• Topic # "Aftermarket Chrome Rims are peeling"

A. Hi, Greg. Peeling like this is a manufacturing defect, period! It's possible that the service manager wouldn't realize this, but the GM rep not looking at the wheels is inexcusable. She should have logged them, determined who plated them, and got to the root of the problem!

The warranty may not cover this (there may be an exclusion for appearance items, or a shorter warranty period, or whatever). If you are sure that the wheels are warranted, you could go to small claims court. The fact that the service manager tried to blame you instead of asserting that there is no warranty bodes well for your case.

Peeling of chrome wheels is a very widespread problem because they are so terribly difficult to plate. But they shouldn't sell them if they can't plate them correctly (or at least they shouldn't warranty them). I sympathize with the plating shop, but very soon there will be no chrome plated wheel business anyway; they'll have lost all their business to PVD processes, because companies like GM are in denial instead of investigating and giving the plating shops proper feedback.

Please tell the service manager that finishing.com eagerly awaits hearing from him what chemical can do this because thousands of plating shops spend a small fortune on expensive and often toxic nickel strippers to dissolve nickel away, and would love to know what chemical they could use to cause the nickel to just peel off instead, and the environment would thank him too :-)

Regards,

P.S.: I've always been a "buy American" nut, but I just bought a Toyota after I had to pay to have the same ignition switch parts inside the steering wheel of a GM Malibu replaced for the 3rd time (the 1st time under warranty, the next two times with me paying high parts & labor charges), and I became convinced that their promise of "opening a case file" was not really about investigating this pattern, but about stalling until I sold the car. Any manufacturer can suffer a "lemon", but stringing me along is grounds for no more GM for me.

A. Hi, Greg. If you can get me an e-mail address for one of the service managers or the GM rep I would be happy to send them an e-mail. It is possible that they are honestly ignorant of what causes this problem. But when four plating experts tell you it is a manufacturing defect, and not a murmur of dissent is heard from anyone on the world's most popular metal finishing site, it's like I said from the first: a manufacturing defect, period.

Regards,

"There are none so blind as those who will not see."

Regards,

I hate to say "told ya so", but the truth is GM has got your money and they don't give two hoots whether you're a satisfied customer or not.

They're busily going bankrupt.

Buy Japanese next time.

LOL Jeff. GM should be busy doing something productive.
However, I had the same experience with Nissan.

Yes, we all have stories of manufacturers disavowing responsibility, Sheldon. What makes this one different is that it's not a disgruntled customer's personal interpretation of what is owed him.

Rather, four professionals with years of direct experience in the exact subject have looked at the photographs and weighed in and said with a single voice that Greg is sitting on a manufacturing defect (I'm not counting you, Sheldon, because I realize that you haven't offered an opinion on it), and they don't care.

Do you have a "troubleshooter" on the local TV news, Greg? Send him/her the dialog -- they'd probably love to go to the car dealer with a story as irrefutable as this one.

Regards,

A. I guess we're looking at exposed copper, so technically it's the NICKEL that is peeling. Try to pick up a piece with a magnet. This is definitely a plating defect. Get a lawyer.

Now it's five experts.

Letter 44219 is on a different subject, Greg, but it concludes with something which sounds very reasonable, i.e., that you should write a letter to the dealer titled "First Demand Letter" (or "Second Demand Letter" if you've written previously). The title makes it absolutely clear that you are demanding redress for this manufacturing defect, so they can't plausibly claim that they thought you were just making inquiries about whether they feel it is a defect.

A. It's a manufacturing defect for sure, the respect issue (he's disrespecting you by telling you it's wheel cleaner damage) might be that you are the second owner. Auto makers are very well equipped to trace manufacturing defects back to their origin if they need to do it, but this defect is not life threatening, it's cosmetic. Back in the early '90's there was a problem that all makers had with peeling paint. The manufacturers were changing to low VOC primers and after a year, paint would peel off in big sheets from the hood and top. Ever see a fleet vehicle from that era? They all had it. My friend bought a new '93 Dodge Dakota and the paint peeled. The dealer agreed to pay half for a new paint job ($1000), and when it was done it looked like it was painted in someone's garage. I told him if that was a $2000 paint job I'd eat my hat. He didn't fight it.

A. Hi, Diane. It isn't clear to me whether these wheels are painted or chrome plated or polished aluminum, so we don't know if you have a similar situation to Greg. Send some pics please.

Regards,

A. I am truly sorry about your trouble with a G.M. product. I will celebrate the day they finally go out of business. My experience with their products say they are nothing but cheap junk. As advised, for your future try a Japanese product, or Korean. They are still trying to build market share and satisfy the customer. G.M. really does not care about the customer once you bought their defective junk.

Hi, Frank. You're right that lots of people deny responsibility, but the forum has not gone adrift. This isn't about hypotheticals; it's an ongoing discussion about actual car wheels with an incontrovertible manufacturing defect. The car's owner is asking for help from the finishing community because the dealer and regional rep are giving him a runaround, and that's what we are trying to offer.

But when I and other people who are trying to help have had recent terrible experience, for us to maintain radio silence when we empathize completely with the writer's experience would be disingenuous.

Sheldon & Gene have put Nissan on the whipping post, Gene added Toyota; Ford & Subaru are the subject of complaints in thread 44219, BMW in 29693, Harley Davidson in 30196, and so it goes ...

Regards,

A. Hi Karen. Good luck, and as I and many other highly experienced electroplaters have already said here at The Home Page of the Finishing Industry®, completely unchallenged for over a decade, "peeling chrome" is always a manufacturing defect.

Regards,

 Back from dealership. As soon as I pulled in and showed them the four peeling rims, they took photos and sent to corporate. 15 minutes later corporate approved new rims. They are ordered and being installed next week. Thank goodness and thank you for this thread ... it helped.