Ya, what is that paint?

 

I also noticed paint on my 18 inch rims. Use wheel cleaner to wipe off with soft cloth. Also may have to scratch it with your finger nail. Probably used for balancing tire.

 

I've noticed a round dot of paint on each of my rims. It seems to rub right off.

 

My wife's Maxima had the same dots on each wheel. Probably used when mounting the tires or something.

 

That mark, if you look, will be aligned with a red dot on the tire. These wheels and tires are not 100% perfectly round. So, what is done is each wheel and tire is checked on a balance machine and the "high spot" on the wheel is matched up with the "low spot on the tire to smooth out the ride as much as possible. It is highly unlikely that you are going to find a rim withour one of these spots, and the spot will not come off. As a matter of fact, you do not want this spot to come off. This practice has occurred as long as I can remember. I had a customer complaint due to these spots on a new 240SX I sold a guy in 1989.

 

I am going to check if the red dots on the tires match up with the dots(that sounds quite plausible)
I have also noticed light blue paint spots on my wheels.
If nissan is doing the same thing as lexus the color is used to signify the radio frequency of the tire pressure monitors. Different frequencies are used so if you are next to another car you will not get a false reading.

 

Ordering new wheels is ridiculous, firstly because these paint dots come of cleanly in about 5 seconds, and secondly because the new wheels might have them too. I took mine off and they come off 100% clean with no marks and no evidence that they were ever there. Try it! Scrape the edge with a credit card or something hard that won't scratch and they will pop and slide right off.

 

I have never heard of a paint dot to mark wheels. The red dot on a tire demarcates the spot which should be lined up with the valve stem on a wheel. This minimizes the weights needed to balance a tire on a wheel (might even eliminate them, depending on the tire).