Dealer warns about powder coating OEM wheels.

03-27-2026

Just picked up my 26 x40i a few weeks back and have been looking around at 20” options and like the look of the OEM MSport 20s but not the bi-color aspect.

I’ve seen people have their 740M wheels powder coated gloss/satin black and like the look, since I want to keep the bigger sidewall.

I reached out to my dealer here and the service department warned me that powder coating the wheels can cause issues since some of the OEM wheels are meant to help dissipate heat from the brakes.

Waiting to hear back from my service advisor now.

I’d imagine that may apply to some of the higher end M wheels but surely not the squared 20 setups, right?

03-27-2026

Wheel to help dissipate heat is 1000% bullsh*t. Brake pad don’t even come to contract with the wheel in any meaningful way. Rotor is not connected to the wheel at the hub portion, which is away from the heat.

There could be a good reason not to, but definitely cannot be heat related.

03-27-2026

Yeah, just heard back from the service department at the dealer and they said the manufacturer says refinishing machine faced two-tone wheels can cause heat build up impacting rotors.

To me it sounds like something happened with a previous warranty claim and now the dealer refuses.

Makes zero sense otherwise.

/shrug

03-27-2026

Never heard of this before. Sounds like something might've happened with another customer of theirs with lack of brake cooling or something and they blamed it on powder coating as to not honor whatever warranty claim. Plenty of people powdercoat their wheels and I believe newer wheels come from factory already powdercoated as it's more durable than regular paint.

The dealership you're working with sounds like a red flag. They're already showing their cards as to their extremely strict warranty policy. God forbid you change your windshield wipers to the Costco brand and not OEM BMW and they void your warranty altogether. Personally I'd find another dealership to work with.

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Dealer warns about powder coating OEM wheels.