On my second Freelander 1 I had to have two wheels replaced under warranty due to the lacquer bubbling. I then got a Honda CRV and had to have all four replaced under warranty for the same reason. My current Freelander is just three years old and yesterday all four wheels were replaced under warranty. Has anyone else had this problem with their wheels? Andyfr

All have been ok on mine. 21MY Defender 90 S 3.0 D200

Mazda RX8s had the same problem. I had 4 wheels replaced under warranty.

I read the other day that Kia Sorento's are having the same problem at less than a year old. p****d off with a Digital Keyboard Warrior

Depends on the coating too. All these newer diamond cut style alloys where the face of the alloy is milled to bare metal, then painted in clear coat just cant handle the weather and salt we have.

What happens is a stone chips off the top layer exposing bare alloy metal, which in turn slowly reacts ( like most alu does ) into the white power. The white powder pushes up the underside of the paint, exposing more metal and so the process continues.

You can see it a lot on modern alloys were the corrosion has tracked along in a line like a little worm burrowing along the surface.

Good example of it here on a set of alloys i used to have:

Click image to enlarge