Kerbed alloy wheels: refurbish, repair or replace?

Scuffed or damaged? How to tell what you've got

Kerb rash tends to look worse than it is. A scrape along a kerb leaves a band of scratches and torn paint around the outer lip of the rim, sometimes with small nicks out of the edge. The metal underneath is still sound. If it's been left for a while, you may see white or grey powdery corrosion creeping under the paint next to the damage.

A harder knock can do more than mark the paint. Clipping a high kerb at speed, or dropping a wheel into a deep pothole, can bend the rim or crack it. Look out for:

• a vibration through the steering wheel that comes in at a certain speed
• a tyre that keeps going soft, or a pressure warning light that keeps coming back
• a flat spot or kink in the rim edge, rather than scratches
• the car pulling to one side, or the steering wheel sitting off-centre
• a bulge or cut in the tyre sidewall

Cracks often show up on the inner barrel of the wheel, where you won't see them with the wheel on the car. If you've noticed any of the symptoms above, treat the wheel as suspect until someone has had it off and looked.

A bulging sidewall means the tyre needs replacing whatever happens to the wheel. Don't drive on it any further than you have to.

What does kerbed alloy wheel repair involve?

For a painted alloy, a full refurbishment normally means the tyre comes off and the damaged finish is sanded or stripped back. Gouges are smoothed out, and where metal has been knocked out of the rim edge it's filled and shaped. Any corrosion has to come out completely. Paint over it and it will lift the new finish before long, which is why you sometimes see lacquer peeling off older refurbs in sheets.

Then the wheel is primed, painted to match and lacquered, and the tyre goes back on and is balanced.

Small, shallow kerb damage can sometimes be repaired on just the affected section of the rim. It's quicker, but on some colours you can see where the repair meets the old finish, so doing the whole wheel often looks better. We'll tell you which we'd recommend once we've seen it.

Diamond-cut wheels are a different job

Diamond-cut wheels have a bright, machined face, usually with painted areas between the spokes and clear lacquer over the top. Paint can't recreate that finish. The wheel has to go on a lathe, where a thin layer of metal is cut off the face to bring the machined look back, and then it's lacquered again.

Each re-cut takes a little metal away, so a wheel can only be re-cut so many times, and a deep gouge in the face may be too deep to cut out. We refurbish diamond cut wheels at all three of our sites, so mention the finish when you get in touch and we'll check there's enough metal left for another cut. If you've always fancied a different colour, a refurbishment is the time to do it.

Touch-up kits are a poor fit for these wheels. The paint sits on a bright metal face and shows up straight away.

When should a kerbed alloy be replaced?

If the wheel is cracked, we won't refurbish it. Some places will weld a crack, but a road wheel carries the weight of the car through every bump and corner, and a crack that's been filled and painted can't be checked. Replace it.

A buckle is less clear-cut. A mild bend can sometimes be straightened on specialist equipment, but whether that's safe depends on how bad the bend is and where it sits. A bend with a crack, or a rim that still won't hold air afterwards, means a new wheel. If a pothole did the damage, you may be able to claim the cost from the council, and our guide to pothole damage claims explains how.

Replacing one wheel has a catch. A new wheel can look noticeably brighter than three that have been on the car for years, and on some models the design has changed or the wheel is hard to get. The tidiest answer is sometimes to replace the damaged wheel and refurbish the other three so they all match. Get prices for both before deciding: a new wheel from a main dealer usually costs a lot more than a refurbishment.

Kerbed alloy wheels on a lease car

If the car is going back to a lease company, check the damage against their return standard before you spend anything. The BVRLA fair wear and tear guide, the leasing industry's standard, accepts alloy wheel scuffs of up to 50mm in total around the rim. Anything more and you're likely to be charged. Damage to a tyre sidewall isn't accepted at all. Lease companies set their own terms, so read yours.

Then compare what they'd charge with what a refurbishment costs. Our page on lease return repairs covers the rest of the car, and our guide to lease car fair wear and tear goes into the BVRLA standards in more detail.

Getting a kerbed wheel looked at by Newbridge

All three of our sites do alloy wheel refurbishment. The quickest way to start is to send us photos for a quote: one of the whole wheel, one close up of the damage and one of the tyre sidewall. Tell us if the wheels are diamond-cut, and whether you've noticed any vibration or air loss.

If you'd rather talk it through, ring our Basildon bodyshop on 01268 590 722, our Dartford site in Stone on 01322 930 719, or our Sydenham site on 020 8659 2221. You can read Google reviews for Basildon, Dartford and Sydenham first.