Tire Shop Foibles

[MCODECUDA]

No tire shop incidents but my ‘64 Belvedere has only one stud that’s left handed and the other four are right handed.

 

[Mackman]

Got four new tires for my 2005 Dodge 2500. Charged me for new pressure sensors. It doesn't have pressure monitoring.
My father got 4 new tires mounted and balanced on his 83 Delta 88 with the fancy wheel covers that required the special socket for the lugs. A month later he had a flat on the road, and the socket was no longer in the glovebox. Went back to the tire store asking about it. A tech reached on top of the wall, grabbed three or four sockets, asked him which one fit his.

 

[1967coronet]

One of the things that drives me nuts is the tech that will place a lot of balance weights in one spot.
Instead of breaking the tire down again and lining it up correct.

 

[GetX'd]

No one’s fault - but back in the day I put a reverse manual shift B&M shift kit in my torqueflite. That sob shifted so hard and fast that I broke lugs off the back wheels a number of times. No 4 speed was ever going to approach that puppy no matter how good the driver was. It was rock star bad ***….

 

[Moparmann]

I took four new wheels into a national chain shop to have 4 new tires mounted. They loaded the wheels/tires into my truck and off I went. Got home to discover that the edge of one the wheels had been gouged seriously, and hidden under the other three. Called the shop, had to make a trip back so they could see it. They had their wheel tech "repair" it by grinding down the edge, but I said NO, I want a new wheel, which they had me to purchase, and then reimbursed me for the cost. Now, I've reverted back to my old ways: if I can't see you while you're working on my car/items, then I'm probably NOT going to do business with you.

 

[padam]

I took a pair of tires and wheels to get mounted last winter. It was a Saturday morning and the first place I wanted to try wasn’t open yet. I can upon a small independent shop that was open so I gave it a shot. They guy told me $20 a piece so i said cool.

As I was waiting I noticed they were playing their non Christian prayers on the sound system and had that scribble *** writing on the computer, but what do I care. This is a melting pot right?

When he brought me out the tires and I went to pay I said $40 right and he says “no 50.”
He argued that he told me $25 a piece.
Well I paid the 50 because that’s still not bad, but scratch one more company off the list.

 

[Don selleck]

Got a 2016 hellcat earlier this year 6200 miles perfect car not a stone chip anywhere needed a set a tires they were from 2015 drove it awhile but you could just feel them getting worse. called my dodge dealer to get a set because they are one of the few that have a changer that will accomodate the 20" newer rims without scratching them. So I cleaned the rims and wiped the whole car down. got the tires replace started driving home and got caught in a light rain just enough to water spot it. so rinse the car off when I got home and wiped it down. The asshole put about a 1" scratch in my rear quarter in front of the tire and didn't say a word. i hate this world of people who don't give a ****! I didn't even get to put the first scratch or stone chip in it

 

[YY1]

I've had my own rim clamp tire machine and balancer for about a decade now.

I've got about $900 in them together.

They are coming up on paying for them selves a second time.

I've also got an old-school Atlas machine for sale if anyone local is interested.
It's great for trailer tires and roller wheels for project cars.
It will pay for it's self just doing that.

 

[Ceedawg]

Back around 2000 I had the BFG guys put tires on my RamCharger (off road type). A year or so later I sell the truck to my friend, he came back two weeks later to say the tires are mismatched. Sure enough tire guys had put two different sizes on diagonally. So back to BFG, I showed him the bill, he checked the numbers on tires, realizing they made a mistake replaced the two that were wrong. KEEP the paperwork! Even 18 months after!

 

[33 IMP]

No one’s fault - but back in the day I put a reverse manual shift B&M shift kit in my torqueflite. That sob shifted so hard and fast that I broke lugs off the back wheels a number of times. No 4 speed was ever going to approach that puppy no matter how good the driver was. It was rock star bad ***….

I had a shift kit in a 55 Chevy with a 396/t400, that did the same thing. One day had five studs on the right rear, next had four, next had three , next had none.

 

[33 IMP]

I took a pair of tires and wheels to get mounted last winter. It was a Saturday morning and the first place I wanted to try wasn’t open yet. I can upon a small independent shop that was open so I gave it a shot. They guy told me $20 a piece so i said cool.

As I was waiting I noticed they were playing their non Christian prayers on the sound system and had that scribble *** writing on the computer, but what do I care. This is a melting pot right?

When he brought me out the tires and I went to pay I said $40 right and he says “no 50.”
He argued that he told me $25 a piece.
Well I paid the 50 because that’s still not bad, but scratch one more company off the list.

I'm old. Fifty bucks to mount two tires? In my opinion, that's not "not bad", that's thievery. Mount and air up two tires, what five minutes? Call it ten, that's $300/hr shop labor for something a trained monkey can do. My friends auto repair shop would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, to be able to charge $200/hr labor.

 

[padam]

I'm old. Fifty bucks to mount two tires? In my opinion, that's not "not bad", that's thievery. Mount and air up two tires, what five minutes? Call it ten, that's $300/hr shop labor for something a trained monkey can do. My friends auto repair shop would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, to be able to charge $200/hr labor.

Plus balance.
Around here normal rate is about $35 ea plus tax.

They were low profile on factory Lexus alloy rims and they really struggled with them. That’s why I think he jacked up the price on me.

 

[Midpack]

This thread timing is PERFECT... here's a tire story from this past weekend.

I had 4 new BFG T/A's to mount up for my 73 RR this past Saturday. I was first one in the gate and the crew jumped on it pretty fast, they were expecting me. Three Daytona jacks underneath and she's up in the air like a... well, like a bird. LOL! One jack under each frame pad up front and one under the pumpkin. Stable and secure, right? Riiiiight?

I'm watching like a hawk but these guys are really pretty smooth and they soon have all four Rallye wheels back in the garage along with a brand-new new set of staggered T/A's from Tire Rack (sorry for the blatant plug, but they had GREAT pricing).

That's right, you heard me. STAGGERED. 215/70's up front and 245/60's out back. Just like the good old days!

So I'm standing there admiring my car, up in the air, literally floating with no wheels and I'm musing about the body shape and whether the guy next to me with the beater Civic getting a puncture fixed would understand the word "fuselage" and whether or not it would pertain to the car's overall design (spoiler, it does!) when a woman drives in and sort of gets stuck between a truck unloading and the gate and our cars (me and Civic guy). Without talking to anyone, she begins initiating a 3-point turn. Or maybe it was a 4-point turn. I lost track, my spider senses were tingling.

Somewhere between point 2 and point 4, while she's inching towards my levitating Road Runner, she bonks the jack handle under the pumpkin and the whole car shudders forward and back and then... stops. I held my breath and waited for the awful crunching sound. It never came.

Maybe it was the sun off the gleaming Lemon Twist paint, or something else that blinded her to the danger, but I know I yelled HEY!!! WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!! pretty damned loud, but she was already heading into point 3.5 or so of her 5-point turn by then and barely gave a wave of her hand. I'm not sure she even noticed.

In the end, nothing actually happened except my blood pressure and heart rate spiked and I yelled. I'd do it again, too. The shop was partially to blame for not seeing her getting that close, but they were all pretty busy by then, too. After a minute, I walked around the back of the car to see why she would have done that in broad daylight with 4 or 5 people watching, and I realized that the angle of the jack handle was such that if you were sitting in your car, doing what she was doing, it was pretty much pointing straight at your face. It would be very hard to see a black 1.25" circle, floating in space, through a dirty windshield on a VERY sunny morning, when you are really trying to stay a foot or so away from a bright yellow floating car.

No harm, no foul, in my book. But never take your eyes off of what's important... your MOPAR!

And they look great.

And swapping those 30-year old Road Hugger Radial T/A's for the BFG's cured my power steering pump screaming at me, too! BONUS!

Have fun with your cars and see you back here soon!

Midpack

(PS. $20 each for the mount, balance and disposal. Not bad for SoCal, in my opinion.)

 

[padam]

This thread timing is PERFECT... here's a tire story from this past weekend.

I had 4 new BFG T/A's to mount up for my 73 RR this past Saturday. I was first one in the gate and the crew jumped on it pretty fast, they were expecting me. Three Daytona jacks underneath and she's up in the air like a... well, like a bird. LOL! One jack under each frame pad up front and one under the pumpkin. Stable and secure, right? Riiiiight?

I'm watching like a hawk but these guys are really pretty smooth and they soon have all four Rallye wheels back in the garage along with a brand-new new set of staggered T/A's from Tire Rack (sorry for the blatant plug, but they had GREAT pricing).

That's right, you heard me. STAGGERED. 215/70's up front and 245/60's out back. Just like the good old days!

So I'm standing there admiring my car, up in the air, literally floating with no wheels and I'm musing about the body shape and whether the guy next to me with the beater Civic getting a puncture fixed would understand the word "fuselage" and whether or not it would pertain to the car's overall design (spoiler, it does!) when a woman drives in and sort of gets stuck between a truck unloading and the gate and our cars (me and Civic guy). Without talking to anyone, she begins initiating a 3-point turn. Or maybe it was a 4-point turn. I lost track, my spider senses were tingling.

Somewhere between point 2 and point 4, while she's inching towards my levitating Road Runner, she bonks the jack handle under the pumpkin and the whole car shudders forward and back and then... stops. I held my breath and waited for the awful crunching sound. It never came.

Maybe it was the sun off the gleaming Lemon Twist paint, or something else that blinded her to the danger, but I know I yelled HEY!!! WATCH WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!! pretty damned loud, but she was already heading into point 3.5 or so of her 5-point turn by then and barely gave a wave of her hand. I'm not sure she even noticed.

In the end, nothing actually happened except my blood pressure and heart rate spiked and I yelled. I'd do it again, too. The shop was partially to blame for not seeing her getting that close, but they were all pretty busy by then, too. After a minute, I walked around the back of the car to see why she would have done that in broad daylight with 4 or 5 people watching, and I realized that the angle of the jack handle was such that if you were sitting in your car, doing what she was doing, it was pretty much pointing straight at your face. It would be very hard to see a black 1.25" circle, floating in space, through a dirty windshield on a VERY sunny morning, when you are really trying to stay a foot or so away from a bright yellow floating car.

No harm, no foul, in my book. But never take your eyes off of what's important... your MOPAR!

And they look great.

And swapping those 30-year old Road Hugger Radial T/A's for the BFG's cured my power steering pump screaming at me, too! BONUS!

Have fun with your cars and see you back here soon!

Midpack

(PS. $20 each for the mount, balance and disposal. Not bad for SoCal, in my opinion.)View attachment 1684485View attachment 1684486

Your story reminds me of the only time I bought a full set of new tires and wheels.
I had just finished changing my charger over from 318 auto to 413 4 speed.
I picked up 4 new Cragars at Summit.
My buddies dad (I’ve posted about him before, was buddies with RP) was a big shot at Goodyear. He could get me a big discount at Conley Tire.

I took my Charger there, gave them the keys, and sat down to wait. I saw them take the car around back, and few minutes later they brought it back around front.

The “mechanic” came in and said they can’t get it on the lift so they can’t change the tires. The reason was the friken Hooker header right side collector came out right under the torsion bar and was catching the lift. These are the headers I just replaced

Headers and Mini Starters

The manager told them to use floor jacks and they got it done.
I can’t quite remember how many miles I drove it, but it was less than 50, and the rear lug nuts were loose. Chewed the wheels up a little bit nothing serious. After that I always made sure to retorque the lugs on aluminum wheels.

I guess that pretty much defines “foible.”

 

[ZR9B]

on my 04 ram Cummins i told the guy I want a good road tire that get me through the snow as well. he kept going back the the Michelins, at the time I didn't want to spend the cash. So I ended up settling on a Cooper tire for much less. While waiting my turn I was talking to a guy about tires...I told him Michelins are about the best.... I get called to the counter , got my paperwork then left. That night I go to check the tire pressure and lug torque and WTF...he put the Michelins on!!! paperwork said cooper. I never got a call and the next tire change I was asked why I diched the coopers and didn't come back to them for the Michelins . I didn't have the heart to tell him.

 

[khryslerkid]

 

[YY1]

I'm old. Fifty bucks to mount two tires? In my opinion, that's not "not bad", that's thievery. Mount and air up two tires, what five minutes? Call it ten, that's $300/hr shop labor for something a trained monkey can do. My friends auto repair shop would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, to be able to charge $200/hr labor.

The reason I picked up that first Atlas tire changer about 12 years ago was that I had two roller tires I needed mounted on steel wheels that already had bad tires on them.

"The kingdom" quoted me $48 to dismount and mount, and that was no balance and with me taking the old tires, and not mounting them on any car. $48 twelve years ago!

I declined.

Three weeks later that tire changer appeared at a salvage yard that truly is a salvage yard and sells stuff to the public.

I paid less than double what I was quoted for the tire work, for the machine, and only had to replace the clogged air inlet connector to get it working. That machine literally paid for it's self the second time I used it.

 

[padam]

I would have one if I had the space.

 

[YY1]

Atlas takes up about as much room as a coffee table.

Coats RC-15 takes up about as much room a a refrigerator with a bit of a swing for the bead breaker arm.

 

[33 IMP]

The reason I picked up that first Atlas tire changer about 12 years ago was that I had two roller tires I needed mounted on steel wheels that already had bad tires on them.

"The kingdom" quoted me $48 to dismount and mount, and that was no balance and with me taking the old tires, and not mounting them on any car. $48 twelve years ago!

I declined.

Three weeks later that tire changer appeared at a salvage yard that truly is a salvage yard and sells stuff to the public.

I paid less than double what I was quoted for the tire work, for the machine, and only had to replace the clogged air inlet connector to get it working. That machine literally paid for it's self the second time I used it.

I would have one if I had the space.

I had the same experience a few years ago. Two new wheels, two new tires (that the tire shop didn't handle, so it wasn't that i didnt buy the tires from them) , $40 bucks for less than five minutes work. (No balance).
I have the space, and I wish, passionately! that your atlas was 3000 miles closer.