does anyone have pictures of the wheels that are pitted? does this also happen to the 08 or is it just the earlier years? i have a couple of months left under my 4/50k i want to make sure to get anything else fixed before my time is up.

Thanks,
Sid

 

i have 04 with one wheel where the pitting starts from inside going outward - looks just like paint peeling,
make sure you check out my thread on common issues of gx470 listed problems... gl

 

Use the "Search" function, there are pictures posted.

 

 

I have an 08, had (3) pitted wheels. Looks like blisters under the paint, until the paint pops off. My color is I believe hyper silver, the darker color for the wheels. Has anyone reading this post found the color match. I have read the older posts and other have mentioned colors that are close, but not the actual color.

 

Sid, if I recall correctly, Lexus won't take credit for the pitted wheels...

 

ancient... i think i have one wheel that might have this... it definitely doesn't look like z0lt3c rim. now that is pretty bad. hopefully won't look like that since mine are graphite colored.

while i'm under bumper to bumper i have a friend who works @ lexus that could get it swapped but wanted to make sure i wasn't over reacting.

 

sidwin, I believe the picture that is shown is a chrome wheel, or not my color. I have what you have, the painted wheel, sometimes referred to as "hyper silver" color (darker graphite color). There are impurties in the aluminum casting, which corrode, expand, and blister the paint. It happens everywhere in the US, but seems more prevelant in areas where salt is used. I think the defect is accellerated with salt. It looks like a blister in the paint. If you poke it, there will be powder under the blister.

I bought mine a year ago, with 46, 500 miles. Thanks to running searches and reading posts on this forum, prior to buying my truck, I immidately challenged them on the wheel pitting, clunk fix, and other items.

They took care of the wheels at no charge, I had (3). Others on this forum had to pay for mounting and balancing. The wheels were not new, they were reconditioned and painted, supposedly better than stock. Hype, if you take a wheel with defective casting and repaint it, it is only a matter of time before the corosion will re appear. I am at a year, with no pitting, however, I rinse my wheels off and never let salt set on them.

Locally at a wheel supplier, I can buy a reconditioned wheel for $200.00 to 225.00, exchange. You have to turn in your core/ wheel. I had (4) new tires last year on the car. When it comes time to change tires, I would have had my truck long enough, to want a different look. Will go 4 runner rims, or something else. Someone on an post a long time ago, mention a Honda exterior paint color, that was close to our wheel color. It would be nice to have some touch up paint, incase of a stone chip. I believe our paint is silver over a black primer, then clear.

 

My rims are chrome, but they are Lexus OEM wheels and identically cast to the graphite wheels, just finished differently. Since the issue is with the casting, the chrome wheels seem to be even more susceptible to pitting as the chrome finish tends to peel back more obviously in the pitted areas.

Incredible that the original owner paid over $2000 for this wheel and tire package new from dealer at time of original purchas... and look at them now.

 

Lexus/Toyota rims have had this issue for years.

 

A lot of people are going to the 4 Runner wheels. Did they have problems as well or not???????

 

Don't know? I would check the 4runner forum to see if their wheels are having the same issues.

 

I have an 08 with the graphite or whatever it is called rims. I bought mine CPO in August and that was one of the issues I had with the truck. They are not bad but it will get worse. Every 07 and 08 I looked at had this issue, some much worse than others. This is a CPO still under 50,000 miles.

Anyway I discussed with the sales rep about having them either refinished or replaced, he said he would let me know but really never answered the question. Took my GX in for service and asked the service rep about the rims, told him I didn't want to do anything until after the winter. They weren't to entusiastic about addressing the issue, kind of got the run around which is unusual as I have always been treated very well over the 6 years we have had Lexus vehicles.

Someone told me that the dealers have a hard time getting Lexus to pay them for the service.

 

I had this issue and fought with Lexus in late 2010. They would not acknowledge that there was a problem and refused to call it a defect. I told them that they could call it anything they wanted but I was under warranty and bumper to bumper means just that. I didn't want painted rims like they told me they would consider doing (removing my wheels and rims having them sandblasted and repainted) I wanted OEM new rims. After a major battle I got new rims and I told them if they didn't want to call it a defect then they could call it a failure. My rims were painted so I took the stand that it should be covered under the paint warranty. They could not product a document that said that the wheels were excluded so they paid for everything. I had no out of pocket expense. They went so far as to say it was my fault for leaving brake dust on the rims. I said "So your telling me Lexus's rims can't handle brake dust?" They didn't know what to say and my rims along with my truck is kept in pristine condition..My truck was bought new and it is an 06

 

I bought my GX last week and I noticed one of the chrome wheels is peeling from the inside out and you can even see it bubbling behind the face of the wheel. The other 3 are perfectly fine.

I dont care because I dont like chrome wheels and I'll be replacing them soon. Glad I wasnt the one who paid extra for these.