How can changing tires be so difficult?!?

Status
Not open for further replies.
JHZR2,

Unless you buy tire mounting equipment and do it yourself at home....
There is no way to avoid idiots from scratching you wheels.

Did you tell the tire tech not to scratch your car, wheels, get interior greasy?

I do it all the time.
 
Originally Posted By: LT4 Vette
JHZR2,

Unless you buy tire mounting equipment and do it yourself at home....
There is no way to avoid idiots from scratching you wheels.

Did you tell the tire tech not to scratch your car, wheels, get interior greasy?

I do it all the time.


No, I watched them like a hawk the first time, and the advisor and tire tech did a good job. Covered the seats and mats (car was clean this time, I guess some stuff is SOP), and was comfortable. When I saw the service manager working the car this time, I figured they were taking special interest in the effort. I also saw his car, which I noted to have low profile tires on rimless wheels.

I was wrong, but I see zero excuses on their part. Seems like that is the case, assuming they pay up satisfactorily. Seems they will make this an insurance claim, that's why they have it after all.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: zzyzzx
If you had normal sizes rims and tires instead of low profile, I bet this would not happen.

Define "normal size rims and tires." Over the years, there has been a push by all manufacturers toward lower profile tires. Something that you would consider low profile 10-20 years ago is fairly typical/normal today.

With the market changing, tire shops need to keep up and learn how to deal with these without butchering your rims.



Exactly. Walking into work, I surveyed the cars and trucks to see how many had wheels like mine. Tons. Only trucks and some cars with steelies have an outer lip on the rim. Even lots of trucks now have alloys with smooth outer lips.

Low profile? I see plenty of Mazdas and other cars with ever lower profile tires. Sure mine are runflats, but is a 40 series tire on a bmw any different than one on any other car? Nope.

As mentioned above, all manufacturers are going to these low profile tires. The fact that the wheel was messed up not just in one spot, but many, indicates to me that this was just sloppy work, perhaps coupled with incorrect equipment.

I don't know what I'm talking about, but I suspect that on wheels without an outer rim lip, that tires should be mounted from the backside.
 
The newest tire machines do not touch the wheel at all. My "tire guy" has one, does 'vettes, BMWs, huge mud tires all on one machine. These guys don't have one or they don't know how to use it.
 
Originally Posted By: dparm
Didn't you have a wheel that already needed refinishing? I'd just get the wheels redone professionally and send him the invoice.


The marks on that one wheel were so small that I'm still weighing my options. This is far more obnoxious and not my fault...
 
Originally Posted By: oldhp
The newest tire machines do not touch the wheel at all. My "tire guy" has one, does 'vettes, BMWs, huge mud tires all on one machine. These guys don't have one or they don't know how to use it.


Yeah I specifically went there to go to a corporate store who claimed to have a specialist for low profile, performance and run flat tires.
 
I don't blame you for being upset....I certainly would be. IMO refinishing wheels isok and they usually look great but I've only had mine done due to road debris....in this case I would push for new wheels and only after creating a storm iMIGHT accept them being refinished. Some Service Manager!
 
An enthusiast should never take their car to a chain store. The marks on your wheels would go completely unnoticed by the vast majority of the motoring public. These stores are under tremendous pressure to move a car out fast and start on the next one. They will cut corners wherever possible to keep the numbers where they need to be. Since most people are OK with that, it has become SOP.

I understand your frustration, but unless you are a long-time customer I don't see you getting a brand new wheel out of this. Legally, all they have to do is make you whole. The insurance company will consider a refinished wheel to be whole. The wheels weren't brand new when you drove in, regardless of condition. Sorry, but that is how insurance companies work. Especially when you are not their insured. If you make a big enough stink, you might get lucky but I wouldn't count on it.

For the future, find an independent enthusiast shop that gets its business through word of mouth. Find a BMW club and they can make recommendations. A guy like that is far more likely to care about your car and his reputation than a chain store employee who is likely to be somewhere else in a year or two.
 
Tire mechanics are one step up from the bottom lube techs, and most are paid as such. You need to find a performance tire shop who does work like this all the time... and no big chain store qualifies...!

And, yes, low profile runflats are as tough as it gets in the tire business... you almost NEED a specialized machine to handle it, or HUGE patience and experience.

And obsessing about small scratches and nicks on wheels WILL drive you batty... nearly every tire change I have ever had done has left some sort of mark. It sucks, but it is also reality...
 
Originally Posted By: pottymouth
An enthusiast should never take their car to a chain store. The marks on your wheels would go completely unnoticed by the vast majority of the motoring public. These stores are under tremendous pressure to move a car out fast and start on the next one. They will cut corners wherever possible to keep the numbers where they need to be. Since most people are OK with that, it has become SOP.

I understand your frustration, but unless you are a long-time customer I don't see you getting a brand new wheel out of this. Legally, all they have to do is make you whole. The insurance company will consider a refinished wheel to be whole. The wheels weren't brand new when you drove in, regardless of condition. Sorry, but that is how insurance companies work. Especially when you are not their insured. If you make a big enough stink, you might get lucky but I wouldn't count on it.

For the future, find an independent enthusiast shop that gets its business through word of mouth. Find a BMW club and they can make recommendations. A guy like that is far more likely to care about your car and his reputation than a chain store employee who is likely to be somewhere else in a year or two.



Perhaps but this was a warranty claim and not every place is going to work on that. I should have asked for the tire then taken it to be handled myself.

Problem really is that every place says they do it all, when really they don't.
 
Originally Posted By: pottymouth
An enthusiast should never take their car to a chain store. The marks on your wheels would go completely unnoticed by the vast majority of the motoring public. These stores are under tremendous pressure to move a car out fast and start on the next one. They will cut corners wherever possible to keep the numbers where they need to be. Since most people are OK with that, it has become SOP.

I understand your frustration, but unless you are a long-time customer I don't see you getting a brand new wheel out of this. Legally, all they have to do is make you whole. The insurance company will consider a refinished wheel to be whole. The wheels weren't brand new when you drove in, regardless of condition. Sorry, but that is how insurance companies work. Especially when you are not their insured. If you make a big enough stink, you might get lucky but I wouldn't count on it.

For the future, find an independent enthusiast shop that gets its business through word of mouth. Find a BMW club and they can make recommendations. A guy like that is far more likely to care about your car and his reputation than a chain store employee who is likely to be somewhere else in a year or two.



You have a valid point based on reality, but the store still should not have screwed up his rims or his lift point. The lift point is almost worse since that can't be blamed on an automatic machine. A person had to place the lift in the wrong spot to do that.
 
a series 40 tire is a little harder the normal, but a 40 series paired with RFT. Those are a PAIN. Last time i had to mount one, i needed a 2nd person and extra tire spoons. And even then it was a bear.

With 10k miles i dont know why you wanted to go to a chain in the first place. I normally would pay extra for special shops that do high end wheels. I normally go for ones that sell the 22" chromes.


Them offering you to refinish the wheel is pretty much standard practice. Getting a brand new wheel... well i've seen it done before but not without a fight. What is posted is correct, insurance claim will make you whole (refinished). Try fighting insurance companies when you get into accidents, only enthusiast shop will try to fight to get you OEM bumpers and in same cases you pay a little out of pocket for them too.

I really wish you have good luck in this. I would be just as [censored]. But i've been on the tech side and on your side of it. Its just a bad spot to be in overall.
 
When I take any vehicle in to have tires mounted, I make sure that the wheels are clean, shiny and spotless.

That way, any sort of damage will be obvious to anyone involved.

That is just 500 miles worth of brake dust up around the lug nuts?
 
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
When I take any vehicle in to have tires mounted, I make sure that the wheels are clean, shiny and spotless.

That way, any sort of damage will be obvious to anyone involved.

That is just 500 miles worth of brake dust up around the lug nuts?


How clean or not the lug nut holes are is completely irrelevant to this discussion. Yes, the wheels were spotless when I took the car in the first time for this reason.

And if its a matter of cleaning wheels or playing with or reading bedtime stories to my 19 month old - the baby wins every time, regardless of how much I like a cleaned up car exterior.

So actually the dirt on the wheels was less than 500 miles, probably no more than 250. Yes, these are wide open wheels with big rotors and pads that make a lot of dust.

Which again is irrelevant. I saw the damage clear enough, regardless of the level of dirt on the wheels. It was obvious to me, to the guy who did the job and to the service manager. the other damage was also visible enough to be quite obvious.

The company and insurance will bleed enough in terms of man hours working with this to make it their while to spend the money and give me the new wheel. I can be sure of that. So far they have not given me any issue about the new wheel other than the first tech who was trained to say that it was good enough. Even my phone calls with corporate.
 
Originally Posted By: pottymouth
An enthusiast should never take their car to a chain store. The marks on your wheels would go completely unnoticed by the vast majority of the motoring public. These stores are under tremendous pressure to move a car out fast and start on the next one. They will cut corners wherever possible to keep the numbers where they need to be. Since most people are OK with that, it has become SOP.



I have never had a problem with Discount Tire. I always stand there and watch, so they're probably being more careful. But I don't do it in an annoying way -- I am friendly with the guys and even chat with them about the car when they ask.
 
Wife hit a pothole and bent a rim on her 2005 Maxima. Purchased a refinished wheel to replace it with. Looked great until about 6 months later when the paint started peeling off.
 
Originally Posted By: RANDYZ
Wife hit a pothole and bent a rim on her 2005 Maxima. Purchased a refinished wheel to replace it with. Looked great until about 6 months later when the paint started peeling off.


Exactly. Not exactly beingmade whole, except in some bean counter's eye and only at day zero.
 
Typical chain shop work. Hate to say it but you need to find a real tire shop or a high end shop.

A place that has exotic cars in the bays with $10k+ sets of wheels wont do that. Imagine how they would cry if that was a $2k Renntech wheel?
 
Take the car to the dealer next time. Having an expensive car is expensive. It does not pay to be thrifty when you have an expensive car.
 
I'm a former ASE Master Tech. There are A LOT of unskilled, clumsy, apathetic hacks out there "working" on cars.

If you can find a place that is careful and conscientious with customer cars, consider yourself lucky and stick with them.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top