Wheels and winter

[Aking]

Do you guys take your aftermarket wheels off in winter? How bad is salt on wheels? I took mine off my BMW but I hate the stocks so bad, I thought about putting them back on and just make sure I keep them clean. Hmmm??

[Captain Slow]

The concern is that there is more particulate on the road in the winter to nick up your wheels. In the same way that rocks chip up your front end over time, grains of salt and loose pebbles from recently formed pot holes can create small chips in your wheel's finish. Additionally, if your tire sidewall is 40mm or less, you are putting your rims at risk of getting bent in one of the fresh pot holes.

It's a tough call. I wear winter wheels because I need them for the snow tires. You can minimize your risk of rock chips by maintaining a generous following distance on the interstate and moving at lower speeds (ie: the earnest speed limit).

[MarcD]

The salt is just plain bad all around. Seems they are brine happy now too. And the potholes this time of year..

[Chrispy]

I ALWAYS remove aftermarket wheels during winter. Aside from the reasons Ken listed above, the main issue is that the salt/snow/ice etc tends to build up in the bead seal area of the rim, this will slowly deteriorate and corrode that area and eventually cause the tire to lose air around the bead seal. This is especially common on aluminum and chrome wheels. Only way to fix that is to dismount the tire, clean the bead lip of the rim with a die grinder and a wire wheel, bead seal the rim and buff the rubber lip of the tire to remove the corrosion.

Aside from that, its not a bad idea to have a set of all season or summer performance tires on your aftermarket wheels and then a set of dedicated all season or winter tires for your stock wheels. In winter, who cares how ya look as long as you can drive safely, and having good winter tires will help greatly.