Walmart tire installation experience

[Alfred_B]

I normally use an independent tire installer but circumstances dictate a different approach. The most convenient seems to be Walmart tire installation.

But I am not sure if they will do a good job at balancing. The car is an Audi and small defects are felt because it's designed for "spirited driving". It's an unfortunate fact that I usually require multiple trips to the tire place to finally get it balanced the way I want.

Does Walmart do a good job, or am I going to end up in an endless loop of balancing trips where they find nothing but the car still shakes.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Apart from the time my car was held hostage and I almost had to call the police ...

I usually have good experience with Walmart and mounting/balancing tires. After the on incident, I won't bring the vehicle itself there but instead carry in the set of tires and have them mount/balance.

In my experience, the walmart TLE employees are MUCH better mannered than tire shop employees. Tire shop employees around here are just the most miserable people. I know a few people who work at tire shops and they seem to have this chip on their shoulder that they need to be a "real" mechanic at a "real" shop, so they just are unpleasant people and don't like their work / do a good job. The people at Walmart TLE seem to actually try and seem to do a good job.

Never had balancing issues with Walmart mounted and balanced tires.

 

[sasilverbullet]

Do you guys have Discount Tire up there? I've been VERY happy with their quality of service and pricing.

 

[Donald]

For an Audi it sounds like you want "Roadforce" balancing. Probably not at Walmart.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted By: Alfred_B
I normally use an independent tire installer but circumstances dictate a different approach. The most convenient seems to be Walmart tire installation.

But I am not sure if they will do a good job at balancing. The car is an Audi and small defects are felt because it's designed for "spirited driving". It's an unfortunate fact that I usually require multiple trips to the tire place to finally get it balanced the way I want.

Does Walmart do a good job, or am I going to end up in an endless loop of balancing trips where they find nothing but the car still shakes.



Based on this statement alone I wouldn't go to the Walmart Tire Center. The suggestion of a Discount Tire store or an independent tire store would be a better choice IMHO.

 

[raytseng]

part of the equation is what tires you bought and if they are premium tires they are less likely to have balancing issues versus cheaper tires that may be less round

 

[supton]

I went once and it seemed to take forever. But the place was clean, I had free WiFi, I did a bit of shopping.

Can't have it all.

I'm about to the point where I have spare rims for all my vehicles, so I could drop off and pick up loose wheels. But at that point I could use the garage down the street (albeit they don't have roadforce), and "shop local".

 

[Donald]

Mounting tires is not hard. Cleaning the rims of corrosion is not hard either but takes time and its not an extra cost. Then there is damage to rims by putting on weights and taking them off.

And at Mavis I saw a technician pound an impact socket on the wheel nut. It was a rusted chrome acorn nut on Jeep. They should have had the socket that is 0.5 mm bigger that is made to fit rusted chrome nuts.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Mounting tires is not hard. Cleaning the rims of corrosion is not hard either but takes time and its not an extra cost. Then there is damage to rims by putting on weights and taking them off.


That's one thing I have noticed that the local Walmarts do over Mavis - they will actually clean the bead surface on the wheel instead of loading it to the moon with bead sealer.

 

[fdcg27]

I had a set of tires mounted at a Walmart TLE a few years ago. They did a good job and there were no issues. They even used a torque wrench to give the lugs their final tightening and the guy who did the work seemed sharp.
I usually prefer to give my money to a local mom and pop. We have such a shop in our area and they also do good work and the guys there are quite pleasant to deal with.

 

[SatinSilver]

Not my first choice. I had a set installed there and wasn't impressed. The guy did the job very quickly. Afterwards I noticed the tires were losing air quickly. Then noticed the hubcaps were installed where the valve stems were bent. They didn't replace one of the air stems. Had to have all the tires re-done by them and the lady gave me attitude about it, more so because she didn't know how to code the job into the computer. When the tech confirmed the sloppy job the younger first guy did then she was fine. An older guy re-did the work and took his time.

Had a similar experience with a local tire chain place that guaranteed 30 min installs. Tires were mounted on alloy rims(Honda Accord) and all the tires had leaks around the rim. Which required them to be reinstalled. pffffft.

Now there's a new DT store nearby that I'll use in the future.

 

[AirgunSavant]

I usually get a new car before the tires wear out.

 

[skyactiv]

I've never had an issue with Wal-Mart. I have had issues with Discount Tire. The Discount Tire stores where I live are understaffed and I've had a balance issue and a lost center cap using them at both Hilliard, OH locations. I tell Wal-Mart I'm a mechanic, which I'am and am real picky about tire balancing and I request they put your best tech on it. My wife recently had Wal-Mart install Michelin PS 3 AS's, no issues. She had to order them online through Wal-Mart.com and they arrived at the store in three days.

 

[i6pwr]

IME, it's not the company as a whole, instead of how they train the emoyees. It boils down to the quality of the employee.

Before my local service center changed management, I would go in the shop and introduce myself to the tire techs and let them know what I was looking for and my experience with other tires.....kinda breaking the ice.

I never had anything but excellent service, I got a good feel for how they take pride in their work and all was good.

Do you need to do this or should you....I don't believe so. A quick stop somewhere for a tire change and you roll the dice. However IMO tires aren't routinely changed so take some time and sniff out a spot. When they know you on a semi-personal level, it seems to be different.

I don't like to have to go back for a follow up regardless of if it's free, time is valuable.

 

[Traction]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Mounting tires is not hard. Cleaning the rims of corrosion is not hard either but takes time and its not an extra cost. Then there is damage to rims by putting on weights and taking them off.

And at Mavis I saw a technician pound an impact socket on the wheel nut. It was a rusted chrome acorn nut on Jeep. They should have had the socket that is 0.5 mm bigger that is made to fit rusted chrome nuts.

Mounting some of the new tires is more than difficult! I can say from personal experience dismounting/mounting 335/25-20
run-flats is far from easy. I would pay to watch Walmart mount a set of those, and even my local DT!

 

[Eddie]

I and my family have had 4 complete tire set installed & balanced at our local Walmart and a very good installation always. I also noticed the same shop people are there for over 10 years. They also check the computer for setting tire pressure and lug nut tightness and they have a second person check the tightness with a torque wrench. I'm happy. Ed

 

[Carbuff]

Mounting tires may not be difficult, but it is notable how clueless some tire store workers are.

The other day I bought tires. The service writer apologized for the time it took, saying that the tires needed to be re-oriented on the rims because 'they were taking too many weights'. I asked if the red dots on the sidewall (that are supposed to be lined up with the valves) were in the wrong place? He said yes, often tires are improperly marked.
Later when I got home, I noticed that the final orientation was with the red dots very close to the valves. D'OH.

+++++++++++

On another car, I had vibrations with new tires out-of-state, where the speed limits were 10 - 15 MPH more than local. I brought the tires back and asked to have them re-balanced. He said that they were prohibited by law from tuning the weights to more than the local Interstate speed limit (65 MPH). THEN they did the fronts and NOT the rears. SHeesh!

The first anecdote happened at a Goodyear store, the second at a Sam's Club.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted By: Eddie
I and my family have had 4 complete tire set installed & balanced at our local Walmart and a very good installation always. I also noticed the same shop people are there for over 10 years. They also check the computer for setting tire pressure and lug nut tightness and they have a second person check the tightness with a torque wrench. I'm happy. Ed


That's the rub. Your local Walmart is only good as the employees and mgmt. We we all know how this varies. For example-I find the pharmacy inside my local Walmart to be a model of efficiency! I have never used the tire store however.

 

[slacktide_bitog]

I haven't had any problems with Walmart tire installation, except for the fact they're so busy they can fill up three hours before the posted closing time! The tires are balanced fine.

 

[Alfred_B]

I went to the local Walmart and talked to the people there. They seem competent and generally much nicer than Discount Tire. I'm going to give this a shot and see what happens.