Stock Steel Wheel Rust Spotting

At just about 2 years and 25K miles coiming up, going in for my last free service next week on our 2012 Tacoma 4X4. Honsetly can say only problem that has cropped up is a lot of rust spotting on the painted inner surface of the stock steel wheel rims that show through the outer surface cut outs. The area in question seems to hold a good amount of water with the wheel stationary, I suspect that's how the rust forms if the truck is parked for extended periods after driving in rain or snow.

I do my best to keep the wheels clean especially over the winter, but these spots take away from what are otherwise new looking wheels. I have seen other Tacomas with this problem, and have been told by at least one other owner that Toyota corrected it under warranty. Wonder if anyone else has dealt with this issue and how you made out with your dealership.

 

If dealer does it under warranty. Then you should let the dealer do it. If not then buy aluminum rims. Problem fix

 

Every Toyota truck I have ever owned steel wheels rusted or what ever is under the gray paint shown through. After the winters abuse it's a spring ritual to repaint them. It's terrible paint if Toyota corrected them it was with a rattle can. The only proper way would be a sand blast and a complete primer and repaint.

 

Mine too has the rust streaks starting... Next Time I go to the Dealer (this fall for oil and service), I'll at least show them and get it noted on my work order.

 

Cant really say that will fix the problem either most sport and off road alloys in the any area with salted road/snow have issues as well.

Frames and wheels are not anything to brag about for toyota.

 

My experience with aluminum wheels in the salt belt states is that after a few years, they get porous and start to leak air.

 

Just got back from the local dealership...good news is that they did give me a new set of wheels under warranty due to the extent of the rusting on the original wheels, now two years old.

Bad news is that the new wheels are probably even MORE likely to rust that the originals, due to very poor paint application quality. There is very little of the silver finish coat on the portions of the inner rim that show through the spoke holes, in some cases the paint does not even cover enough of the inner rim to show full coverage when you are looking straight at it. There is NO silver paint on the inner rim between the spokes, and NONE on the deepest part of the rims between the outer portion and the inner portion that shows inside of the spoke holes, where water will sit when the vehicle is parked. Also, there is very little silver paint adherence on the edges of the stamped holes of the wheel spokes.

This looks like a problem with how the wheels are painted at the manufacturer.
Looks like the silver paint was applied by spraying squarely directly in one shot at the wheel,with no attempt to apply any on the inner portion of the rim that shows, or the inner diameter of the rim that can catch and hold water at the "bottom" of the wheel when parked, which would require spraying in at an angle to the plane the wheel . There may be black primer under there, but certainly not a finish coat or any clear coat. Does not look like any clear coat is applied on top of the silver anywhere.

My original wheels that rusted at least had good paint coverage on all of the areas that the new ones didn't. I also took a look at the same steel wheels on several new Tacomas on the lot, they also had the same poor paint coverage the was evident on my replacement ones. Going to take this up with the dealership service manager. I am very happy with the overall quality of the fit and finsih of my Tacoma, but the poor quality of the paint application on these wheels is way below that evident on the rest of the truck.