I know how you feel. My friendly Chevrolet dealer screwed up all 20 of my lug nuts when my car was 1 month old. They handed me the new lug nuts, so I could put them on myself.

 

 

Well if you think you have had a nightmare let me tell you mine!
My 98 coupe came with mag wheels, because I refused to accept the wagon wheels.
So the dealer had NTB change theme over to the mags, first they screwed up 2 wheels mounting them. So the dealer made them replace them at $1300.00 ea. then shortly after that I scraped one on a curb in a gas station in Ga. because the curb was painted black and it was raining and at night.
So my insurance co. replaced it, so far so good right? well the balance was off and despite numerus attempts the dealer said it's fine.
Then at 14000 miles my rear tires were worn down to the wear bars, I checked around and found a number of people had the same issue.
So I ordered new ones from the Tire Rack and had them mounted at a local GY dealer who quoted me 1 price and had another on the bill when I went to pick them up. I was told there mag's so we have to use special machines to balance them and mount them. I looked in the back room and they did have new equipment but were using it to mount and balance all their tires on it. I got them to reduce the price back to quoted amount only because the had a room full of customers.
Another 14000 miles and these wore out so I purchased another set from the Tire Rack but this time I had had the dealer do an alignment before mounting the tires, they subleted the mount & bal. to a local tire store.
The next year the fronts needed replacing so again I ordered from TR and took them to a shop TR recommended, they do road force bal. Found 1 tire to be out of spec so I went to a goodyear store who warrentied it for me and swore they could do the mount and bal.
Needless to say they Fu***d up 1 rim, so I called the dealer and they recommended a place to have it repaired, so I took over there and had it repaired (mags are powder coated then painted) so it was $250.00 the GY dealer paid for the repair but would not mount the tire.
So I go back to the dealer who now has the touchless equiptment to mount the tire, they mount the tire and bal it and put the weights right where I showed them not to because the brake caliper scrapes them off and screws up the refinished wheel before I even pick it up. In the mean time I've had the original wheel I scraped fixed so I have a spare front wheel, so they mount the tire on the that wheel and put the weights inside where they dont touch but there in the wrong location and the I have to live with a vibration for a 3000 mile trip.
I take it back to the dealer and they try again and this time it's worse, so I take the wheel off myself and found they had wheel weights 3/4 around the inside of the wheel.
Back to the dealer and they say it's in balance, so I showed them the weights and they finally agreed it's not right but I can take it to any place I chose and they will pay for the balance.
I took it back to the GY dealer who tried to rip me off on the price and left them the wheel and they balanced it with a special low profile weight. Finally I have 4 tires in balance and a properly aligned car!
I love the mag wheels but next time I need tires I will most likley change to another type of wheel, besides I need wider ones for the rear anyway!

 

Sorry for your troubles but thanks for the great story and a good laugh.

This story sounds typical.

Take 1 air wrench jocky add 1 Corvette owner = 1 bad day.

 

Sorry about your experience. I had new tires installed @ Discount Tire, and they did a great job. The manager mounted the new runflats himself while I watched, and they had no problem jacking the car on the pucks instead of using the padded lift.

 

I agree, I would have just taken them with me.

Had a similar experience with the company van last week at a Jiffy Lube, I know it's not a Vette (I do most work on my Vette myself because of idiots like this.) but it's still annoying to see a bunch of monkeys working on your car. I'll give you a little taste, I watched one idiot hold up the hood with one hand, while trying to remove the oil filler cap with the other hand, went on for about 5 minutes. I finally walked out there and lifted the hood holder rod and put it in place and just looked at him like WTF? He just looked at me like a sheep. Then a 20 minute three ring circus, forget the details. Then I go to pay. It's a fleet vehicle, so they needed the VIN #, so the girl goes out to get it, comes back 10 minutes later. I asked her what happened and she said she couldn't find the VIN :bb . I guess mine is in a totally different location than the millions of other Ford vans (or almost any modern vehicle for that matter) on the drivers side of the dash Don't you just love sharp people?

 

Not excusing the work habits of this place...but one thing that likely few people ever do, yet is something EVERYONE with aluminum wheels should do.

Always check/retorque the wheels the following day.

I'd be willing to bet it even states this on your receipt.

I had a similar experience once on another car with custom wheels. Had new tires mounted....following day the lug nuts on the front were all loose. I immediately blamed the tire store, thinking what idiots couldn't even tighten the lug nuts properly.
So, I tightened them myself. I know they were done right this time.
Guess what happened the next day after that? You guessed it, they were loose again. That time I added a little more torque to them, and they were fine after that...but since it happened even after I tightened them myself, I doubt the initial occurance was any fault of the tire store.

Not saying this is applicable to your case...but this is something every single one of us should be doing after having the wheels off the car...whether you did it yourself or not...always recheck the lugnut torque the next day.

 

I've dealt with Discount a few times and they've always treated me right. They even patched a tire once that I didn't buy from them and they said they'd bill the manufacturer. But each store is different.

 

cast alum rims when new need to be retightened every 50-100miles untill they stop getting lose (the alum is soft and compresses) after they are on for a wile they are ok.

I had DT fix a flat (on a rim with 20k miles on it) and then took my jeep on a 600mile trip on the way back at 70mph I start getting a vibration and then start hearing a noise so I stop and as i turn into a driveway the jeep kindof clunks and leans to the outside of the turn. I stop get out and look and it had thrown 3 of the 5 lugs off and broken the studs off wile the remaining 2 lugnuts are backing out. this wiped out the rim, the rotor, the bearing etc and one pair of underware when I thought about what "might of happened"

DT paied for the new rim and no one was killed so no prob, but I check the hell out of any of there work now.

More Than Zero

 

So is the torque for the stock rims 100lbs for sure? 'Cause now I'm worried, since I just had mine off....

 

 

The Discount Tire shop in my town did a great job with my D3's also - treated my Vette with kid gloves...and got the runflats off without damage to them (I sold them on e-bay for $800) or the wheels.

 

I can tell you not all Discount Tires are created equal. The one I go to does use a torque wrench on all vehicles. I've never had a bad experience at this one. I think the manager dictates the quality.

 

I agree with Eddie's statement. Having said that, I had 2 rear GY SC's put on last Friday and they didn't torque my locking nuts all the way down either. I just went and check and they are all there, but now I'm concerned one is going to fly off.

 

I guess I've been extremely lucky. The Discount Tires I went to in Orlando was top notch. In fact, I forgot to take out the lift pucks and give them to them. The Mgr. came over to where I was sitting and "asked" if I had a set of lift pucks for my Vette. I said yes, thanked him for reminding me, and got them out of the car.

Two things I did that may have also put my mind at ease for taking the Vette to Discount.

 

Discount Tire is the ONLY shop I'll take any of my vehicles to..Top notch sales AND service.

 

Then ask them if they have the number to the TIRE RACK!!!!

 

I can appreciate the concern, well noted, about aluminum wheels needing re-checking. In fact, even though they didn't back off the statement that they don't torque down locking nuts as tight as regular nuts, they DID in fact, tell me to come back in a day or so for a re-torque.

Having had a terrible experience - more so with inept idiots than the reputation of the store, I came home and rechecked myself with my wrench. They were all OK, excepting the locking one which I put the key on, then torqued down to 100 lbs myself! There was never any feel that the key might have 'slipped' off at only 100 lbs.

I do think it is an important issue that should be raised, if in fact, others confirm that they were told locking nuts are not torqued to the same specs as 'regular' nuts. I'm not comfortable running 130+ on high bank turns at TMS (TX) on a track with only 80% of the wheel attached, not to mention having a projectile that heavy and small fly off at speed like that! No telling what damage that could do, not only to your own car, but what about traffic or people nearby, if the spoke acts like a high speed baseball bat and really slings it out!

Wonder what GM, and official line at DT would be on this issue?

A pandora's box opened?

 

I have 2 identical sets of mags just to prevent these screw-ups. I'd rather do it myself.

 

I've had many good experiences with Discount Tire. Sorry to hear about yours