" ?

IgottaWoody

They mounted them on the ,,oh I forgot the name of the machine,, but its supposed to check everything down to fractions, under a load....includes runout and ovalation....gave up drove it after 3 tries....figured it may be the junk factory tires..so now i may find out as that rim is compromised safety wise,,its under warrenty anyways..we'll see how it goes..if have to do on my own I'll be looking for a set of SS wheel/tires.....
Oh yeah.. they have been rotated every which way possible with no discerable difference....might actually be a bad hub....don't remember if they checked anything ON car....

sleeper

I believe the balancer you are thinking of is the "Road Force" even gives you a printed read-out of what's what..
That machine can tell an installer if the tire should be spun on the rim, & by exactly how much for the least amount of balance weights.. & checks everything

Yea man !! Good that you are warranty covered on them..

I'll stick to polished alloy 'hub-centric' wheels..But that's me..

GRUMPEE

I had a 94 Formula Firebird with the same problem but with GM OEM Chrome 5 spokes, When I had the tires replaced in 2005, I had slow leaks in all 4 tires. Took the car back to the tire dealer and they found the chrome plating on the inside of the rims were coming off in spots all around the the tire bead was. They told me it was common with chrome wheels and the only way to fix it was rechrome, replace or apply a sealant. I had them apply a sealant. Drove around for a year like that with no problems - If I had kept the car I would've eventually replaced these with aftermarket wheels

IgottaWoody

Thats what the tire lady started saying..except she said it was the PT's that had the problem...told her to be careful...she goes..oh,its a GM