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MG MGF Technical - Porous wheels

It would appear that two of the wheels currently fitted to my F have become porous, with one becoming flat within 5 days, would anyone know of a cure for this problem, without having to go to the expense of buying two new wheels (its been an expensive year already, radiator, starter motor new disks etc etc).

Grateful for any suggestions

Les
Les Lewis (P551POT)

I would suggest that you talk to alloy wheel reconditioners - they'll be able to sort this problem for you for a fraction of the price of replacing all 4 wheels :o)
Rob Bell

Take the tyre off the rim and find the porus area, skim with bodyfiller, sand down spray silver job done.
Alternatively you can do what we do in karting with our wheels (alloy or magnesium)....spray the inside of them with clear laquer with many small coats, this should see the problem disappear. HTH Best of luck.
The Bandit

It may just be corrosion of the rim causing air to leak past the bead. I have some alloys that did this and a tyre place just spun them up on the wheel balancer and used a wire brush to clean the rim, problem solved. If you can take the wheel off and submerge it to find out where the leak is that should help determine the course of action.
David Billington

I agree with Dave, must admit to never having heard of alloy wheels going porous.
To do a test simply remove the wheel and submerge it in water. You need a big bath or something. Careful monitoring will show a small stream of bubbles where the leak is. I would be surprised if this was not on the rim to tyre bead seal.
Bob (robert) I am turning? yes I once owned an MGWasp!!

Bob alloy castings can often be porous from the start and various processes are used to seal them. With alloys often just the paint does the job and when that starts to fail in the air space a porous wheel casting can leak. A mate mentioned once that the car maker he worked for had a big problem with porous intake manifolds and they had to be treated with a polymer product that IIRC was introduced by a vacuum process to draw the sealer into the porosity.
David Billington

Thanks to all for your answers, I have already tried removing the offending tyres cleaning and reapplying bonding sealant this cured the problem temporarily (all 4 tyres are only 3 months old). The lacquer method sound good, so its either that or sending them off for recon as Rob suggested.
Les Lewis (P551POT)

Good luck Les - fingers crossed :o)
Rob Bell

I had this problem on my Citroen Visa GT - they were notorious for it. In the end I painted the inside area with smooth Hamerite and it cured it completly and lasted for years(until some dumb tw@t hit me head on in a housing estate, I loved that car :( )
Tony

BTW, it is not unknown that tyres themselves leak badly. Again, our kart tyres that are made by Bridgestone sometimes have a leak between the sealing bead and the sidewall............my last 2 sets in fact were cr@p but @ £90 a set what can I do?...we had to use them :-(
Obviously, to check your tyres for leaks you can do one of 2 things.................submerge them in water (okay for diddly kart tyres but awkward for car tyres) or get a water sprayer from homebase and check with that. You should be looking for lots of pin sized leaks. More often than not the tread will not leak as with use and heat build up they will buff smooth, check the sidewalls and beads. To overcome some of the leaks use tyre wax which helps seal some of these. HTH
The Bandit

This thread was discussed between 27/07/2006 and 28/07/2006

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