# Mondeo ST centre caps corroding



## rocky1722 (Sep 17, 2006)

My Mondeo ST TDCi is just over a year old now and all of a sudden my centre caps are starting to corrode badly.


































When I bought the car in December the centre caps looked perfect. I have NOT used any type of wheel cleaner on them just shampoo Meguiars Hyperwash. I find it strange that all 4 caps seem to have gone all at same time. I wouldn't have thought the Hyperwash would be the cause of it.

Anyone elses Mondeo gone the same way after a year. The diamond cut alloys are still fine I thought these would have been first to go rather than the centres.

Went down to my local Ford dealer today but as it's over a year old now they can't do anything about it. New ones cost £13 each but I'm not wanting to buy a set of 4 every year if this is going to keep happening.

Thanks for any info,
Stephen.


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## P.M.V.Gavin (Feb 21, 2007)

try a refurb chips away


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## d3m0n (Feb 19, 2007)

I have 18" Zetec S 5 spoke with diamond cut faces and my centre caps also look like yours (perhaps not quite as bad), but my wheels are looking a little worse for wear, all i would advise (bar buying new ones) would be to give them a good polish and wax/seal after to try and stop it getting any worse.

The Ford (Ronal spl?) wheels are well known to have laquer issues.


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## rocky1722 (Sep 17, 2006)

Yes since I've bought the car I've been meaning to take the wheels off and give them a few coats of polish then a few coats of Poorboy's wheel wax.
I think sooner the better, at least I've now bought a 5th alloy off ebay so I can do each wheel at my leisure now.

Cheers,
Stephen.


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## oneowner2004 (Nov 25, 2006)

*Alloy corrosion*

Some of the corrosion looks like text book filiform corrosion - the bane of many a wheel engineers life. Typical of this is the threadlike corrosion which is almost wormlike and I read it can grow a mm a day! (this corrosion is under the lacquer, so you will not be able to do any remedial work - it will only get worse- Sorry)

I had this on my alloys on a previous car and successfully got them changed under warranty - it seemed to be quite common when I asked around although I had never heard of this before.

Initially my dealer thought it was from stone chips - but from what I read via Google it appears that the cause could be two fold - a surface defect which has allowed moisture in under the lacquer or that it could have been poorly prepared prior to painting in that some chlorides were still present on the alloy -

In my case, the corrosion occurred on the centre cap and I could see no evidence of any surface defects plus I also had the thread like corrosion around the "holes" ( which in my case were used when balancing the wheels) and the corrosion started from the edge in all instances -

-I pointed out to my dealer that it would be quite strange to have gotten a stone chip exactly on the edge of two of these holes, and said that the defect must be occurring occurring underneath the lacquer where it has then progressed. I checked over all the wheels and this corrosion was starting in practically the same place on each wheel namely around the decorative holes, plus the centre caps.

If you click on the following link there are some 4 photos of the corrosion I suffered with.










Luckily I also had photos of the wheels from a few months before and this showed that the corrosion was indeed growing.

I was told that wheel manufacturers cover insurance for this, so I would go back to your dealer and blind them with some science re filform corrosion (just do a Google search) plus your photos.


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## Guest (May 18, 2007)

Join the club mate  Our alloys are actually corroding on my Dads ST220... looks awful to be honest  And to be fair to stop them corroding again is to have them refurbished by a different company other than ford! Were having ours done in a gun metal Grey color soon.

Edit : Ford only garuanties the alloys for 8 months! Obviously they know there going to corrode badly!


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## Rasher (Mar 6, 2006)

yep ours have but not as bad the ST is just two years old


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## winrya (Aug 4, 2006)

mine stared going on the golf after 18 months and were swapped under warranty, covered for 3 years and im shocked ford dont offer the same level of service


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## willjordan7 (Mar 31, 2006)

It's a common fault with all the diamond cut ford alloys,I'm sure a few people on here have got them replaced under warrenty,get back down to the dealer and try again for replacements,if you still get no joy,get onto Ford customer service its not as if your looking for a new set of wheels.


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## quattrogmbh (May 15, 2007)

I'd ask the dealer to point out the specific limited liability with regard to alloy wheels. I believe Ford warranties are 3 years, and I've not seen any company start to limit component coverage after 1 year.


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