Am I Tripping over small stuff here?

[TumbleWeed]

Had to take my wheel & tire into Discount Tire today because I ran over a screw.

The wheels are only a couple months old and were recently coated with DLUX.

There were absolutely NO scratches on the wheels or hubs at all prior to bringing it in.

The scratches are from what appears to be someone in a hurry with a flat head screw driver and other things on his mind then what he was doing.

I called the manager and told him my situation.

He offered to "fix" the problem and sincerely apologized for his employees performance.


What can he do to "fix" this and is this worth being pissed about?

[Audios S6]

The scratches on the lip are probably from the mounting machine. Not sure about the ones on the barrel...scraping old wheel weights maybe?

Fixing likely means taking it to a wheel shop to be repainted, whether or not they repair the lip is dependent on the shop. It is unlikely they are considering replacing your wheel.

[TumbleWeed]

The scratches on the barrel are Definitely from trying to take off the weights…. you are correct.

Not expecting a new wheel…. but I guess a paint job would be better then nothing.

Maybe a nice discount on some new tires?

[Swanicyouth]

Yeah I would be pissed.

But then again, I also would avoid taking my car to anywhere with "Discount" in the name. So, you kind of get what you get. Find a reputable place who can refinish the wheel using a powder coat process. Hope the finish will match the other wheels. Or, if the wheel is a $200 jobber - just buy a new one.

Stay away from places like this.

I`m not sure of these people are using what we used to call "steel wheel machines" to mount tires, but anywhere decent will use what we used to call "mag machines", where the duck bill doesn`t even touch the rim. There is no reason for this damage on the lip.

There was no reason for this damage in like 1998 when we still called aluminum wheels "mags". Even back then, we knew how to avoid it.

The barrels are just gouged from screwdrivers beating off the old weights. Looks like cavemen work at this place.

You would actually consider a discount on tires from this place??? You would take your car to them again???? Are you nuts????

[Swanicyouth]

Maybe this will help somebody sometime someplace....

If you see a tire mounting machine that looks like this:



Run.

This is meant for old steel wheels that have hubcaps. But, you would be surprised to know how many of them are out there. Prolly because they are cheap to buy. This is the machine that damages aluminum wheels.

God forbid you see this:



Run faster.

The correct machine should look like this:



Yes, it`s still POSSIBLE through negligence to damage wheel lips with a machine like this, but at least if the operator is trained correctly it shouldn`t happen. Those other machines are from the Stone Age.

Just an FYI... When you buy a BRAND NEW CAR, tires were mounted on wheels at the factory. Have you ever seen a new car with damage like this???

No. Because they are trained at the factory to be careful and do it correctly. Would you accept a new car with wheels with lips or barrels gouged up?

No.

This is not an acceptable part of having tires installed. It it 100% avoidable. It`s just negligence.

[ShaneB]

They make a tool specifically designed for removing wheel weights. I would be questioning them as to why they don`t use one. That damage is inexcuseable. Its easier to use than a screwdriver that`s for sure.

If you ran over a screw and its in the tread part of the tire, repairing it yourself is quite easy and inexpensive. Actually there really is no reason to even bother dismounting the tire from the wheel. Not sure why they felt they had to do it unless the damage was to the sidewall.

The guy probably said **** it and didn`t care cause its on the inside part of the wheel where nobody will see it.

[House of Wax]

Yeah, I`d be pretty pissed.

[Ccrew]

The correct machine should look like this:



Yes, it`s still POSSIBLE through negligence to damage wheel lips with a machine like this

Welcome to my world, where they tore up the barrels on three wheels because they tried to dismount them from the wrong side of the rim. I say three, because they broke the machine on wheel three.

Once they did get them mounted they appear to have had no clue what a non-marring socket was and proceeded to scratch up the lug holes x20.

That Goodyear store bought me a set of wheels... Can`t get good help these days?

[TumbleWeed]

Swanic, I hear ya man…. "Discount" anything should be completely avoided at all cost imvho….

But this situation was xxxxed from the beginning…..

It was actually two days ago when I took my car to the Mazda dealership to have them "replace" the hood latch as it was never properly installed.

Well, after they installed it, I pulled out of the lot and not 3 miles down the road, the Low Tire indicator came on.

So, I naturally flipped a xxxxx and returned to my dealershi[p to have them check the tire………well, the service guy drove it back there and filled the tires up with air and came back and said ok, I filled it up and reset the tire pressure monitor.

I asked if he checked them and he said the tech went home so all he could do was fill them up. (?)

Anyways, after I got home, the next morning it was flat and so I took the wheel off and drove 27 miles to the nearest tire center which just so happened to be Discount Tire.


this sucks……...

[ShaneB]

Pickup one of these and keep it in your glovebox or something. Not even $10 and you can avoid these mishaps. YouTube I`m sure can show you how easy it is

[TumbleWeed]

Thanks for the tip……..Just bought this one….

[4u2nvinmtl]

I had a simular case...

I bought my Jeep SRT8 used and it wasn`t until I mounted my winter wheels that I noticed how fbar`ed the inside drum of one wheel was. At first I was concerned that it was gouged deep enough to cause failure (unlikely)! I had a hard time finding a place to take the run flats off and put some soft NT05`s on (due to the soft rim and super hard low profile tire wall). I went to a quality/performance tire shop where they quickly pointed out the wheel damage prior to uninstalling the run flats. They did a flawless installation with no scratches to the butter soft aluminum 20x10 wheels

[Fast400]

While what happenend to you is aggravating, I`d see the bright side which is...none of the damage is on the outside of the wheel. If it were my rim, I`d show the shop, hope for some money back, then touch up the affected areas of damage and call it a day. We`re all in this forum because we share a like passion for perfection in our cars, but that being said...Life is too short.
I had winter tires put on some nice rims for my wife`s car. They deeply scratched a 2" area on the outside of the rim (unrepairable). They apologized and offered that mounting and a tire for free. I gulped, swallowed my unhappiness about the damage, and accepted the offer. Two weeks later we pull too close to a curb and rash the very wheel I was upset about.
All we can do is try to keep things as nice as possible, and still stuff will happen.
In all I hope they provide you with a fair reparation.
Also....never use that shop again!

[PA DETAILER]

Agreed. I would be mad. They were not like that BEFORE you brought them in. Seems like more & more of this is happening. I got new tires mounted at FIRESTONE. What a saga! Read on...
WTH is up with tire shops as of late?

Amazing to me how they mounted my new ones and did it flawless AFTER THE FACT. Nowadays it seems you have to grab the manager or take pictures BEFORE they mount tires.

[TumbleWeed]

Well, got my wheel back finally.

Thought he did a pretty decent job over all.

Tomorrow morning, after it has cured some, I will go ahead and decon it w/ iron & tar X and then coat it with DLUX………………again. lol