Here's my story. It's kind of long but could help the next guy out from getting his rims damaged. So I was at the dealership yesterday getting my brand new bridgestone re-01r mounted and balanced.

I arrived at 10:15am and asked about their mounting service(was looking for touchless mounting recommended by TireRack which is a little more). $124 for full mount and balance. I told the service adviser I was concerned about my BBS rims getting damaged and that those are low profile tires.

The adviser reassured me I wasn't the first guy to ask about this and that they bought a brand new tire mounting machine (Hunter I think) just for the Evos. Ok so I thought paying a premium price would be ok since these are nice tires and rims and I'll be getting good quality service from the people who actually deal and work with Evos. Fair enough.

I gave it the go ahead and the service adviser said my car will be ready in about 2 hours. So I went to the waiting area, about 10:30am now. Two hours later at 12:30pm I went back to check on my car and the guy said they're still working on it and those are really hard tires to put on. He'll come get me when it's done.

1:00pm guy comes over and tells my they're 3/4 of the way done and that they have to torch my tires to warm them up. That raised my red flag but I gave them the benefit of doubt since seeing dragsters do burnouts all the time.

45 minutes later they came and got me, I paid for the service, but noticed the service adviser a little edgy, like he's in a big hurry or something. Maybe because it was about to closed in 15 minutes.

So I went to check on my tires. To my horror the 2 rear BBS rims was F***ed up.
There were deep grooves all the way to metal running the circumference of the wheel where the tire meets the rims but down more on the flat part. And in the back of the BBS on the inner side there were deep bite marks made by something with teeth used to clamp the rims down, sort of like vise grips leaving bite marks on metal but these were way, way deeper. By the way I checked all 4 wheels before I brought them in and they were fine.

Went back in, got the guy to come look at it. He says "Oh F***k" Told me to come back Monday and talk to them because they're already closed. I wasn't too happy He apologized. So much for premium price for premium service. I could've paid a regular tire shop half that to screw my tire up or even do a better job.

Now would it be too extreme if I demanded new BBS rims and nothing less to replace my 2 back ones since they are crap looking now? After all it was their fault and I don't think paint is gonna make it look like it was before. The 2 front BBS aren't so bad compared to the back ones.

And will torching my brand new tires mess them up in anyway? They turned from a nice looking black rubber to a grayish, year old, worn out color. The warranty on those Bridgestone will also be voided if external flames, heat, or chemical are used
on them, especially to seat the beads.

Sorry so long and thanks for reading. Any advice will help me out when I go to talk to these guys tomorrow. Thanks again.

 

Holy ****. I would demand they replace the rims and make them pay someone who is competent to mount and balance them. All four rims not just the rear two. They make a machine that is capable of mounting them with no damage. The dealership here is Newport News (Hall Mitsubishi) has done mine for me on the original rims without a problem more than once.

Josh

 

I would do something about it. I would think they owe you new rims. It's hit or miss though. good luck

 

If it were me, I would demand new rims and tires, period.
not ask, DEMAND...

 

You should make them buy you new wheels and tires! Thats BS, no way should you ever take a torch to street tires, ONLY Drag Slicks get heat cycled! Yes the warranty on yours is now void! And as for the Rims, a basic tire machine can mount tires to any rim without damage if they have the rubber pads for the jaws! The "Bite" marks on yours is from the clamps on the machine, the teeth bite the metal and thats what those are from! I am going to school for High Performance and we have changed tires on my car, 2 jetta GLIs with BBS wheels and a couple sets of 20s and have not damaged any wheels! All we use is a normal Hunter machine with ALL RUBBER PADS!

They should replace ALL wheels and tires! And then take them to Belle Tire if you have one! They did my alighnment for me when my car wasnt even running, helped us push it off and on the trailer. And mounted my Z1*s onto my Works 18s, and took about an hour being extremely careful not to damage anything! They also let us stand there and do all the work so we know it was being done correctly! And they also allowed me to sit in my car during the alignment! when we were at school and I did an alignment, it was a 1* difference on the driver side with me sitting in it! And I only weight about 170 lbs!

Bottom Line, Make them pay for it all, and then take it to a shop that will allow you to watch and make sure it is done corectly!

 

Torching the tires???? Have to say I have NEVER heard of that. The shop sounds like a bunch of idiots.

Being low profile they are a bit tough to put on, but when they said something about torching your tires I would have told them to STOP there and put the old ones on and go someplace else. Hate to think how much heat they put on the tires to do whatever they did. They could have done damage to those also.

It's not rocket science to mount tires they sure made it sound like it though. Good luck getting anything back I hope you do but from your story I wouldn't hold your breath.

 

He is in Sacramento California. Don't think he is going to drive there to get that done.

Look at the location thing man .

 

This happened to me at Firestone and I requested new rims and they replaced. Wait til they see the prices on these babies They are going to ****!

 

thats great, i hope they cost a **** load for these guys that is unacceptable, get new rims and tires and dont let this bs go down!!! i will be angry if you let this dealership walk all over you

 

I work at a car dealership myself. If they CLEARLY messed up the wheels, they should and probably will replace them. Most dealerships will go out of their way to make the customer happy. They're very concerned about their "CSI" scores. Atleast mine is.

As much as we hate it when customers are dicks, and ***** and moan, they generally get what they want. I'd probably do the same thing though

My Direzza Star Specs should be arriving tomorrow. I'm glad, since I work at a dealership, I have the ability to do tires myself

 

i hope you didn't sign anything...

 

+1 I don't think those guys know what they're doing. It's like they just got out of high school shop and try to install tires for a living

 

I think most kids in HS know better than to torch the tires!

 

i work at discount tire. and to be completely honest... discount works only with tires, we know what were doing. i mount 35 series tires on 20-26 rims on a daily basis, using normal machines without torching anything. and it takes me 15-30 min from pulling wheels off car to bolting them up. and i have NEVER scratched or damaged a wheel.. knock on wood

and to the people that arnt that familiar with tires, 35 series tires are almost as "low profile" as it gets

demand new wheels.. they fed them up, means you should have to pay for someone elses mistakes

 

definitely get those wheels replaced man