Around 5 years ago when we moved to this neighborhood, I quickly became acquainted with the guys who ran the local repair shop, two brothers who had been at the same location since the early '70's. The shop, let's call it Shop"A", became the go-to place for our modern vehicles, and I began to take the T-Bird there for annual inspections. The gentlemen running Shop A were always helpful and were happy to recommend other shops, if a job was not in their wheelhouse. Which was the case about 2 years ago when I got radial tires (Coker 215/75R14 2 1/2" WWW) and wanted to get the front end aligned. The guys at Shop A recommended Shop B as the place to go to get the alignment done, so even though further away, I had Shop B mount the radials on my stock 14" steel wheels and do the alignment. All was right with the world! Meanwhile, the brothers at Shop A retired and sold to new ownership. Since Shop A still was close by, we stuck with the new owners & staff for routine maintenance on our modern cars, and things were fine.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I checked out 7 local bone yards looking for 14" wheels that will work with my upcoming disk brake conversion. I was batting zero for six, but scored these off a '90 something Ranger at the lucky 7th yard. This morning, I dropped the T-Bird at Shop A to have them mount my tires on the new wheels. When I dropped it off I mentioned that I didn't know if the lugs nuts were going to work or not, and I didn't have centers yet. Turns out the lugs didn't work, so @$5 per...oh well it's only money. Couple hours later comes the panicked phone call.
"Who mounted these tires for you? The beads are all messed up! We got one of them so seal alright, but this second one is really bad and won't seal. We decided to stop and have you take a look." I say,"They were mounted by Shop B a couple of years ago. Never had any problems...See you in a few." I drive over to Shop A and have a look. The bead on the tire is totally shot, front and back. The young mechanic doing the job is concerned that ALL four tires might be messed up, since the first two that he broke down were! So, I take the two tires that had not yet been dismounted from the wheels, along with the roached unmounted tire, over to Shop B.
The owner there remembered my car from two years ago and doing the job. I explained the situation, in that Shop A was implying that Shop B was somehow responsible for my tires being messed up, due to improper mounting. I explaining that I wanted him to dismount these two remaining tires so we could see if there was any damage. He initially asked if it could wait until tomorrow to dismount the tires, but when I said that my car was up on the lift at Shop A, he agreed to immediately dismount the two remaining tires to examine them for damage. Lo and behold, the beads were flawless! His mechanic was also kind enough to show me that, contrary to most modern wheels, disengaging the tire from these rims has to start ON THE BACK SIDE! This is apparently due to the stiffer construction on the front side of the wheel, which doesn't allow enough flex for that first dismounting move. Who knew? I sure didn't. Shop B charged me nothing for disrupting his afternoon workflow with an inaccurate accusation from a competing shop. Something to think about...
So, back to Shop A...with the now dismounted tires and a very clear picture of where and how my tires got damaged. The young Shop A mechanic greeted me with "How did it go?" I said, "Well I got good news and bad news. The good news is that the beads on the two tires that you did not touch were, in fact, flawless. The bad news is that if you started the removal process from the front side instead of the back side, then YOU damaged the beads, not the previous installer." Crickets from the young mechanic, and at this point the owner of Shop A came over and I explained the situation again to him. He stated that he had never heard of such a thing in 35 years of mounting tires, but his young mechanic did acknowledge that he started the dismount process with the front side up!
So, as result Shop A is buying me two new tires. They will not be touching the T-Bird again, and I may need to reconsider them as my go-to for the modern vehicles.
Lot's of lessons for everybody on this one.
Cheers!
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I checked out 7 local bone yards looking for 14" wheels that will work with my upcoming disk brake conversion. I was batting zero for six, but scored these off a '90 something Ranger at the lucky 7th yard. This morning, I dropped the T-Bird at Shop A to have them mount my tires on the new wheels. When I dropped it off I mentioned that I didn't know if the lugs nuts were going to work or not, and I didn't have centers yet. Turns out the lugs didn't work, so @$5 per...oh well it's only money. Couple hours later comes the panicked phone call.
"Who mounted these tires for you? The beads are all messed up! We got one of them so seal alright, but this second one is really bad and won't seal. We decided to stop and have you take a look." I say,"They were mounted by Shop B a couple of years ago. Never had any problems...See you in a few." I drive over to Shop A and have a look. The bead on the tire is totally shot, front and back. The young mechanic doing the job is concerned that ALL four tires might be messed up, since the first two that he broke down were! So, I take the two tires that had not yet been dismounted from the wheels, along with the roached unmounted tire, over to Shop B.
The owner there remembered my car from two years ago and doing the job. I explained the situation, in that Shop A was implying that Shop B was somehow responsible for my tires being messed up, due to improper mounting. I explaining that I wanted him to dismount these two remaining tires so we could see if there was any damage. He initially asked if it could wait until tomorrow to dismount the tires, but when I said that my car was up on the lift at Shop A, he agreed to immediately dismount the two remaining tires to examine them for damage. Lo and behold, the beads were flawless! His mechanic was also kind enough to show me that, contrary to most modern wheels, disengaging the tire from these rims has to start ON THE BACK SIDE! This is apparently due to the stiffer construction on the front side of the wheel, which doesn't allow enough flex for that first dismounting move. Who knew? I sure didn't. Shop B charged me nothing for disrupting his afternoon workflow with an inaccurate accusation from a competing shop. Something to think about...
So, back to Shop A...with the now dismounted tires and a very clear picture of where and how my tires got damaged. The young Shop A mechanic greeted me with "How did it go?" I said, "Well I got good news and bad news. The good news is that the beads on the two tires that you did not touch were, in fact, flawless. The bad news is that if you started the removal process from the front side instead of the back side, then YOU damaged the beads, not the previous installer." Crickets from the young mechanic, and at this point the owner of Shop A came over and I explained the situation again to him. He stated that he had never heard of such a thing in 35 years of mounting tires, but his young mechanic did acknowledge that he started the dismount process with the front side up!
So, as result Shop A is buying me two new tires. They will not be touching the T-Bird again, and I may need to reconsider them as my go-to for the modern vehicles.
Lot's of lessons for everybody on this one.
Cheers!
Comment