Anybody else totally cringe when thinking about the service guy in a hurry coming at your beautiful, coated aluminum wheels with an impact gun?

I had my 10,000 mile service Saturday and I was really not looking forward to that part. I have done this in my garage with other vehicles, but it's a real pain with one hydraulic jack and jack stands.

So after the service I drove over to a empty corner of the dealer's lot and gave everything a good once-over before leaving.

Not good enough - I found a nice ding near the valve stem while washing the car yesterday. How am I positive they did it? This is the 1 wheel I curbed pretty badly a few months ago and had replaced with a new one.

 

Go back and demand a new wheel!

 

Rotating tires is a very simple task. I would never...ever let a "garage" perform this job for reasons such as you described

 

i use my IR 2135Ti on all my lugnuts. i usually use a normal socket though. and retorque with a click bar torque wrench

 

My dad has a full garage where he lives. Heat & A/C, full lift, air compressor, you name it. I do all the work for my car in there. I use the impact gun on my wheels, but I TAKE MY TIME! I make sure I put the socket on the lugnuts slowly, then press the trigger.

 

I do mine with a torque wrench to make sure that never happens. Sorry to hear about the damage, hopefully the dealer will fix it.

 

i have heard using a torque wrench to loosen bolts can cause prematur loss of calibration. i guess it depends on the wrench though

 

Never happens at my dealer

 

Heh... they are just lug nuts... lighten up people...

I use my impact gun on my wheels with impunity. No damage, dings, or worries here. (shrug)

 

NEVER use a torque wrench to loosen bolts, only to tighten. Most good (Snap On, etc.) torque wrenches aren't even reversible.

 

I believe that the thread owner is talking about more than lug nuts. Read it again... The reason why you are able to perform this task with impunity is because you are either very talented, or IT'S BECAUSE IT'S YOUR CAR AND YOU'RE CAREFUL. He wasn't as concerned about impact guns, but the damage to his wheel cause by negligence- which is typical when you have a "garage" rotate your tires.

 

It's not that, I just think there are worse things to worry about than wheel damage from simply removing and resetting wheels.

I mean come on... how many wheels are REALLY damaged by shops on a daily basis?

I'd be more worried about, say, damage as a result of mounting/dismounting the tire from the rim. But rotation of tires? Not feeling it here. Methinks thou dost worry too much.

 

Goodyear gives me lifetime rotate and balance for my tires. I don't worry about my wheels, they're only stock wheels and it's only a mustang, not an Enzo.

However, the last time that I had my tires rotated and balanced, I stood there and watched the guy drive it around the building and into a service bay. When I get ready to go, the shift **** is loose and on backwards. The car practically never left my eye sight, it goes from the front of the building around to back of the building and shift **** comes loose?--WTF?!

 

Go staggered/directional and you won't have to worry....

 

ok someone else on the same page!!!


and besides the idea of the tech being in a hurry is a consequence of flat rate, and nothing more. if he saves ten minutes, his actual hourly rate for that day goes up.

 

I wouldn't bother with tire rotations to be perfectly honest. My tire treads don't last long enough!!!

 

Bring it into the dealership, if they deny they did it then as for the next manager up the chain explaining how unacceptible that it is to do this to a customers car. Then find a better dealership one that you can trust next time. I have never had any issues with my car. I complained that a mechanic touched the car after I had waxed it and he got grease on and they didn't hesitate to detail it for free, whenever I wanted to bring it in.

 

W H A T !!!

Guys... GET A ROPE !!!

 

Thanks for the suggestions. The reason I did the inspection on the spot was to have better leverage in case something happened. I should have taken more time. Things like this are pretty tough to argue after the fact and the non-**** would tell me to lighten up anyway as my Mustang is a daily driver and the blemish is small.

I also had to clean up the very obvious oil ring on the plastic radiator cover from where the tech put the oil cap oily side down.

I just miss the days when people had more care about other's things and more pride in their work. And I figured I would bring this up as a warning for those that have not had rotations done at the dealership yet.

Many moons ago I had a brand new (1st Year) Toyota MR2. After just an oil change, I found that somebody, somehow had dropped battery acid onto the engine cover (it would be the hood if it was a front engine car). I took it back and they repainted the entire panel under warranty. That MR2 was my last new car before this one. To be honest, things like this are something I have not missed with all my used cars in between.

I'll just do my rotations myself in the future.

 

Holy Crap!!!