What has happened to my Wheels?

[Hitman Hack]

I've not long had my 944 and when I brought it, she was as shiney and gorgesous as you like.

About two weeks ago I went to the Silverston classics and did the usual clean up and shine and all was fine.

How ever, I got the old girl out again on Saturday for a qucik splash and dash as I had to run to Droking and to my horror, one of my wheels looks horrid.
The car does live out side now but this has only happened to the one wheel. (The Near Side Read).

It has some kind of mottled effect in the alloy finish, kind of like water marks or water spalshes.
I washed it and it did nothign to remove the marks. Then came out the alloy wheel cleaner and again this did nothign.
Having scrubbed for some time I gave up and cleaned the rest of the car as per usual.

After I dried the car off the wheel had dried to a kind of mark free finish so didn't look too bad at all.

I checked the car again this morning and the weird marks are clearly visible again on the wheel.

Has any one heard of this before, experienced it or indeed knows what to do to stop it?

Or do I need to just bite the bullet and get the wheels refirbished?

I know it's really anal, but if the wheels look bad it spoils the whole finish of the car and makes it look cheap.

Help please if you can?

[andy miles]

Hitman,hi,i have heard that sometimes if a dog or even a cat pisses up your wheels the acidity of the pee can play havoc with the alloy of the rim,this may sound a bit far fetched but seeing that it is only one wheel that it has happened to,it may well be worth keeping an eye out for your local moggy or dogs!
Andy Miles 1983 estoril blue 911sc

[ANDY944]

/\ sounds plauseable, or perhaps alloy wheel cleaner left on too long? some of them are acid based.

[Brett928S2]

Hi

It might be water seeping under the lacquer, which happened to mine...

A picture would help a lot....

All the best Brett

[Clive993]

Something has etched in to the top coat. If its all the way round then it is unlikely to be cat or dog, if on one half then it may well be an animal.

I am not sure if its plain alloy with no laquer or paint or laquer etc.

If its laquered then it will need some machine polishing or lots of manual work. As Brett says a picture, description of finish and if its all the way round or not would help.

You can usually get it out though

[Hitman Hack]

Thanks every one, I will take a picture this evening and post it up.

The blotches are appearing all the way round the wheel and it really looks terrible.

I don't I have caused it by using wheel cleaner as I always do the wheels first, then hose them off thourily and then wash the car. If it is wheel cleaner then this stuff must be really nasty.

As for the finish of the wheels, I am not sure if they are lacquered or powder coater or what?
they are the original D90 alloys though and as far as I can tell have never had any work done on them. So I guess not bad for 20 years of age but it's still anoying me greatly.

Photo coming tomorrow.

Thanks for all getting back to me. I really appreciate it.

Cheers.

[David924S]

I completely knackered a wheel on my 924S when I had it by using spray foam wheel cleaner without realising the laquer was not as good as it should have been, the wheel went completely white and furry in a matter of seconds and I had to strip the wheel completely and re-polish to remove the mess. The wheel cleaner was not as far as I am aware very strong and certainly not like the one you brush on and leave but I have never used it since except on my Wifes lease car with powder coated wheels.

[Hitman Hack]

Thanks for all the reply's every one.

Sadly I didn't manage to get a photo last night as by the time I got back from the day job, the sun had buggered off.

I'll try and up load one tomorrow.

Thanks again for all the comments though. Picture tomorrow all.