Wheel Refurbishing in Washington, MO

When a tire goes flat on the road and the vehicle keeps moving, attention goes straight to the tire. It is usually finished, it gets replaced, and the vehicle goes back to work. The wheel underneath often goes back into service without anyone looking at it closely.

That wheel has just carried the vehicle's weight on its rim flange instead of on a cushion of air. Depending on the distance and the load, the flange can be bent, chipped, cracked or worn where it was grinding against the road or the collapsed tire. The bead seat, where the new tire has to seal, can be damaged too.

A new tire mounted on that wheel may seem fine. It may also leak slowly, refuse to seat properly, or vibrate in a way no balance will fix. In the worst case, a crack started by the flat keeps growing under load.

• The flange, all the way around, for bends, chips and grinding marks.
• The bead seat, for damage that would stop a tire sealing.
• Roundness, since a wheel can be pushed out of true without showing an obvious dent.
• Cracks, especially near the flange and around any area that took the impact.

A crack ends the wheel and it is replaced.

A wheel that passes inspection can be cleaned back to sound metal, have its bead seat restored and be refinished, so it goes back on the vehicle in known condition rather than as a guess. The national wheel refurbishing page covers the process.

Ask for the wheel to be checked whenever a tire is replaced after a flat. The tire itself can come through a roadside call, and the finished assembly should go through tire and wheel balancing, both offered here.

Fenton refurbishes wheels toward St. Louis, and Viburnum to the south.

The Washington store runs seventeen services and is managed by Kurt Kottwitz.

See the national wheel refurbishing page for all 42 locations.