I own a brand new 2012 OUtlander. I am finding that when i am driving thru more than 2 inches of snow and slush that ice and snow builds up in the rims and causes the vehicle to shake and vibrate violently at speeds over 40mph. The first few times this happened to me ( I live in upstate ny where we experience frequentblizzards) I just pulled over and tried kicking and using the blunt end of my snow brush to free the snow from the wheel wells and poke it out of the rims. This did not work so i went to the nearest car wash and power washed every bit of visible snow/ ice off the rims, wheel wells which is a very unpleasant experience when the water mists back at you in 15degree temps. The first time it worked but after that It stopped working so i finally took it the dealer during another and found at least 9 people in front of me w/ the same problem! Not all of them were OUtlander owners, some of them had Lancers and other mitsu cars, but all had similar rims. The technicians said this happens every time theres a storm!The technicians finally got to my car and did the same to mine as they did to the 9 previous vehicles , they removed the and powerwashed what litte bit of snow and ice were left on the tires. It took them about 35 min. and they rushed because there were more vehicles coming in behind me. I dont have time for this every time it snows!!! and i dont have access to a garage where can park it and let it thaw out. Please help me. What do i do? I just spent all my money on the down payment to buy this thing i cant afford new rims. And why should I have to buy new rims when I just spent $24,000 on a brand new vehicle with 4 wheel drive that was supposed to allow me to drive safely w/ confidence in This is obviously a very poorly designed wheel. Is anyone else experiencing this??? What are we supposed to do. I called the number in the back of the manual to report a Hopefully they will issue a recall and fix the problem. I urge you to call the number too. If enough people call they have to fix it.

 

This is a long shot but try putting tire shine on the inside of your rims where the ice is forming. The tire shine is like a oil, it might not let the snow and ice stick. Where I live I get a lot of snow, there is almost always snow and ice in 2010 Outlander ES 4cyl rims and I can't tell it's even there until I look.

 

I have experienced the same problem. When I asked the service tech about it he said I could buy new wheels, but they are really expensive, or stop at a car wash. I find it disappointing that these are the only possible solutions for what I spent on this vehicle. I would appreciate any proven suggestions on how to fix this problem.