Tires: Does Fix-A-Flat ruin your rim, oldsmobile aurora, tire place

Question
We just recently bought an 02 Oldsmobile Aurora.  Really nice car but the tires were going flat.  We took it to the tire place and they told us that someone had put fix-a-flat in them and left it in there and that it ate away at the rim causing a leak.  could this be true?  if so do I have to replace the rims?

Answer
Andy,

Some of the chemical in some of the sealants will dissolve the clearcoat - and therefore the air holding ability of the rim.

But it is also possible that the rims were corroding on their own and the previous owner was trying to solve the problem using a sealant - and tire store didn't want to deal with cleaning up the rims and dealing with the corrosion.

So you kind of have 2 choices:

1)  Buy new rims - the quick and easiest way to deal with it

2)  Try and recoat the rims and fix the sealing problem - but this requires the vehicle to remain idle for several weeks will either you or someone else does the work.