This is a year-round car for me, and being from western NY , should I worry about salt from the roads hurting the alloy wheels?

 

If there are ANY scratches, nicks, abrasions, no matter how small, that go through to the metal, there will most likely be corrosion.

If the wheels are not coated, there will be corrosion.

Bare metal portions of the wheel - mounting surfaces and such - will corrode.

Basically, running "utility wheels" in salt season makes sense if you want to save your alloys.

In areas that don't have the salt problem, the problem is no where near as bad.

Tom

 

got any recommendations for winter replacements?

 

i used my stock wheels for the winter, all you have to do is clean your car like once a week like i did and you wont have any problems.

 

Did you hand wash it or take it to a car wash place to wash it.. because hand washing my car in 2 feet of snow and sub zero temperatures isn't my idea of fun =P

 

well depending on where you live, you should have some places where you feed quarters in the machine and it will let you power wash you own car, and its covered so you dont have to worry about the snow(i live in f'ing montana, we have nothing here, so you should definately have something like this)

just make sure you dry everything real nice so it wont freeze!

worst comes to worst, get that shovel out and hand wash those beasts :D

 

In winter I run mine through a 'no-touch' automated car wash that has high pressure underbody and wheel sprays (and uses heated water...).

I've never had a problem with underbody or wheel corrosion, but then again, we don't have a salt season here like they do in your area...

Tom

 

yeah I suppose I'll probably end up using both of what was recommended. We do have the "quarter" car wash places, and I'll probably do the power underwash automated one on occasion as well (Delta Sonic here). Thanks guys.

 

mabey after 12 years....

but just buy some cheap steel rims and wrap them in 45$ snows, well worth it in the long run

 

my wheels have help up on idahos, nevada and utahs roads in the winter, although like the first comment said, if there are any lossed paint, u may have a problem...

 

where could i get the cheap steel rims? i've been looking for them for the winter, couldn't find them

 

got mine on ebay for 150 bucks with snows on em..

 

what size did you get them in? hard time finding tC steelies

 

Mine scratched up pretty badly during a freezing rain storm that turned all the snow into ice.

Since snow plows doesn't go through my neighborhood...I had no choice but to drive through thick ice and scratch the crap out of them.

 

You MUST make sure you put the snows on the rear
of the car.