Tyre fitting places annoy me

SRRAE

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I had a serious puncture, as it the hole was about 3 mm in diameter and the puncture aerosol wasn't plugging the hole. I decided to take the 2 rear tyres off, as that is where the puncture was and take them to a tyre fitting shop as both needed replacing anyway.

I struggled to remove the studs. I have a electric impact wrench which I used to remove things like this and is rated at 400lb. I couldn't remove it. I had to use a 1.5m bar and it was bending trying to get the studs off. I know what you are thinking, it may be they had been on for a long time, but no. 2 new tyres were fitted 6 months ago and rotated so the new was on the front. It annoys me when tyre fitting shops use their air impact wrench to put the nuts/studs on as hard as they can. Once they are all on, they go round them all again to make them even tighter.

I've used this bar to remove some seriously tight nuts but this was ridiculous. There was no way those studs would have come off using a standard tyre iron you get in a cars spare wheel kit. With a bar 30/40cm I could jump up and down on that all day and it wouldn't have moved.

I wonder if one day one of these places will be sued because they had to call their breakdown service to change a tyre as the studs/nuts had been impact wrenched on so hard. I have only ever seen one place which puts tyres on with a torque wrench but their prices tend to be a little on the high side. Everywhere else seems to have the mentality of the tighter the better.

When I put the tyres on I made sure it was the standard 88ft/lb all round.

Anyone else had this issue with tyres fitting shops?
 
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And another thing , one tyre was pumped up to 41psi and the other was 36psi.
 
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Not had this issue myself, even Kwik Fit use a torque wrench.

I do find though that tyre pressures can be wrong. My S5 tyres were 30psi all round when i bought the car and they should be 39 on front and 33 on rear.
 
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I had a similar problem about 6 months ago. I had my nsf tyre replaced and a few weeks later I got a puncture so went back to get it fixed then found my locking nut had been snapped. Seen as it had not been used since they put the tyre on I knew they had snapped my locking nut.

They argued the toss so had to drill my locking nut off the wheel and when the nut was removed it was bent so I knew they had put it on too tight so told the guy not to use the impact drill and just hand tighten them.

Cost me £20 for new locking nut.
 
Had all for replaced at national the other day and they used a torque wrench for final tightening.

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk
 
Had all for replaced at national the other day and they used a torque wrench for final tightening. Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

National? Unknown to me when I bought a set of 4 tyres for my car via the AA, it is National that fits them, they left a rectangular "pressed/squashed" area on each wheel, maybe that is their trademark? I didn't complain - I'll just remember to avoid them in future and pass the word round as you can't undo that sort of cosmetic damage!

Edit:- I always carry the wheels into these places if possible, saves needing to question thinks, lets you see both sides of the wheels, make good any damage and clean them back up and fit them in the exact position and orientation on your car as well as having the locking bolt where it suits you to be!
 
National? Unknown to me when I bought a set of 4 tyres for my car via the AA, it is National that fits them, they left a rectangular "pressed/squashed" area on each wheel, maybe that is their trademark? I didn't complain - I'll just remember to avoid them in future and pass the word round as you can't undo that sort of cosmetic damage!

Edit:- I always carry the wheels into these places if possible, saves needing to question thinks, lets you see both sides of the wheels, make good any damage and clean them back up and fit them in the exact position and orientation on your car as well as having the locking bolt where it suits you to be!
I had no complaints with the one in enfield, I guess it depends on the individual fitter. I sparked a conversation with mine, and he seemed a bit of a petrol head and liked his cars. He also refused to use one style of machine as he commented it scratched the alloys and chose the other one. Pot luck though I guess who u get.

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk
 
National? Unknown to me when I bought a set of 4 tyres for my car via the AA, it is National that fits them, they left a rectangular "pressed/squashed" area on each wheel, maybe that is their trademark? I didn't complain - I'll just remember to avoid them in future and pass the word round as you can't undo that sort of cosmetic damage!

Edit:- I always carry the wheels into these places if possible, saves needing to question thinks, lets you see both sides of the wheels, make good any damage and clean them back up and fit them in the exact position and orientation on your car as well as having the locking bolt where it suits you to be!

I use Tyres Online website in the past as they have been cheaper by a long way, but others have caught up. You get the tyres fitted by National which is strange as National tend to be up to 25% more expensive for the same tyres.
Anyway each time I got my tyres fitted at National when I bought from Tyres Online there was always something wrong, which I only noticed weeks or months later so I had no come back. Once they forgot a centre cap but the worse and most dangerous, they had a tyre on backward, ie, the word "inside" was on the outside of the wheel.
 
I use Tyres Online website in the past as they have been cheaper by a long way, but others have caught up. You get the tyres fitted by National which is strange as National tend to be up to 25% more expensive for the same tyres.
Anyway each time I got my tyres fitted at National when I bought from Tyres Online there was always something wrong, which I only noticed weeks or months later so I had no come back. Once they forgot a centre cap but the worse and most dangerous, they had a tyre on backward, ie, the word "inside" was on the outside of the wheel.
Nasty. I used tyre shopper online. Who use national fitters. It doesn't sound like you have had a good experience.

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Yes I guess that quality of service is ultimately in the hands of the actual fitter that works on your wheels, aided quite a bit by the type and age of the tools they are provided with.
When I priced my new tyres on the AA, it was not something that I had thought of doing, maybe I noticed that someone else had tried using them, but as it worked out they were cheapest by far but only for the brand of tyres that I was buying, as I was fitting same as Audi fitted at factory as I only use them as Summer tyres - and Pirelli were on special offer, and they came with "LoveToShop" vouchers, maybe as much as £100, now normally I can't be bothered with these vouchers, but having already been given quite a large amount of them from elsewhere, I had worked out how to use them sensibly and so buy things I wanted/needed at normal prices, so all was good - except the light but annoying and avoidable wheel damage.

Edit:- any tyre fitter can cause/make an accident, at my local independent tyre place once a fitter left a jacked up BMW that was getting brand new alloys put on it, with one new alloy with new tyre on it placed on the hub without nuts fitted, to answer his phone - there was the sound of alloy on concrete, I walked away I could not stand the pain the BMW owner felt and how he was going to sort that out!
 
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This is why I don't let anyone take my wheels off now. Spent hours trying to remove studs after a tyre change.

I now jack the car up, take the wheels off myself and take them to the fitters. No impacts or over-torquing - peace of mind that way. Some may say that's a little extreme, but not only do they torque those studs to the max, they don't give a damn about your sills!!
 
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So do I always, slightly over tightened bolts and wrong pressures I can take care of, physical damage to wheels I can't undo.

Edit:- doing your own wheel removing/fitting also means that you put the wheels where you want them to be, and the security bolt in "your" chosen position on every wheel!
 

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