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- Dec 7, 2012
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Some of you might have seen my previous post involving a winter wheel and tire ordeal on my 2017 Taurus. Below is the linked post - unfortunately, more has happened. I'll re-cap to give the full story.
Great shakes, it's Yahtzee... or a Taurus
The week before Thanksgiving, I put my 17" Rage R5 aluminum wheels on for the winter. On these wheels were a worn set of Falken EuroWinters. Since the Taurus has a hub bore of 63.4mm. I had a hub-centric ring to adapt from the 73mm of the aftermarket wheel. Shortly after, I hit a good sized pothole. I had a vibration but assumed I threw a weight. On 12/2 I went to Dunn Tire and bought General Altimax Arctic 12 and had them mounted and balanced on a 17" set of Rage R5 aluminum wheels. Luck would have it the vibration was still present, so I bought brand new 17" Liquid Metal Atom steel wheels from DTD. Had them shipped and made another appointment at Dunn Tire to transfer the tires and TPMS sensors.
On 12/9, Dunn moved the tires and sensors to these new steel wheels. From that Monday to Thursday, I had a bad vibration at highway speeds, the car was shimmying. So that Tuesday, I ordered 67.1mm to 63.4mm hub-centric rings figuring the lugnuts didn't center these wheels for whatever reason. These steel wheels have a hub bore of 67.1mm. Thursday 12/13 comes and I pull each wheel off to install the hub rings. When I took the wheels off, I found out why the thing was shaking. They never took the old hub rings out! The wheel was never fully against the hub. The hub bores of the steel wheels were now bent towards me and the hub-rings for my old wheels were bent up.
I spoke with a District VP and he agreed that it was their mistake and they were going to replace the wheels and the bent up spacers. I waited about a week for them to get the wheels in. On 12/21 I visited Dunn again and they moved these tires and sensors to these new wheels. So… now what has happened? I dropped the car off at 8am that day for the service. When walking in, I was watched like a hawk by 6-7 staff members. They must've all wanted to know who the guy was who complained. Felt somewhat strange but I guess that's the nature of the situation. I also requested a road-force balance to iron out all issues, they obliged.
Car was done at 9am and I had a co-worker take me to pick it up. I brought the car back and finished my work day. By the time I got out of work, Dunn is closed. Immediately with a longer distance drive, I noticed the following things.
and the real kicker!
I temporarily put on my 20" Ford OEM alloys with Michelin Primacy MXV4 (10k on these tires) and the car is smooth as glass. I'm also going to take the car to a buddy's shop this week to just look over and make sure there are no issues.
I am really impressed how much this place can mess up!
I am thinking that the very least that can be done at this point is for this place to replace each of the steel wheels with the same kind I had and refund the 2nd mount/balance fee (when the tires were moved from aluminum to steel). I am almost certain that they'll deny all liability for the TPMS and the door panel scratch. But interior and exterior quality is something I am HUGE on. I get into cars gently and never brush up against anything.
Anyone have an advice? I am assuming I'm pretty much at their mercy.
Great shakes, it's Yahtzee... or a Taurus
The week before Thanksgiving, I put my 17" Rage R5 aluminum wheels on for the winter. On these wheels were a worn set of Falken EuroWinters. Since the Taurus has a hub bore of 63.4mm. I had a hub-centric ring to adapt from the 73mm of the aftermarket wheel. Shortly after, I hit a good sized pothole. I had a vibration but assumed I threw a weight. On 12/2 I went to Dunn Tire and bought General Altimax Arctic 12 and had them mounted and balanced on a 17" set of Rage R5 aluminum wheels. Luck would have it the vibration was still present, so I bought brand new 17" Liquid Metal Atom steel wheels from DTD. Had them shipped and made another appointment at Dunn Tire to transfer the tires and TPMS sensors.
On 12/9, Dunn moved the tires and sensors to these new steel wheels. From that Monday to Thursday, I had a bad vibration at highway speeds, the car was shimmying. So that Tuesday, I ordered 67.1mm to 63.4mm hub-centric rings figuring the lugnuts didn't center these wheels for whatever reason. These steel wheels have a hub bore of 67.1mm. Thursday 12/13 comes and I pull each wheel off to install the hub rings. When I took the wheels off, I found out why the thing was shaking. They never took the old hub rings out! The wheel was never fully against the hub. The hub bores of the steel wheels were now bent towards me and the hub-rings for my old wheels were bent up.
I spoke with a District VP and he agreed that it was their mistake and they were going to replace the wheels and the bent up spacers. I waited about a week for them to get the wheels in. On 12/21 I visited Dunn again and they moved these tires and sensors to these new wheels. So… now what has happened? I dropped the car off at 8am that day for the service. When walking in, I was watched like a hawk by 6-7 staff members. They must've all wanted to know who the guy was who complained. Felt somewhat strange but I guess that's the nature of the situation. I also requested a road-force balance to iron out all issues, they obliged.
Car was done at 9am and I had a co-worker take me to pick it up. I brought the car back and finished my work day. By the time I got out of work, Dunn is closed. Immediately with a longer distance drive, I noticed the following things.
- My TPMS light is on and I can't get one of my sensors to initialize with my TPMS tool (these are 1 and ½ month old genuine Ford Motorcraft TPMS12 sensors
- My Driver door panel has a large scratch in the plastic
- The car still shakes on the highway 60mph+
and the real kicker!
- These steel wheels are different to the point where they will not fit my Ford CVPI centercaps. They are a Unique 83 multi-fit. Much poorer paint quality than my Liquid Metal Atom steel wheels.
I temporarily put on my 20" Ford OEM alloys with Michelin Primacy MXV4 (10k on these tires) and the car is smooth as glass. I'm also going to take the car to a buddy's shop this week to just look over and make sure there are no issues.
I am really impressed how much this place can mess up!
I am thinking that the very least that can be done at this point is for this place to replace each of the steel wheels with the same kind I had and refund the 2nd mount/balance fee (when the tires were moved from aluminum to steel). I am almost certain that they'll deny all liability for the TPMS and the door panel scratch. But interior and exterior quality is something I am HUGE on. I get into cars gently and never brush up against anything.
Anyone have an advice? I am assuming I'm pretty much at their mercy.
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