Tire Shop Damaged Wheel Studs

[RayCJ]

In June, I took my son's 2007 Matrix to a local Mr. Tire shop to have 4 tires mounted, balanced and installed. I supplied the tires and 20 brand new solid lug nuts because the decorative lamination was coming off the old ones. Yesterday, when I rotating his tires, it took a 22" breaker bar and 15" of cheater bar to bust the nuts loose. One of the studs snapped. All 20 were tightened to ridiculous levels of torque to the point that significant impact deformation is seen on the edges of the hex on each nut. The crown of the threads on all the studs look slightly rounded off. The rims might be damaged too because aluminum dust was crumbling off once I got the nuts off.

I know the history of this car for the past 5 years and those studs were in perfect shape prior to when some ham-fisted, unsupervised numb-skull at Mr. Tire in Gambrill's MD touched that car.

Not a happy camper. I called the local shop, politely explained the situation and was give the corporate toll-free number.

Anyone care to take guesses on how this unfolds after I call tomorrow during business hours?

Ray

 

[Chris142]

Good luck. They will say that you have no proof nobody touched it since. I have a torque stick I use. Its only good for 65ft lbs. I finish with a hand tq with my tq wrench.

 

[Onetor]

Sears and Discount Tire damaged studs on my previous vehicle. I know the feeling. Both did the right thing and paid for the repairs.

 

[Mr Nice]

Yep. They will deny any wrongdoing.

 

[maxdustington]

Originally Posted by RayCJ
The rims might be damaged too because aluminum dust was crumbling off once I got the nuts off.
When you mention this is makes it look like you are trying to swindle the shop into replacing your wheels for something that occurred five months ago. If they even get a whiff of you trying to take advantage they are going to tell you to call corporate immediately to shake you off.

Originally Posted by RayCJ
I know the history of this car for the past 5 years and those studs were in perfect shape prior to when some ham-fisted, unsupervised numb-skull at Mr. Tire in Gambrill's MD touched that car.

Not a happy camper. I called the local shop, politely explained the situation and was give the corporate toll-free number.
I'm sure you were obsequious. A lot can happen in five months.

 

[StevieC]

This is why I change my own fluids and rotate / change my own tires seasonally because those doing the work are low paid and either don't care or don't know any better.

Sorry it turned out like this for you.

 

[rubberchicken]

The Mr Tire in Columbia MD damaged my Saturn L300 a few years back: they lifted it by the wrong spot and damaged the rocker panel: and it took them 2 hours to road force balance my tires, and in the end they were still done wrong. I called corporate to complain. The tech working on my car was very inexperienced. I will never go back there.

 

[CharBaby]

The Mr. TIRE in my area is a disaster and I will never return.

 

[Danno]

I install and rotate my own wheels, and use a torque wrench. Had a stud break on a Chev Uplander at about 30,000 miles.
Brought the van to the GM service dept., and they changed it out under warranty. I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[eljefino]

The 5 months are going to be a problem. If you caught this right off the bat you could charge back the credit card to get their attention. But that time has passed.

Calling them is generally not going to get as good results as going there in person. Still they might say jiffy lube rotated your tires during an oil change sometime between June and now.

 

[Rand]

Be polite but firm.

I suggest perhaps an inspection and repair somewhere else on mr tire's dime if they agree to it.

If you have any confidence in them perhaps the local store's manager can resolve it with their best guy fixing it.
(no noob techs)

I had issues with DT .. and the guy I had issues with.. was no longer there shortly thereafter.
(sloppy rushed work, damaged wheels, etc)

It didnt sour me on the local DT however. The store manager knows me by name from fixing their screwups. I feel the service is actually better now because they work a little more careful.

I will definitely return and buy more tires from them.

 

[53' Stude]

This is a vehicle that had 2 new tires installed. Vehicle returned to me with "serious front end "issues"

This should have been done by a "experienced tire tech" not some young guy at Discount tire.

Two things i learned by fixing someones jack up: aluminum wheels dont need 6 ounces of weight per wheel and how the discount tire tech missed a leaking cv axle blew my mind

 

[HangFire]

If you get nowhere, take it to another shop and tell them to assess and document the damage. You could even be clever and go to another Mr. Tire and tell them that a different chain did the damage. Then take the estimate for repair back to the original Mr. Tire.

 

[RayCJ]

Well, I happened to notice that a local automotive ratings site gives the local Mr. Tire only 2 out of 5 stars. There are quite a few similar horror stories being told because of that place. I'm pretty sure the positive reviews are phony just to counter all the legit negative reviews.

It was '78 when I got my NIASE (now called ASE) certifications in brakes and tune-up. Before taking any certification tests back then you had to pass a basic shop procedure and general diagnostics test. I guess the ASE certification signs the place had on their walls were just for show...

I didn't get a chance today to see if there were any radial cracks in the stud holes on the rims. Fortunately these were shouldered nuts with washers and not 60 degree tapered or ball shoulder. A tapered nut would have split those rims for sure. I needed 3 feet of breaker bar to crack those nuts. I'm not optimistic this place will do anything to correct this but, I'll call the corporate office tomorrow anyhow. I've got all the parts ready to order and am crossing my fingers the rims aren't damaged too.

Kicking myself on this one... I do 99% of all my own car work and have a regular local guy do the other 1%. This one time, I didn't take the car to my normal local guy.

Ray

 

[HangFire]

Also, I check lug nut torque after every set of new tires (which is about the only time a tire shop touches my lug nuts). Yes I am paranoid, but with good reason, been there before.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

Most tire shops zip it too tight with an airgun. Overtorqued, uneven torque doing lots and lots of damage

That's why you have to find the places that use correct torque. Walmart and DT are known to use correct torque

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted by RayCJ
It was '78 when I got my NIASE (now called ASE) certifications in brakes and tune-up. Before taking any certification tests back then you had to pass a basic shop procedure and general diagnostics test. I guess the ASE certification signs the place had on their walls were just for show...


All that is required for ASE certification now is passing a multiple choice test and either 2 years of shop experience or 1 year of experience with 2 years of schooling.

 

[2010Civic]

One more reason I take the wheels/tires off the car and bring them into the tire shop. That way the only thing they can possible damage is the wheels, which Discount Tire has done...

No worry of them over-torquing the lugs or damaging the car.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

Originally Posted by slacktide_bitog
Most tire shops zip it too tight with an airgun. Overtorqued, uneven torque doing lots and lots of damage

That's why you have to find the places that use correct torque. Walmart and DT are known to use correct torque

The local indy tire shop that I like to patronize uses torque wrenches and makes customers sign a promise to come back for a retorque after about 100 miles. I lie and sign the thing even though I know I am going to do the retorque myself.
I once asked them if they would sell me a torque wrench of the type they use and was told that the investment would not be worthwhile for me...I think I was also told their wrenches only lasted 6 months each with the use they gave them, but I didn't know if that meant they were replaced or just recalibrated.
I have a Kobalt torque wrench from Lowe's and I'm sure it's not the greatest tool of its type, but it's sure a lot better than the one I bought at WM before that (as I would hope for 3X the price).

The local Subie dealer way overtightened the lugs on my daughter's car and it was [censored] getting some of them off when I rotated her tires...

 

[eljefino]

When I worked at a tire shop the tq wrenches were color coded, and the codes went with a handy wall chart. They were preset to 80, 100, and 125 ft/lbs. We did have an adjustable one too.

Though I owned my own, I used theirs for liability reasons. I'm no dummy!

I actually got maybe 30 degrees of rotation on most of my hand torquings. Had a co-worker who gunned 'em on solid then clicked the wrench to prove they were (at least) the right torque. We had to sign off on each others torquings which basically comes down to "yeah I heard that click 2 bays over".