Can you identify the cause of these mystery wheel scratches?

ToddRLockwood said:

When I changed to my winter wheels recently, I noticed these peculiar scratches on the inner surface of my 21-inch left-front wheel. The other three wheels were not affected.

Any theories?

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the pattern suggests driving the car (probably slowly) against something like a rail. Could be from a car wash since it's on the inner side of the wheel?

jhs_7645 said:

the pattern suggests driving the car (probably slowly) against something like a rail. Could be from a car wash since it's on the inner side of the wheel?

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I would agree with this suggestion. The apparent radius of the scratches had me fooled at first, but the rolling motion of the wheel would create almost a 'U' shaped scratch... the rest of which would have been on the rubber and thus invisible.

Almost certainly they are from car wash rails. You're lucky they didn't tear up the tires--it's not that uncommon.

I agree