Dont trust tire specialists!

[stewwalker]

Two weeks ago I took my truck to the local NTB in Houston for a rotate and balance. Picked the truck up later that day and spent the rest of the week working on the vehicle. I drove back to Kingsville Sunday and noticed a big vibration 8 miles out side of town. When I got home all 6 of my lug nuts were hand tight and almost off. So now I have to replace the studs and a rim...

I'm would suggest checking your vehicle if you let NTB touch your nuts.

 

[Hawkz]

Do you have aluminum rims? My local tire shop always tells me to check the lug nuts at 50 miles after getting new tires or a rotation. I've never had a problem, but the shop says the lug nuts on every 1 in 1000 or so of the aluminum rims will work themselves loose. I'm not sure how true it is, but lug nuts are one of those things I check when walking around my truck at the gas pump anyways. (Along with valve stems and caps, general tire condition, oil, ect.)

 

[JamesDowning]

And on the converse of things, I've also found lug nuts that are well over torqued by my mechanic. I try to always go back and check the lugs after I switch tires, which is the only time a mechanic touches my lugs anymore.

 

[Regcabguy]

I ran my truck into my local Discount Tire shop for a rebalance and rotation. The blaring death metal music should have tipped me off,but I went ahead and directed them to do the job. One guy removed the wheels while another balanced them. The balance guy gave me a dung eating grin and wished me a good day upon "completion". They were remounted,torqued but I left with an uneasy feeling in my gut. Proceeding onto the freeway led to a bone jarring vibration know as the famous Death Wobble.

I returned the truck to Discount complaining of the situation. Without apologizing,they wrote it up and I hovered over the balance machine as the guys tested the tires one at a time before removing the weights. Every tire was off with one by 4 ozs. The tire techs I got this day were shaking their heads in disbelief and proceeded to do the job right. Every tire was zero'd out,remounted and torqued in front of my eyes. The idiot who choked the prior day was nowhere to be found.

No more issues since.

I now use my independent Dodge garage for all tire service.

 

[BCHauler]

That problem is not a joke. Last summer, I had a local tire shop swap out my 33's for 31's prior to taking our 5th wheel on our annual summer vacation. Halfway up a mountain pass the lugs and studs sheared off the passenger's rear. The wheel and tire smashed up the back end of the truck and the trailer before careening across the road and over the cliff. Both truck and trailer were written off by insurance. Fortunately we ended up on the soft shoulder and not over the cliff on the other side of the road.

The tow truck driver, shop, and insurance company concurred that the cause was over tightened lug nuts that cracked the studs, causing them to shear off.

 

[Warn Industries]

My father had a simliar experience with a local tire shop. Had his wheels/tires rotated on his Cheorkee. At 60 MPH, the left-rear wheel feel off shortly after his visit. The wheel/tires hit the car behind him, which sent it over the center divider, apparently missing other vehicles. Tire shop paid for the damage to the rear quarter panel on his Jeep and a new wheel/tire. Just have to be careful, even if you're doing the work yourself. I always double check my lugs after removing wheels, then recheck after driving it the next day.

- Andy

 

[762X39]

I am totally paranoid about this sort of thing. I always check the tires 100km after a rotation or winter/summer swap and am even more paranoid about my trailer tires. I have a very competent fleet service group that does my truck and the local Costco (don't laugh) also has competent service. Both my fleet service group and the Costco I use understand tires, balancing and the use of a calibrated torque wrench.I often wonder if the bar is set a little lower south of the border (not trying to be mean but I rarely encounter poor service up here and when I do I call them on it).

 

[colodak]

If we're going down this road, don't trust Goodyear, Sears, Firestone, Big O, K Mart, Sam's Club, Costco, etc., hell don't trust most independent mechanics either. I have two independent Audi shops I deal with for my wife's Audi, three years ago, took the car in for an oil leak. The shop quoted me $3,900 to replace the upper oil pan gasket and do the timing belt service service. Took the car to the other shop, who looked at the quote given by the first shop and said they would do it for $200 less. Dropped the car off on Monday morning, 8am. The tech. called me at 10 am to inform me that 1st shop was wrong on what was leaking, that instead it was the rear main seal on the engine, it would require removing the trans to do the work, and including the timing belt service, it would be $400 less.

I have a Discount Tire that I've dealt with for 10 yrs, since they opened. The original store manager is now a senior regional manager, he had been with Discount 15 yrs when he was given that store. He taught his people how to treat and service customers, and to do what was right. The three Asst. Managers of that store have all moved on and been promoted to Store Managers because they learned to treat people right. The people they left behind still practice what they were taught and treat people correctly. I've never had a problem with the service from them, infact they've gone above and beyond. What's interesting, is since that first manager was promoted and left in '05, they've gone thru 3 managers, service has remained top notch inspite of lousy managers, why, because the people do the right thing.

 

[Stoney126]

When i first started out as a tech I was one 3 jobs and was being rushed by the service writers And forgot to torque 1 wheel and it left. The Customer called and I drove ouy and torqued it and drove it back and inspected everything. The lady was understanding and seeing how disgusted I was with myself she let me off the hook. Now no matter how rushed I tell em to shut it and let me finish. The lady is still a customer of mine, manly cuz there was no hmmin and hahhing about who is to blame and what not cope to it and make it right . Mistakes happen no matter who you are, the key is to make it right and make sure you learn from it.

 

[lstzephyr]

When I get my tires changed I go and sit with the guy doing the work. I used to do the job and I know that it is easy to just think of it as slapping tires on a vehicle. It pays to be friendly with the guys and try to check after them. They are just people, they get stressed, have bad days, have good days, make mistakes, and get things right. More often than not I take in rims/tire sand get them to change it while I watch. They would have to be damn sneaky (or I would have to read the machine wrong too)to get the balance wrong.

I change my own moto tires. There is a reason for that.

I have had a wheel fall off my car that I put on my car. Sometimes parts just fail, sometimes people just fail. Sometimes it happens.

 

[Greggk]

i made the mistake of pulling in to walmart on a cross country trip to get a vibration fixed. tires weights fell off the one wheel, during the trip (stick on ones). anyways they rebalanced all the tires and put them back on. 50 miles later i watched my tire pulling a solo trip across the lanes, the median and across the other set of lanes. thankfully the tire and rim didnt hit anyone elses vehicles and we were able to stop without injurioes or any more damage (other then the rotor braking apart). ended up costing my insurance company $1500.00 and they went after Walmart when i showed them the receipt.

definitely will never use walmart for anything more then purchasing oil when it comes to automotive needs

 

[chilliwak]

That problem is not a joke. Last summer, I had a local tire shop swap out my 33's for 31's prior to taking our 5th wheel on our annual summer vacation. Halfway up a mountain pass the lugs and studs sheared off the passenger's rear. The wheel and tire smashed up the back end of the truck and the trailer before careening across the road and over the cliff. Both truck and trailer were written off by insurance. Fortunately we ended up on the soft shoulder and not over the cliff on the other side of the road.

The tow truck driver, shop, and insurance company concurred that the cause was over tightened lug nuts that cracked the studs, causing them to shear off.

I hope you sued their a@£$ off for that one!

 

[stewwalker]

Okay, so in the quest to get my wheel back to normal I found out that just about every store is sold out of Mickey Thompson classic II rims. So heres the question, can I just replace the steel insert that is in the rim, or do I have to wait on my backordered rim that will be here next month?

 

[stewwalker]

Just an update and to let yall know that NTB isn't THAT bad. NTB in reimbursing me for all the parts and labor it cost me to replace the striped studs, shipping me 4 new American Racing Baja rims and reimbursing me for mounting and balancing my tires. (Mickey Thompson doesn't make my rims any more so NTB decides to give me all new rims)

 

[moscar45]

I personally feel that blanket statements like "never trust a costco, Wal-mart, Sams club, etc" is a bit of an over generalization. I've had positive as well as negative experiences with big box stores, as well as the local dealers.

For instance; I've had the local chevy and my local Jeep dealership overtightened my lugs on the rubicon as well as my GTO--under warranty or I'd have done it myself. When asking what they torqued them to I got the run around..uh...they're on there. They sure were, especially when the guy was using a 650ft lb gun to zip em on.

Conversely, my local BJ's puts the factory torque spec directly on the invoice after an install or rotation, and the do use specific torque sticks for every single install--I've watched them check a large chart and grab the correct one every time. Nearly a decade in the business has taught me that the name on the sign is never a guarantee for perfectly competent service techs. I've seen $10 tire techs treat my vehicles with more respect than the $18-20 goodwrench or mopar fellas.