F my Life

[Bmwman528e]

Well. I need to vent a little. I bought a set of rims from a bimmerforum member. M5 replica's. They were chrome and badly pitted. I had them refinished for $300. Then I bought a set of barely used 18" tires from a bimmerforum member for $250. I havent unpacked them since I bought them because I was waiting til I wanted to have them mounted. Today I drop off the Wheels and Tires off of at my local tire company. They call me at 3pm and say that 2 of the wheels wont hold air due to being bent. And one of the tires Bead is fu**ed from whoever dismounted them last. So now I have about $700 of worthless crap. F My Life. Dont cheap out on rims and tires it will come back to bite you in the a$s. I dont know if the people that sold this stuff to me knew of this but if they did kharma is a Bit&h.

[badwayz]

Sorry about your misfortune, that sucks.

[bimmer speeder]

Ive had a few ripped deals of my own.... not fun.

[DrewDude320i]

Originally Posted by Bmwman528e

Well. I need to vent a little. I bought a set of rims from a bimmerforum member. M5 replica's. They were chrome and badly pitted. I had them refinished for $300. Then I bought a set of barely used 18" tires from a bimmerforum member for $250. I havent unpacked them since I bought them because I was waiting til I wanted to have them mounted. Today I drop off the Wheels and Tires off of at my local tire company. They call me at 3pm and say that 2 of the wheels wont hold air due to being bent. And one of the tires Bead is fu**ed from whoever dismounted them last. So now I have about $700 of worthless crap. F My Life. Dont cheap out on rims and tires it will come back to bite you in the a$s. I dont know if the people that sold this stuff to me knew of this but if they did kharma is a Bit&h.

Don't be so quick to blame bimmerforums members. I have a friend who took a set of extremly expensive e24 wheels to discount tire to have tires mounted, and they bent all four of them and tried to blame him. They came back with three and said they were bent before, and he said that it was their fault, and then watched them bend the fourth. Needless to say, he was pissed.

It very well could be that the guy at the tire place (who probably had 4 hours of training for his job) bent the wheels and doesn't want to fess up.

[Bmwman528e]

How do you bend wheels so bad that they wont hold air on a tire machine?? Also the leaks were coming from the back side of the rim.

The Tires I purchased were also dry rotted to no tomorrow. Which I also never looked at because I just took them to the shop which was my own fault but the bimmerforum member that sold them to me definately knew they were dry rotted and didnt mention it at all in their post.

[cos95m3]

Ouch. good luck!

[atropine]

One of the Discount Tire locations near me seems to have some sort of scam going on about "bent" rims. I first had them tell me that one of the aftermarket aluminum wheels on my Civic was bent. They "proved" it to me by bringing me into the shop and showing me how the wheel was "hopping" on the balancing machine. This was on a set of wheels that had about 50k miles on them and I had put on the day I bought the car brand new off the Honda lot. I had never hit anything remotely hard enough to have bent a wheel and no one else ever drove my car. So they sold me 4 new wheels. After multiple attempts to balance the new tires/wheels, they finally put some hubcentric spacers on which fixed the problem. I should have kept the old wheels but I was kind of dumb at the time. I later sold the Civic and bought a 96 M3 with the stock Contour wheels. It drove perfectly with no wheel shake. I went in for new tires and they told me that one of my Contours was bent and should be replaced. I told them "no thanks" this time and just put the new tires on; of course it drove just fine and worked great for the next 10k miles until I sold the car. When it came time to put new tires on the next car (a 95 M3) on went to a different Discount Tire location because I was tired of the old location. No problems mounting the Star Specs on the new car. But about a month ago I was in a hurry to get the tires swapped out so I took it into the original Discount location (which is closest to me). While I was waiting, the salesman came into the waiting room to tell the lady next to me that she has a bent wheel on her car it needs to be replaced. Coincidence? Is there a wheel-bending epidemic going on in Las Vegas? Curious, I think...... In retrpospect, I am suspicious that they "proved" my bent Civic wheel to me by not tightening the wheel down securely/evenly on the balancing machine. This may have nothing to do with your situation, but makes you wonder about what you are being told by shops sometimes.

[Go3Go]

^that's one of the shadiest things I've ever heard

[Black Stig]

atropine, is there a spot out around the shop where customers can watch the techs install the tires and balance them? I would seriously keep an eye on the guy doing your car next time. They can be rushing, just slap the wheel on the balancing machine and not take the time to make sure the wheel was installed correctly on it so its not evenly installed, and it would seem like the rim is bent. Can I ask which company you take your money too?

[atropine]

There is a window through which customers can observe the workbay area, but it is hard to see close enough to really tell what any individual tech is doing right or wrong. I decided to just try a different Discount Tire location and the guys at the new location have been very good so far. I have been using different Discount Tire locations for at least the past 7 years in 3 different states as we have moved, and have been quite satisfied for the most part.

[Hankdoll]

That sucks. Shame on the company that charged you $300 to refinish and didn't bother to tell you they were bent.

[Hellabad]

Originally Posted by Black Stig

atropine, is there a spot out around the shop where customers can watch the techs install the tires and balance them? I would seriously keep an eye on the guy doing your car next time. They can be rushing, just slap the wheel on the balancing machine and not take the time to make sure the wheel was installed correctly on it so its not evenly installed, and it would seem like the rim is bent. Can I ask which company you take your money too?

Actually, every tire balancing machine will automatically center the wheel unless you try real hard to make it off center.

Otherwise, nobodys wheels would ever be balanced. I mean, look at who does the balancing when you peer through that little window.

Jay from GC

[pac0]

OP, the shop that you had the wheels refinished at should have picked up on the bend if it was so badly warped that it wouldn't hold air. I wonder if there is anything you can do to have the tire mounting place take blame for the wheel with some sort of written document from the wheel refinishing shop? Just brainstorming

[Bmwman528e]

It was Harris Tire in Lynchburg, VA. Im taking the wheels to a wheel repair shop to see what they can do for me.

[EpDarks]

Figuring out if a wheel is bent isn't rocket science. Put some sort of rod through the center, hold them up, and give them a spin. You will be able to tell if the wheel is bent/out of round.

I recently bought a used pair of wheels/tires... all 4 were bent. I feel your pain.