'09 Sport Alloys

[RobW]

I got the car when it was about 3 years and 2 months old so Mazda would not honour the warranty on the severely corroded alloys.

So, off to get them powder coated on Friday, not a stupid colour or anything lairy, just a good bright silver. Why did they make the wheels a matt sort of shade from the factory? Anyone got any pics of standard pre-face sport alloys in various silvers / colours? Will be posting mine as and when.

[Farnsworth28]

There is no way consumers should be laying out cash to re-coat alloy wheels after only 3 years of ownership. Yours sounds like an unlucky case as I feel you should of got some sort of payment from Mazda towards the cost of a refurb.

The fact that your alloys were severely corroded is concerning. Were they like that when you purchased the car?

Farnsy

[RobW]

Yep. Story goes....

Saw the car at a local independent seller and asked him to call Mazda about a warranty job. Went to collect the car and he said he was told by Mazda they couldn't do it for him seeing as he is a trader so I called them in August 2012 - (the day after collecting the car) -  car was registered in June 2009 and they said that seeing as the car was out of warranty and because I had not bought the car from them or had it serviced by them (was done at another Mazda dealer) they would do nothing about them.

It is a high miler with over 100k on it now but the wheels are worse than my old Vectra which was 7 years old and over 100k. A mate had a 6 but was within warranty and they replaced his for free. I'm a bit pee'd off by it all but at the end of the day, Mazda did have a point and with age / mileage I wasn't surprised.

[wiganlatic]

My 09 sport is the same.  Bought it at 3 years old with full dealer history.  Noticed the alloys were shot.  Wrote several letters and they wouldn't do a thing.

[185_jools]

My alloys were refurbed by the supplying non-franchised dealer when I bought it @28k / 3 years old as it was felt they were not upto standard ( bought from a well established Jaguar dealer).
I also have a spare set of 16's from a 2009 TS for Winter use. Both suffer rim corrosion.
Recently, after a long weekend driving on the 18's, I parked the car up and returned to it the followinfg morning to go to work and the TPMS indicated a pressure decrease. I inspected all the tyres and found the front OS had lost 10 psi. I pumped it up and drove to the nearest tyre fitter who found corrosion to be the cause of the deflation and resealled it.
I don't think Mazda, being built in Japan, unlike say Nissan, take into account the use of salt in Europe.
My 18's weren't on in winter so didn't see much exposure to bad roads.
This concerns me more that a corroded alloy could potentially deflate without warning than cosmetic appearance and at least the TPMS did it's job.

[Farnsworth28]

There seems to be a pattern developing with accelerated corrosion on the alloy wheels. I think I might jet wash the wheels regularly during the winter to rinse off the salt and grit from the roads. Not sure if this make any difference!

I musy say, the alloys on my previous 03 Sport suffered from bubbling at an early age.

They weren't as bad as my mate's mondeo ST though. The lacquer peeled off his 18's after approx 2 yrs of ownership. They were horrendous.

Farnsy

[RobW]

I would recommend taking the wheels off and completely cleaning them and drying them as often as possible! And a good coat of wax or sealant.