Car Maintenance
Now the sun’s making a long awaited appearance a lot of us are finding time to wash our car instead of just taking it to the car wash when it’s filthy. You might have spotted scratches or even dents on your alloy wheels and wondered where they come from. You’re a good driver, so how are your wheels so scuffed? It’s easy to notice new scratches if you haven’t washed your wheels for a while. The two main causes of damage to alloys are meeting the kerb when parking and pot holes.
Kerbing
Even if you’re the best driver it’s easy enough to kerb your wheels. The kerb isn’t always an even height and judging where it is can be tricky. Reading’s roads aren’t very wide, and as a lot of the houses are terraced a lot of people have to park on the road instead of a driveway or garage. When you squeeze into that tight space late at night a small laps in concentration can mean you hit the kerb.
Pot holes
Did you know pot holes are called pot holes because years ago when roads were just made of mud people would dig a bit out if it was good clay and they could make a pot out of it. The hole this left in the road was literally a pot hole! These days the reasons for pot holes are generally wear and tear, the weather (especially freezing and thawing in the winter) and cars becoming heavier and traffic more frequent.
If you’re unlucky enough to hit a pot hole at speed or at the wrong angle your wheel can become damaged. Sometimes we can avoid pot holes, but some are just unavoidable. Sometimes if a pot hole is full of water the driver won’t be aware how deep it is until they’ve hit it.
So what do you do once you’ve noticed your scuffed and damaged alloy wheels? You have three choices: replace them, repair them or ignore the damage!
Replace
This is the most expensive option. It’s a good idea if your wheels are damaged beyond repair, but we would advise you to check that they can’t be repaired before you replace them!
Repair
This is better for the environment and your bank balance! We can repair all alloy wheels including diamond cut wheels. When they’ve been refurbished they will look as good as new.
Ignore
If the damage is just cosmetic then you can just ignore it. If they’re badly scuffed you might want to check the damage is just cosmetic, as it’s not safe to leave a damaged wheel on your car. Sadly even if the damage is cosmetic when you come to sell your car you may get less that you wanted as scuffed alloys are very noticeable. We would always recommend refurbing your wheels to keep your car looking its best.
