Tyre shop damaged all of my wheels

[Smart320]

I drove a 120 mile round trip on Wednesday to go down to Micheldever Tyres to replace the four run flats (and do the tracking) on my (cough) 535d. They have such a smooth and very visible operation that, IMHO, it's worth it to get the job done professionally

OK, it's a luxury of being retired, maybe, but to me it's worth it for the confidence of knowing that those four tyres supporting a 2 tonne car at (cough) 70 mph are exactly as they should be.

I used them a few years ago when I had to replace all 4 tyres on my XJR . It was a similar 160 miles round trip but was worth every penny in petrol. A very slick turnaround and an excellent price, would certainly pay them another visit if I needed all my ML tyres replaced at same time

 

[cjp2k]

Well i finally have written liability, they want to get them refurbed by a local alfa romeo dealer, I have said fine but I want confirmation they will match the remainder of my Mercedes-Benz warranty for the repair, which I doubt they will

 

[ferg f]

I only use my local dealer for fitting new tyres. They sometimes are competitive and other times they are miles appart with their price. But they do not have an issue if I supply the tyre and they fit it for me for a very reasonable sum.

At least this way I know they take care and they know I keep my car immaculate and we check the wheels every time before they take the car through to the workshop.

 

[Rory]

I bought my current set of tyres from the place that refurbished my wheels. I figured that these people would know how to handle a wheel without damaging it

The people that refurbed my wheels said even they damage them now and again when refitting tyres - he said it's just one of those things, no matter how careful you are, something slips or whatever, and the wheel is damaged.

I've tried all sorts of places and they generally make me wince. I travelled to Warington to a well regarded independent place and they broke the surface right around the rims on the first rear tyre change on my C Class. Then I got the "it was like that when you came in" malarkey. Took daughter's basic Golf, which very oddly had diamond cut wheels to another indie and they didn't seem to take any particular care, but there wasn't a mark on the wheels afterwards.

I find Costco (Chester in my case) good, and I always assume if there was a problem they'd sort it out but I've never had to test that. However the guys there are very pedantic about tyre rotation etc.

 

[gr1nch]

I've always trusted the tyre shops I've used to not damage my wheels and have never checked unless they reported a problem to me. I'll pay closer attention in future!

Having said that I'll never go back to Kwikfit who sheared off a couple of my bolts and blamed them on being weak! They were factory Saab in free condition. It took a long while and aggro to get a satisfactory outcome.

With my current car (W222) I use a local independent for tyres that I'm happy with, but I'll have a chat with them next time and see what tools they use etc

 

[MrRight]

I dont really trust tyre fitters very much. Much less since i got my winter tyres put on new rims. The rims had a staggered set up and the tyres did to. Essentially what those cowboys did was stick on the wrong width rubber on the wrong rims. So one 8.5J rim had the 265 width, the other 9.5j rim had the 245. Only when they tried to drive off did they discover one of the front wheels refused to turn. initially they tried to blame to rims until it became quite obvious a staggered set up usually involves the front and back tyres rather than the left vs right tyres hahaha