Has the shop tried bead sealant? It gooey black stuff, you put it on
the bead when installing the tire. Should normally seal stuff like
that unless the leak is really bad.

--
Stephan
2001 Yamaha YZF-R6

I had a set of centerline aluminum wheels from the late 70's that had a
leak between the 2 halves.  I had the tire shop dismount the tire for
me, took it home and removed the 25 year old silicone bead from the
center of the wheel and applied new silicone.  I brought it back to the
tire shop and had them remount the tire and it has worked without a leak
ever since, 2 years.

Many tire shops will use a bead sealer on aluminums rims... it essentially
glues the tire to the rim. Dismount the rubber, tidy up the rim with
sandpaper or a wire brush to remove any loose corrosion and have them
re-mounted using bead sealer. you can do it yourself if you like, just chalk
line the tire to the rim so you don't lose the balance. You can do it
without dismounting the tires but it's a pain in the a.s to clean the rim
while trying to hold the bead down - not to mention the crap will stay
inside your tire.

Spray on bead sealer (never tried, can't vouch for it)
http://www.rockcrawler.com/features/newsshorts/02september/safetyseal.asp

Brush on bead sealer (this is what the shops use)
http://www.annco.com/products/pro_2.cfm?ItemNumber=G10106

-Brian

Take off tire and clean up bead area either with a fine wire wheel on a
drill, or fine sandpaper, to polish up that area while taking off the
corrosion.
I have heard of different sealers like Form A Gasket #2 (IIRC an old racer's
trick), bead sealer, etc.
I have heard of people painting the bead area to stop further corrosion
using clear or POR-15 or ???  This makes sense to me.  ;-)

I think I only did the fine wire wheel to clean up the Canyon alum wheels
now on my 88 XJ about 3-4 years ago.  I did not paint nor use a sealer, but
I think I applied a little ATF to get the Duellers on the wheels though.

later,
dave AKA vwdoc1

They can brush it with a wire brush in a drill bit, kind of like a Dremel
tool.

Do Not use those Seal-A-Leak cans of goo. I had a bead leak several years
ago and used some of that sh.t and it rusted the inside of my rim.

You might want to post this in a welding or mechanical engineering newsgroup
or go to a good machine shop.  I'm thinking - clean it up real good and
spray weld it, but I'm talking out of my field.

not wheels expert here
but since when does aluminum rust? - or is there something else there besides aluminum?

pete