2011 TRD Sport--Wheel Clearcoat Problem

First post but a long time Tacoma owner-- five of them. Road rash/pitting on my wife's new Sport. No blistering...yet. The truck is three months old with about 6,000 miles on it. Wheels were perfect (even though the truck is driven on about eight miles of gravel daily) until our first major snow complete with icy roads, sand and chemicals on the highways. Now the surface of all four wheels is chipped/pitted. I have a Dodge Ram that is over four years old with 90,000 miles on it. No pitting or chipping of the alloy wheels. In the past 20 years I have driven trucks with clearcoated alloy wheels and have had no problems like this. All of the trucks were full-size American built. Our previous Tacomas had steel wheels. This is our first "fancy" Tacoma.

I've taken the truck to the dealers service department. Pics were taken of the wheels. Both the service manager and the regional rep said it was a rock chip issue. (Duh) The regional rep wants to take a "wait and see" position before acting on replacement or whatever. OK by me for now. The problem is documented early on.

My position is that the wheels have a pretty "iffy" clearcoat to chip like they did. They should be replaced and I'll stick to that.

Anyone else have a similar problem? I have the feeling that "down the road". I am going to need a bit of "ammunition" as I deal with Toyota.

Tom

 

There's been pretty consistent reports of problems with recent Toyota alloy wheels and clearcoat bubbling/peeling.

Me, I just beat the shit out of my wheels anyway, so I haven't really paid attention.

 

Mods, Please move to "Wheels and Tires".

Tom