So, awhile back I asking about tires and finally settled on the Goodyear Wrangler ArmorTrac from SAM's Club.
So today I went to SAM's. Go through the initial paperwork, yes I'm the guy who ordered the tires online, etc. Tech says he has to inspect the car, alright. We walk out to it. Immediately he notices I'm one lugnut short on my passenger rear(4/5). "Can't touch it unless it has all five."
...
I knew I was one short and I was planning on getting 20 new nuts anyways, just hadn't planned on doing it today.
We go around to the other side and he noticed this:
Driver's rear.
One of the lugnuts is mostly rounded. He says his airgun can't take it off, it would just round it more. I think, "Alright, I've got a tire iron, I'll remove it and go buy two new." I get the tire iron and it slowly moves, only it's not turning, it's rounding.
So the Tech suggest I go down to Tire Kingdom(just down the road from SAM's) and have them break it off, replace the stud, put a new nut on, and then come back. Reluctantly I go to TK. I'm thinking, "Great, $100+ for a place that is likely going to rip me off to replace a part that doesn't really need to be replaced just because of this rounded nut."
I go in, I tell the Service Manager about it and then he comes out and looks at it - 1 Hour and ~$100 he says. He says they'll have to break the stud, remove the tire, take apart the brakes, take the assembly apart, put a new stud in, put it back together, put the tire on, put a new lugnut on. I sadly didn't have much of a choice so I agreed. He wrote up the work order and it came out to $99 something($99.12 I think). A tech comes out and drives the car(this is the Burb in my sig) around to the lifts and he and another guy both immediately get to work on it. There was only one other car in the shop so thankfully I got the two techs instead of having to wait.
Once the car is lifted the Tech brings over his airgun and unscrews
1
2
3
4
5
He just zipped the bad one right off. The Service Manager was out there at the time so the Tech asked/showed him and the Service Manager said he didn't need to replace the stud. The two techs then got their spare lugnuts bucket and fished through it for a matching lugnut. They found one after about 5 minutes. He puts the nuts back on, torques them to 120, lowers the car and then drives it around front. I follow him around and then back into the lobby(I had been able to watch him the whole time). He says something to the Service Manager then hands me the keys and goes back out to the shop. The Service Manager gets a call so I wait until he's done to pay for the work. He gets off the phone, somewhat ignores me, and then I ask about payment.
"Nope, you're good to go."
Jaw almost dropped. I was ready, albeit reluctantly, to pay the $99. Especially so knowing they hadn't really done anything, but I figured they'd charge me anyways. I was completely taken aback when he said I didn't owe anything!
I thanked him gratefully and then left.
The rest of the adventure kinda pales in comparison after that, haha. I stopped by O'Reilly Auto and got 5 lugnuts on the way back to SAM's. Put one on the empty stud and left the other four in the front seat. Got the paperwork in order and then gave the keys to the Tech. Went out to the shop with him and asked him to use the four lugnuts to replace the four worst current nuts(he found four nuts that were smaller size then the rest so he replaced those, the car literally has like 7 different types of nuts on the wheels, I plan to replace them to all 20 of one kind). He and another Tech took my old tires off, put the new on, balanced 'em, etc. Put the olds in the back of the Burb and put the new on. After about 30 minutes they were done.
Torqued to 120 with 35 PSI. Doorjamb is nearly illegible in regards to PSI. I think I read on one site that they should be 32/34(F/R). I plan on increasing it to 40(any comments either way on this?).
So yea, extremely grateful that the $100 stop at Tire Kingdom turned out to be $0 + a free lugnut. The guys there were friendly as were the SAM's Techs.
I chose to watch both services so that may or may not have affected it.
Y'all have any experience with Tire Kingdom or SAM's? Did I get really lucky or is that(specifically the TK thing) standard procedure?
So today I went to SAM's. Go through the initial paperwork, yes I'm the guy who ordered the tires online, etc. Tech says he has to inspect the car, alright. We walk out to it. Immediately he notices I'm one lugnut short on my passenger rear(4/5). "Can't touch it unless it has all five."
...
I knew I was one short and I was planning on getting 20 new nuts anyways, just hadn't planned on doing it today.
We go around to the other side and he noticed this:
Driver's rear.
One of the lugnuts is mostly rounded. He says his airgun can't take it off, it would just round it more. I think, "Alright, I've got a tire iron, I'll remove it and go buy two new." I get the tire iron and it slowly moves, only it's not turning, it's rounding.
So the Tech suggest I go down to Tire Kingdom(just down the road from SAM's) and have them break it off, replace the stud, put a new nut on, and then come back. Reluctantly I go to TK. I'm thinking, "Great, $100+ for a place that is likely going to rip me off to replace a part that doesn't really need to be replaced just because of this rounded nut."
I go in, I tell the Service Manager about it and then he comes out and looks at it - 1 Hour and ~$100 he says. He says they'll have to break the stud, remove the tire, take apart the brakes, take the assembly apart, put a new stud in, put it back together, put the tire on, put a new lugnut on. I sadly didn't have much of a choice so I agreed. He wrote up the work order and it came out to $99 something($99.12 I think). A tech comes out and drives the car(this is the Burb in my sig) around to the lifts and he and another guy both immediately get to work on it. There was only one other car in the shop so thankfully I got the two techs instead of having to wait.
Once the car is lifted the Tech brings over his airgun and unscrews
1
2
3
4
5
He just zipped the bad one right off. The Service Manager was out there at the time so the Tech asked/showed him and the Service Manager said he didn't need to replace the stud. The two techs then got their spare lugnuts bucket and fished through it for a matching lugnut. They found one after about 5 minutes. He puts the nuts back on, torques them to 120, lowers the car and then drives it around front. I follow him around and then back into the lobby(I had been able to watch him the whole time). He says something to the Service Manager then hands me the keys and goes back out to the shop. The Service Manager gets a call so I wait until he's done to pay for the work. He gets off the phone, somewhat ignores me, and then I ask about payment.
"Nope, you're good to go."
Jaw almost dropped. I was ready, albeit reluctantly, to pay the $99. Especially so knowing they hadn't really done anything, but I figured they'd charge me anyways. I was completely taken aback when he said I didn't owe anything!
I thanked him gratefully and then left.
The rest of the adventure kinda pales in comparison after that, haha. I stopped by O'Reilly Auto and got 5 lugnuts on the way back to SAM's. Put one on the empty stud and left the other four in the front seat. Got the paperwork in order and then gave the keys to the Tech. Went out to the shop with him and asked him to use the four lugnuts to replace the four worst current nuts(he found four nuts that were smaller size then the rest so he replaced those, the car literally has like 7 different types of nuts on the wheels, I plan to replace them to all 20 of one kind). He and another Tech took my old tires off, put the new on, balanced 'em, etc. Put the olds in the back of the Burb and put the new on. After about 30 minutes they were done.
Torqued to 120 with 35 PSI. Doorjamb is nearly illegible in regards to PSI. I think I read on one site that they should be 32/34(F/R). I plan on increasing it to 40(any comments either way on this?).
So yea, extremely grateful that the $100 stop at Tire Kingdom turned out to be $0 + a free lugnut. The guys there were friendly as were the SAM's Techs.
I chose to watch both services so that may or may not have affected it.
Y'all have any experience with Tire Kingdom or SAM's? Did I get really lucky or is that(specifically the TK thing) standard procedure?
