Today I went to Sears to have them install new snow tires (from TireRack.com) on my 15" rims... $45.00... not bad. Nice people.

1: Upon getting home, I checked the torque on the lugs as I always do. They were on SO tightly that I couldn't get them off with my breaker bar. (What if I had a flat and had to remove them on the side of the road?) I went back to Sears and had them loosen the lugs with their impact wrench so that I could torque them EVENLY and PROPERLY to 90 ft lbs. (MINI spec is 88.5 ft lbs on my '05 S)

2: I then checked the TIRE PRESSURE as usual. Should be 38 PSI per the MINI door jam on the driver's side. The Front Left was 34 PSI and the Front Right tire was 13 PSI!!

I'm convinced that either the people that install tires in these automotive places either do not CARE about their workmanship or are just plain incompetant. Anyway, I didn't raise a big stink with Sears... they were mildly apologetic. I could only shake my head in disgust. This happened to me a Mavis Discount Tire Center as well so I'm sure this isn't an isolated incident.

Anyway, enough of my rant; I just wanted to share with my fellow Motorers to be alert to the little things. They can potentially cause a lot of problems if left unnoticed.

Happy Daylight Savings!!

 

Thanks for sharing. It could save someone some grief down the road. And it's sad that we can rarely trust the service we get (and pay for!) anymore.
There are some jewels out there, you just gotta sift thru the grit to find 'em.
-skip-

 

You get what you pay for I suppose.

 

I have found your experience to be a common one. Even though I'm sure they don't like it, I closely watch what is being done & speak up if I see them doing something incorrectly. It is sad that needs to be done, but IMO it is necessary.

 

I disagree with your statement. The price of the tires means nothing when it comes to safety and doing the repairs properly. The lug nuts should always be set to spec as should tire pressures. There is no excuse for this, price of the tires be damned!

 

That would really make one wonder if the tires are even balanced due to pressures not being set.....

 

waaaaayyyy back in the day i used to work for a "tire slinging" chain in northern ohio. trust me, they dont care. the name of the game is speed and quantity not quality. as much as people bash the dealerships and as much as they are DANGEROUSLY overpriced, you can usually rest assured that your vehicle is right.

 

I had the same experience many years ago with the lug nuts being so tight I couldn't get them loose while on the side of the road. After walking to the nearest payphone (remember those? As I said many years ago) and call for help to get a braker bar and pipe to add leverage, I got the tire changed. Since then I have always taken the wheels to the tire store and had new tires installed on the rims. When I get home I put them on the car, and tighten the lugs with a torque wrench.

 

If you don't buy the tires from them, they don't care. It's that simple.

 

Unfortunately, in every field there are people that suck at their job and/or are unhappy with their job... Tires are no exception.

 

Thanks for the good advice. It pays to be careful no matter how much you paid for the tires. I'm just glad I never have to worry about snow!

 

Minimacster, I totally agree with you. On a car I care anything at all about, I take the old tires and wheels of, take them to the tire store, come back a couple of hours later and get them and take them back home to mount. I always check and fix the pressure. This also removes the chance of getting your wheels scratched by a sloppy impact wrencher dude playing 'NASCAR tire changer'.

I also leave my nice little valve caps at home also, you'll never get them back.

Make sure if you get directional tires, that they are all mounted on the wheels and also on the car in the correct direction.

When I was in school, I worked part time at a large chain discount store in the auto department. Every Saturday morning we had to come in 30 min early where we all were given a pep talk and handed a list of items (certain tires in certain sizes, shocks of a certain level, those rubber blocks that you hammer in between the coil springs, etc). If we sold anything on the list that day, we got cash at the end of the day. Needless to say, we tried to push all that stuff hard.

YD

 

they don't care even if you DO get the tires from them.

 

had to chime in guys . . . I had an excellent experience . . . was bringing my mini back from purchase 1400 km from home . . . hit a winter storm . . . I was in a small town in BC and a local tire shop treated me like I was the most important person on the earth. Set me up with a set of sweet winter tires and sent me on my way. The manager called ahead to an affiliate tire shop and told them a red mini would be there in two hours with a torque tag.

I arrived they re-torqued my wheels and I was off in 5 mins. on my journey home.

Without these guys I would have been delayed 3 days min. or not made it home.

There are people who care and when you meet them charish them and send business their way.

The guys were Kal Tire in Salmon Arm BC.

 

Sears Tire & Auto...Nuff Said!!

 

These threads would be much shorter if we just posted our good experiences.

You are 100% correct dtm. When you find a good shop treat them well & send your friends there too.

 

I have found that no matter where you go chances are your tires will be over inflated and the lug nuts too tight.
Always check your pressure and reset the torque.

 

wow what a thing to say...even if you did buy it from them the mechanic could still half @$$ his job and still not care what he is doing...but for safety reasons you should file a complaint to sears so they can look into this problem...low air pressure on a hot day of driving can cause a tire to explode due to the extra friction added to the surface of the tire...were you installing RF snow tires? and your tire indicator light did not switch on with that pressure difference? ...hmm sounds like needs to be checked out...but to stay on topic write a letter online to the customer service department so they can fix the problem and not get into any lawsuits...but who knows crash your car and get a new one on them right due to faulty workmanship ...j/k...

 

Me too, thanks for the advice.

 

As soon as I read "...I went to Sears..." I knew you were in trouble. While there may be some decent Sears auto service locations, my exprience with them has been very poor in the past, and others I know share the same opinion. They have techs (or non-techs) that have no idea what they're doing, and no conception of customer service. Any independent tire shop is likely to provide better service.

 

I recently purchased tires at Costco (Commack, NY) and the installers did a perfect job. Not a mark on any rim, correct tire pressure all around, correct wheel torque. Also, this was on a BMW, and all four centering hubs were also cleaned and regreased as part of the installation. What's more, I didn't need to advise Costco on any of this, it's all part of their installation instructions, printed right on the receipt! I was very, very impressed with the quality of service. When my Clubman needs new shoes, I will certainly check out the selection at Costco.

 

Ron White audio stream about Sears installing tires (a few F words, so rated R) :
http://www.jibjab.com/view/99159

"Spinning me into a dimension of pissed off I've never been in my life..."
"He must have been sick on lugnut day"

 

I took my car to a local garage near where I work last year for state inspection, everything went fine. A month later I went to change my wheels after buying a new set. I grabbed by stock lug wrench from the back of the car, first bolt wouldn't budge, tried the other three on the wheel, couldn't move them. Grabbed a breaker bar for leverage, bent and cracked the lug wrench. Drove over to sears and bought a long bar and new socket with 1/2" adapter, first try and I snapped the adapter right off. Drove back to sears, exchanged it, went home, it snapped on second bolt. Drove back to sears and found a socket with a 1/2" drive so I wouldn't need an adapter. After two hours of back breaking struggle I finally got all the bolts loose. I was ready to firebomb that damn garage.

 

Sears had a tire sale last Saturday in Bellingham, WA and went to get GY Assurance Comfort Tred for my Honda. 4 tires varied from about 5-8 psi. Yea, always check it yourself.