nkouts

My car has about 6 months left on the warranty. I was with a friend today who drives a Toyota, and he mentioned that his rims had bubbled (most likely due to the salt in the winter) and Toyota replaced the whole set free of charge under warranty.

My rims are totally bubbled, peeled, etc. It is actually embaressing considering the car is about 2.5years old with only 30k on it.

Will Merc replace the rims? They are the 16" oem e320.

Thanks

cdiken

and as if the embarrasing wheels are not enough, they will probably also blame it on YOU or a car wash.

That's my guess. Keep us posted.

KB

jim256

I pointed out some discoloration and cloudiness on two of my wheels about a year ago--car was over a year old, and the dealer ordered 4 new wheels. I did not expect that, in fact I only asked that they put me in touch with the wheel detailer that comes there monthly, to see if he could fix it. The service advisor indiacted the mechanic felt the clearcoat had been applied to thickly. This is a great dealer, and my experience has been similar on all 3 cars I bought there, so I don't know if it is a standard response from MB.

marcos

I had all my rims changed after about 3 months and now 2 years later the same problem, I'm going to give the dealer some greif next week.

PUZZ1

I am amazed that this problem is even occuring! Bubbling of the paint?? Are you guys in a heavy salt area?

marcos

Here in the UK they do like to throw salt on the roads if the temp looks like it might get below 10c

nkouts

Yes, Canada (ontario) uses salt heavily. However, within the first winter the wheels were trashed. Will take it to the dealer this week.

ATS

I see you are in Sudbury. Hello..

Here in Toronto they use Salt and also some kind of chemical. You can see the devistation it unleashes on the roads, imagine the cars (and the poor creatures living in Lake Ontario).

SAguirre

Salt is really bad for a lot of things. I guess that it is a good thing that we use Magnesium Chloride and Potassium Chloride in Colorado since it is allegedly less corrosive. I have yet to have any kind of bubbling on either one of my sets of wheels. I rinse off my wheels within 5 days of a snow storm that caused de-icing chemicals to be used. So I sometimes wash my car twice a weeks in the winter.

Steve

glojo

Hi Marcos,
I thought of you straight away when I saw this topic. I wonder why this problem does not effect all 211's that are located in area's that use salt??

My first thoughts were thank goodness it has happened whilst the vehicle is still under warranty. However you are now experiencing problems on your second set of wheels? What is going to happen when the warranty runs out?

Will Global warming solve the problem and do away with the need to de-ice frozen roads?

Take care,
John

benzboy

After living in upstate New York for many years and watching the road salt eat up numerous cars I was happy to move to Connecticut to get away from the saltine warriors that spread that grief on the roads. Guess what...here in CT they throw sand and gravel! Now I get the front of my cars sandblasted every winter. Not to mention the number of cracked windshields I've replaced!! Just traded one aggrivation for another!

nkouts

Good news - dealer will replace under warranty no questions asked.