Bad experience with good outcome at Walmart

[John105]

Agreed. I'll probably stick with Costco going forward for tires on all my cars. To date (knock on wood) they haven't damaged any of my cars when installing tires or when rotating/balancing. I don't think any of my vehicles will ever enter the tire/lube bay at Walmart again.

imho part of it is whether or not the employee is happy. Very high likelihood that job A at Costco, is more desirable than job A at another company. Costco has never damaged any of our rims either, and 1/3 locations (the one that I go to now for tire rotations) actually rebalances at every rotation (paperwork says balance and rotate but the other 2 don't ). At least I haven't ever heard anybody say, "When I retire, I wanna work part time at Walmart." Costco? Yes.

 

[wavinwayne]

Got the new one-piece lug bolts for the Jeep Renegade today from Madness Autoworks. They look a lot better than the crappy two-piece OEM ones. Hex head seems to accept both 19mm and 3/4" sockets. The 19mm fits ever so slightly tighter so that's what I'll use when installing them.

 

[4WD]

Got the new one piece lug bolts for the Jeep Renegade today from Madness Autoworks. They look a lot better than the crappy OEM ones.
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Never owned a vehicle with those - just a utility trailer - but can see some advantages …

 

[John105]

Got the new one-piece lug bolts for the Jeep Renegade today from Madness Autoworks. They look a lot better than the crappy two-piece OEM ones. Hex head seems to accept both 19mm and 3/4" sockets. The 19mm fits ever so slightly tighter so that's what I'll use when installing them.
View attachment 261277View attachment 261278

This reminds me of one occasion when a shop told me my wheel locks looked questionable (they're not). So I kept an eye out for an "OE" set which are outrageously priced (they must have slapped them on every new car in the early 2000's). Got a set on eBay brand new (Toyota OE) for $40 which seemed reasonable. I know who needs wheel locks, they cause more trouble than anything else. Just wanted to have them in case, but into a parts bin they went in the basement. Those look like my BMW's where I believe on euro cars it's a lug bolt, not a lug nut, i.e. no studs from the hub

 

[wavinwayne]

Those look like my BMW's where I believe on euro cars it's a lug bolt, not a lug nut, i.e. no studs from the hub

Correct. They are much like the lug bolts on my BMW.

 

[addyguy]

You are saying the lug nuts were swollen, but the tech didn’t use the right size socket…how is the tech supposed to know exactly how much the nuts are swollen and what exact size of socket will fit??
‘Most’ people want the job done, and don’t care how it gets done - tech would have gotten more flack if he HADN’T completed the job!
Maybe I’m just jaded, but in Canada every 2nd lug nut on a 5-year or older car is rusted and swollen and has to be hammered off…if we stopped work on every vehicle like that none would get done!
You are the customer every service manager dreads…maybe a discount on the installation is in order, but getting the perfectly good tires for free as well?
That is not reasonable…but good on ya for getting something for nothing!

 

[wavinwayne]

You are saying the lug nuts were swollen, but the tech didn’t use the right size socket…how is the tech supposed to know exactly how much the nuts are swollen and what exact size of socket will fit??..

A couple of weeks prior, I had checked the torque on all the wheels and I needed an 11/16" for all the ones with the chrome caps still attached and a 16mm socket for the ones where the caps had already come off of. None of them were difficult to get the socket on. I explained this to the tech prior to him starting his work, letting him know he would need both size sockets and why. He said "We'll figure it out". I gave him the benefit of the doubt and he managed to screw it up; that's 100% on him. I don't know why he was hammering a socket onto the wheels when I had told him exactly the sockets he needed.

 

[wavinwayne]

You are the customer every service manager dreads…

That's not fair. I was never rude and the manager could have said no. He could have negotiated with me, but he accepted what I suggested and that's that.