Re: Defective Wheel

[Randy Walters <randylwalters@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>I think I have a one-of-a-kind story to share.  Bought a new M3 and picked it 
>up 3 weeks ago.  The right rear tire has not held air.  I have had to fill it 
>several times a week.   I had looked carefully for a nail myself and couldn't 
>find a thing.  I was thinking the tire was defective or something.  Made an 
>appointment with the dealer to check it out last week and they couldn't find 
>a leak.  I wonder if they thought I was nuts?
>So with 900 miles on my car, this weekend I took the wheel off the car myself 
>and put it in the swimming pool to look for bubbles.  To my utter amazement I 
>found a steady stream of bubbles, but not where I expected to find them (the 
>leak).  The wheel has a pinhole in the casting about half way between the 
>inner and outer bead.  Is this rare or what????   I wish I was so lucky in 
>the lottery. 

 I've had this problem on two different aftermarket wheels (one was a
brand new Revolution and the other was a new Panasport).  A steady stream
of air bubbles coming from a pinhole in the rim casting.  Revolution wasn't
interested in replacing the wheel so i marked the pinhole,  had the tire
removed, and used a centerpunch on the backside of the pinhole to smush
the aluminum together and obliterate the pinhole.  Worked great !  Later
when i had the same problem with the new Panasport i did the same thing
while i waited for a new wheel to arrive from Japan.  Both wheels held air
ever since.

Randy
89 325is

http://home.earthlink.net/~randylwalters/

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