spyder357

I just bought a new set of wheels and tires from discounttiredirect.com and I'm having a problem with them. At speeds from 45-55 the steering wheel will shimmy back and forth, I've had the wheels balanced at a local shop and its still doing it .

The local tire shop says the wheels aren't out of round but said if they can't get rid of the shimmy them after a second try to get rid of the wheels. Any opinions as to what the problem is would be great, I like the wheels and don't want to get rid of them.

Is some of this normal with + sized wheels, did I just get a crappy set, HELP!

Picture of the new wheels

/Aerostar\

iTrader: (2)

Those are some nice lookin wheels What brand are they? Also, have you tried putting back on your stock rims/tires and seeing if theres a shimmy or not

spyder357

I finally found the problem.

It turns out the hub centric rings they sent me with the wheels were the wrong size by about 1/32nd of an inch, causing the steering wheel wobble. The only bad part is I had to drive 60 miles (one way) to a discount tire shop to find this out!

I also let the local tire shop know what I thought of their service, its the second time I've brought in a car to Tires Plus and left without the problem being fixed, not....going....there....again.

Good thing is though, I get to keep the wheels !!!

For the record, the guys at Discount Tire in Rodchester, MN are excellent to deal with and get my recommendation anytime.

18in TSW Catalunya wheels from www.discounttiredirect.com.

PERRYinLA

So www.discounttiredirect.com, which sent you the wrong sized rings, gets your recommendation, and Tires Plus, which tried to satisfy the customer even though said customer bought the (incorrectly fitting) wheels, tires and initial mounting & balancing elsewhere, gets the thumbs down.

Am I reading that right?

spyder357

Yes and No


Discount tires recognized the problem and fixed it for free as well as paid for the service done at Tires Plus.

Tires Plus failed to catch the problem and they charged me 80.00, they also wanted me to pay for a second balance even though they didn't get it right the first time.

Discount Tire gets my recommendation because they recognized their mistake, quickly fixed it, and took excellent care of me after the sale, the Tires Plus guy didn't even offer a "sorry" that they missed a potentially devastating problem. In my book thats a thumbs down

Not only that but this is the second time I have had a car at Tires Plus and they didn't get something right

Problem fixed, thread is closed.

EUROJulian

This is quite common problem. Customes messing with their vehicles and later bringing those misteries to the shop to be fixed. We laugh the laudest when they ask for warranty coverage to pay for it.

Now this particular problem was easy to diagnose with right equipement. Ballancer with Road Force Variation mesurment capability.
Machine will mesure actual Force Variation on the ground, mesure rim runout and etc.
In this case it would show no problem with wheel assy leaving mounting problem out in the open.
This is expensive machine though,. Not every shop can afford it....

PERRYinLA

Hah! I wish Costco had just laughed when customers that bought their tires/wheels elsewhere started coming back and demanding warranty service. Instead, they cracked down and no longer mount/balance tires unless you bought them at Costco.

By the way, spyder, you don't get to close threads- that's up to the moderator.

spyder357

Well, I must say Perry that if you ran a shop, I would hazard a guess that I might not frequent it. If the shop didn't want my business all they had to do was say so, they took my money and din't fix the problem, it is then my turn to complain.

If they couldn't diagnose a simple problem with the hub rings, would you trust your car to them with more serious problems? That's not only foolish but dangerous.

Both your comments and Euro's comments highlight the worst in customer service and frankly the worst of this board, as a customer I laugh the loudest when I decide not to shop at your shop anymore.

If you have any useful comments to make please do,l the problem has been solved and there is no need to keep up this useless banter, hence the reason why the thread should be closed.

PERRYinLA

Well, if you're not into useless banter, you're on the wrong forum- just take a look around for plenty of examples. Of course, there's plenty of useful banter, too, such as Julian's perspective from the other side of the service counter.

As for your question about patronizing that shop with a more serious problem, I dunno, but then, I'm not the one who went there twice. In any case, there are always two sides to a story and we're only hearing your side of it, as welcome as it is.