My wheel misfortune story
08-15-2011, 08:28 AM
#1
My wheel misfortune story I have never had a vent thread but now is the time!
I'll try to make a long story short.
1. Order semi high end polished aluminum wheels. Vendor lead time stated 4-6 weeks. Actually took close to 12 weeks...no biggie I wasn't in a hurry anyway but would like to have known the actually leadtime when the order was placed.
2. Get the wheels & tires mounted and balanced and car shakes. I assume it's a hub centric problem.
3. I wait a couple weeks to get a response from wheel manufacture on what the wheel bore size is. They end up saying it varies...wtf! So I finally go to a local tire shop and sure enough I needed 2 sizes of hub rings. 3 of one size and 1 of another...go figure.
4. Put the hub rings on the car and it still shakes.
5. Go back to original tire shop to have them re-check the balance. They come back and say the passenger side front wheel is bad. It is 63 lbs out on the roadforce balance machine.
6. I go to another tire shop(discount tire) to get a second opinion. They say all 4 tires are out of balance. The passenger side front wheel is not bad but the tire needs to be rotated on the wheel and then it should balance out to about 12 lbs.
7. In the process of rotating the tire the shop rips a hole in the side wall of the tire. No biggie accidents happen and they will buy a new tire.
8. 1.5 weeks later the new tire comes in and go in to pick up the wheel & tire. I go home to clean off the tire lube and find there are a few scratches and scuff marks all over the wheel.
9. Discount tire is very apologetic and sends the wheel off to refinished.
10. I get the wheel back and all of the scratches and scuffs are gone but it doesn't have the same shine as before. At this time I figure I'm tired of dealing with it and will take the wheel home and polish it myself.
11. I get it home and look at more closely and realize that the repair company clear coated the wheel!! Why in the hell would someone clear coat a wheel that wasn't cleared when they got it?? So basically the repaired wheel looks very dull compared to the others.
So now I have to go back to the tire shop and have them dismount the tire and send the wheel back to the repair company to have them strip the clear and probably re-polish! Discount Tire is never going to want to see me again!! So far they have been very good on making things right...or should I say attempting to make things right! Hopefully they will make it right but they have lost a lot of money what should have been a simple tire balancing!
All in all I have been dealing with this since sometime in May when I finally received the wheels. The wife says I should have just kept my old wheels and I'm almost ready to agree with her!
Ok I'm off my soap box...at least for now.
I'll try to make a long story short.
1. Order semi high end polished aluminum wheels. Vendor lead time stated 4-6 weeks. Actually took close to 12 weeks...no biggie I wasn't in a hurry anyway but would like to have known the actually leadtime when the order was placed.
2. Get the wheels & tires mounted and balanced and car shakes. I assume it's a hub centric problem.
3. I wait a couple weeks to get a response from wheel manufacture on what the wheel bore size is. They end up saying it varies...wtf! So I finally go to a local tire shop and sure enough I needed 2 sizes of hub rings. 3 of one size and 1 of another...go figure.
4. Put the hub rings on the car and it still shakes.
5. Go back to original tire shop to have them re-check the balance. They come back and say the passenger side front wheel is bad. It is 63 lbs out on the roadforce balance machine.
6. I go to another tire shop(discount tire) to get a second opinion. They say all 4 tires are out of balance. The passenger side front wheel is not bad but the tire needs to be rotated on the wheel and then it should balance out to about 12 lbs.
7. In the process of rotating the tire the shop rips a hole in the side wall of the tire. No biggie accidents happen and they will buy a new tire.
8. 1.5 weeks later the new tire comes in and go in to pick up the wheel & tire. I go home to clean off the tire lube and find there are a few scratches and scuff marks all over the wheel.
9. Discount tire is very apologetic and sends the wheel off to refinished.
10. I get the wheel back and all of the scratches and scuffs are gone but it doesn't have the same shine as before. At this time I figure I'm tired of dealing with it and will take the wheel home and polish it myself.
11. I get it home and look at more closely and realize that the repair company clear coated the wheel!! Why in the hell would someone clear coat a wheel that wasn't cleared when they got it?? So basically the repaired wheel looks very dull compared to the others.
So now I have to go back to the tire shop and have them dismount the tire and send the wheel back to the repair company to have them strip the clear and probably re-polish! Discount Tire is never going to want to see me again!! So far they have been very good on making things right...or should I say attempting to make things right! Hopefully they will make it right but they have lost a lot of money what should have been a simple tire balancing!
All in all I have been dealing with this since sometime in May when I finally received the wheels. The wife says I should have just kept my old wheels and I'm almost ready to agree with her!
Ok I'm off my soap box...at least for now.
08-15-2011, 09:11 AM
#2
Sorry to hear that. I'm thankful though you decided to post this. I'm going through a similar situation. Received wheels in May and to this day I'm still working on getting issues worked out. Just wanted you to know you're not alone.
Good Luck!
Mark.
Good Luck!
Mark.
08-15-2011, 10:46 AM
#3
TECH Junkie
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wow that blows , i feel sorry for you , i wanna know the turnout on this. What dick wads for clear coating them . ANd you didnt wanna send the wheels back that didnt balance well .
08-15-2011, 11:48 AM
#6
There you go stirring the pot again.
I just dropped the wheel off at the shop. So far the word is the company that did the refinishing clear coats all of the wheels that come due to warranty and that it must be requested to NOT to clear the wheel. The warranty area makes sense but why wouldn't they question clear coating a wheel that came in not cleared knowing full well that a cleared wheel isn't going to match the rest. Anyway it seems that Discount Tire is going to take care of it for me. The guys at this store seem very stand up and trying their hardest to earn my business so that I'll come back even though this $50 balance job is probably costing them north of $500.
