Discount Tire FAILURE.

gregk24 said:
I am a “stuff happens” kind of guy. I work in pharmacy and deal with the public regularly and have to resolve issues, some of which are quite trivial. So I understand both sides. But for something that can result in your wheel falling off? That’s not something I put in that category. I would and do expect the business to take care of their error for me.
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What can they do to make you whole, exactly?

Maybe they missed one lug nut. Maybe their torque wrench needs calibrated. Maybe one just worked itself loose. All three scenarios are common, with different levels of fault.

You're getting worked up over a loose lug nut. You identified the problem. No one is hurt.

Now shrug it off, use the wrench in the factory tool kit to snug them all down, and call the shop to tell them how pissed off you are, if you must.
 
carviewsonic said:
When I get home from a tire shop, I loosen all the lug nuts one at a time and torque to spec. I always find a few that are too tight, and a couple that are not tight enough. I've rotated tires myself enough times by now to have an idea of how tight the lug nuts should feel. The torque wrench wasn't very expensive, about $60. Worth it for peace of mind. Doesn't take much time either.
I re-check the torque again after a few days driving, they are usually good though.
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I checked my BMW X1 after going to one of those wheel rental places, and I could barely loosen the rears and not even the fronts. Discount wouldn't put on my lowered profile Michelins. BMW specs of 88 ft #'s are barely tight, and I can feel that on my wrench since I'm weak. I watched the dumbest guy on duty run up nuts hard with air wrench. Then, the smartest guy there came around with a torque wrench and checked them all. GUESS WHAT? ALL NUTS JUMPED THE WRENCH OFF SHOWING HIM THEY WERE TORQUED! I'm in disbelief that someone could misuse a torque wrench and I never had that kind. My mind tells me that you should feel the nut MOVE slightly, and then, pop off. Of course a over tight nut will immediately pop. I took car back and made them redo the torque. The manager used my long bar torque wrench and nearly feel trying to loosen. Then, he said "It's not the right kind of wrench". Yeah, but I should be able to easily tighten or loosen with a nearly 2 ft bar. Well, I will go back to Discount because overall they're very good. I've seen them use metal air brush on any rust near the lugs.
 
gregk24 said:
I’m seeing a lot of responses but have to say I disagree. If rechecking the lugs is required for proper tire install, they should notify the consumer. Rather than letting them drove off then having an “oh crap, my wheel is going to fall off” moment, that could result in death.
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You're right in saying that a wheel's lug nuts shouldn't be dangerously loose. I've had a couple lug nuts on a wheel pretty loose from the tire shop, but never had the whole wheel loose. Still like to check them for myself though.

The other reason I check them is so that the brake rotor doesn't get warped by improperly tightened lug nuts.
 
gregk24 said:
All I know for certain is it rode like a dream with the new tires, and 50 or so miles later it has a horrible vibration above 30 mph. Would a tire go out of balance that quickly?
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I wouldn't think so, but stranger things have happened.

I would take it back to them and have them double check things-- if the vibration is as serious as it sounds, they should be able to replicate that on a quick test drive.

Unless they completely forgot to tighten some lug nuts (possible and worth checking), I don't see lug nut torque creating a vibration like that. I've ridden in a few cars with 1/4 or 1/5 studs missing on wheels and they rode just fine. Now if all were loose? Sure you'd have problems, but that should be easy to check for. Give each one a good hand tightening with the tool that came with the car-- don't go crazy, but a good push with 12" of leverage should tell you whether they're loose or not, even with the car on the ground.
 
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While I was in college my roommate took his old beater Grand Am in for the annual PA safety inspection. The next day, I get a call at like 9 AM that the "front wheel fell off". I'm thinking how can a ball joint break when it was just inspected the day before? Show up and find this. All studs sheered off, holes on the wheel are oblong, wheel cover no where to be found. Some how he was able to steer it off the main road driving on the rotor 😂

So we hop in my truck and drive to the shop, speak to the manager who immediately gets defensive. "Only need to pull two wheels for inspection!" he says. I say you have a 10 year old car with 150k miles on it and you only pull two wheels? He repeats it. I ask my buddy for the receipt, manager says he doesn't need it. I ask again for the receipt and sure enough brake lining measurements for all 4 wheels are listed on it. 7/32 for the LF? Manager says sometimes you can see them through the wheels. I replied it has plastic bolt on wheel covers....silence. "We'll look at it." Buddy gets a call at 4:45 PM that the car is done and key is in the visor. Clearly they didn't want to see me again. They replaced the wheel cover, I never bothered to look to see if they replaced the wheel and rotor.

I can't believe I still have these flip phone pics!

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m1OyLM4.jpg
 
If I were you, I would invest in a good torque wrench. If you do the regular maintenance, I would include tire rotations since you’re jacking the car up anyway, you would get plenty of use from it. If you use ramps, I suppose that you would have to invest in some jack stands too.
I agree with the idea of going home after getting tires installed and rechecking torque on the lug nuts. A lot of those guys use ugga dugga’s from their impact as a torque spec or even forget to tighten some. Being too tight can cause problems as well as being too loose.
The checking torque after so many miles is a good idea, but I’ve personally never had to re-torque anything for the next 5-6,000 miles before the next OCI and rotation when I’ve torqued them to spec myself. Someone else may have had a different experience, but I personally have never had to.
In your situation at hand, I would jack the car up and loosen each lug nut and retighten them and move on. I don’t know that I would want them touching my car anymore than necessary, especially since they are the ones who messed up to begin with. But then again, I’m weird that way, I’m not keen on anyone touching my cars. I have trust issues. 😉
 
Y’all are going to think I’m crazy. I took it out for a drive to show my brother, it’s not vibrating at all! Could this be related to temperature? Because earlier it happened after driving for about 20 miles straight. Now that it’s been parked and it’s 35 degrees outside, it’s smooth again.
 
Sounds like multiple loose lug nuts. You can go without a single lug nut and be fine.

One time I did some work on my car and forgot to tighten down the lug nuts. It caused a vibration that got worse and worse. Plus, dummy me had used the lug wrench from the trunk and failed to put it back. So I was stuck with a loose wheel and no way to tighten it!

Another time, I got hit on the interstate by a wheel that came off a minivan going the opposite direction. It landed right in the middle of my hood and bounced over. It did a lot of damage and could have been really bad. So what goes around, I guess...
 
gregk24 said:
Y’all are going to think I’m crazy. I took it out for a drive to show my brother, it’s not vibrating at all! Could this be related to temperature? Because earlier it happened after driving for about 20 miles straight. Now that it’s been parked and it’s 35 degrees outside, it’s smooth again.
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This is one of those issues you're going to have to try to repeat and see if you find a correlation -- temperature, miles driven, etc. If you just bring it back to the tire place, I don't think they'll be much help if they can't repeat it. If you can find a consistent pattern, that'll help immensely.
 
92saturnsl2 said:
This is one of those issues you're going to have to try to repeat and see if you find a correlation -- temperature, miles driven, etc. If you just bring it back to the tire place, I don't think they'll be much help if they can't repeat it. If you can find a consistent pattern, that'll help imme
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I understand that. But what on earth could cause such a vibration THE DAY OF tire change, then it simply goes away?
 
I've had vibrations in specific cars on specific stretches of road. It's like the pavement waves are just right for that car's wheelbase to cause a shimmy.

I agree with RooflessVW, at this point you haven't pulled the lug wrench out of the trunk and cranked down the other lug nuts, so so far it's only one loose one. Heck, you could drive around with 2 of them missing and it would be fine for a while.
 
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