Taking Issue with My Local Tire Auto Shop

[chapstic2001]

Won't get into the huge back story of my day, but it started off with a flat tire on my wife's Durango. We need this car to drive us to Boston on Thurs and I was supposed to be out of town today and tomorrow. I knee jerked and went to 'damn, I need a new tire.' They are 4years old and ~50k on them, which I know means the tires have plenty of life in them.

[Skipping drama]

Take it to my local tire joint, they are a big-ish chain here in the NoVA. Call the closest one and they said Thurs was the soonest they could get to it. Called the next closest and they said they could get the tire in and installed Wed. Perfect. Put down the req $50 deposit.

Gathered my thoughts. Yell'ed at myself for not just going the plug route. Called and voiced that to the dude. He said they'd def look at that, but the deposit was not refundable. Fine, Ill fall on that sword.

Got a call a couple hours later from him with this explanation why I now need FOUR tires. The screw went in sideway and compromised the sidewall. The tread depth was getting thin (the measurement I forget) and that there was dry rot. All the other tires are in similar shape, sans screw.

The one dug my heals in on was the screw angle. I told him, 'no, it went straight in and unless it was over 6" there is no way it is close to the sidewall even if it went in sideways. I am not buying your story. Tell the tech NOT to throw away the screw. I want to see it.'

REcall I said that the tire I put the deposit on that was not to arrive until tomorrow to install.............yeah, my car was ready for pick up today. I got the text notification at 6PM. The magic hour they close. Called at 6:15 when I saw the text, VM. I 10000000% bet they plugged it.

I leave you with this. Picts of the screw and the tire. The podium is open.

[MBAtarga]

Someone wanted commission on a set of tires

[porsche930dude]

You sound like the type of customer every shop doesnt want to deal with. A real PITA. You bought one new tire!? seriously. Either plug it or buy 4 new

[Brian 162]

I just returned from Florida, the tread depth on my tires were similar to your tire. I had no issues.
I had a similar screw in one of my winter tires.It was repaired and I drove to Arizona and back in January. Nothing happened.
I plugged hundreds of tires when I worked in a gas station 50 years ago. Your tire could be plugged or patched from the inside.
I would like to see the screw, after reading the description from the tire guy, I’m thinking grassy knoll.
Sadly, it’s getting harder to trust auto repair shops. I’ll only go to a place now if friend/family recommends the place.

[Baz]

I carry a plug kit in my truck. I've only had to use it once and it worked great! Screw in the front right tire - looked just like yours.

Ideally to have an impact wrench in the truck would be even better. I do that whenever i go on longer trips somewhere.

[Gogar]

Well time will tell and I bet you got a $50 plug and now you don't need to go to that shop again.

PS that photo is basically an advertisement for the home plug kit. It's pretty easy.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by MBAtarga

Someone wanted commission on a set of tires

Yep. Any place that you go for anything on a car potentially makes that you'll run into either unscrupulous or incompetent folks wanting to separate you from your money. The old theory that "they" will only try that crap on women is not true. I've seen them try it on plenty of men.

Originally Posted by porsche930dude

You sound like the type of customer every shop doesnt want to deal with. A real PITA. You bought one new tire!? seriously. Either plug it or buy 4 new

Two things, if they were trying to screw him, then screw them. I've had folks try to sell me brakes 100 times over the years because my "pads are thin" including one time when is port new pads in less than 2 months prior.

But with 50k miles on a set of tires yes, plug or at least replace both tires on the axle if not all four.

[chapstic2001]

The sad part is that I have the plug kit, I just didn't have the time.

[dad911]

I would take the plug since the tire is old. Get your money back for the new tire. If they won't reverse the charge take it up with your credit card company. BS on that screw hitting the sidewall.

On the other hand, about 6 years ago I got a nail in the sidewall of my kubota diesel tractor tire. The big tire on the rear. My framer had a plug kit, so we gave it a try. Not worried about a leak, it's offroad and slow, but it works hard. This thread reminded me that plug is still holding up.

[masraum]

I've plugged tires many, many times over the years in all sorts of cars. I usually use the sticky fiber/rope plugs. One time back in the nineties, I had an issue where I had a super slow leak in a tire. It ended up being a leak through the rope. At least after the plug was replaced the leak went away.


These days if you don't need to do the plug yourself, the way to go is to take the tire to the nearest Discount Tire where they'll install a plug-patch for free. I've never had anything but great service from Discount Tire.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by chapstic2001

The sad part is that I have the plug kit, I just didn't have the time.

Yeah, that does suck. The last tire that I plugged was on my wife's outback. I didn't even have to take the tire off of the car.

[A930Rocket]

Being in construction, screws and nails, find their way into tires quite frequently. I keep a couple of the tire plug kits in my truck and I’ve used them many times over the years.

[Bugsinrugs]

Two times it has happened to my daughter. Tire shop said they can’t fix and she needs 4 new tires. Two times I’ve plugged two different tires on her car. Still holding air.

[Baz]

This thread reminded me of the old Allied Discount Tire ads with Sam Behr.......

[WPOZZZ]

I use the regular rope plugs, but always wanted one of these.

[WPOZZZ]

I've also used the tire screw type, too.

[porsche tech]

That would have to be a pretty long screw to have reached the sidewall. Judging by the tire wear indicators in your picture, it doesn’t appear that you have “plenty of life left” in that tire.

I like the screw type plugs…haven’t seen that before. At my advanced age it’s getting harder and harder to muster the strength to push in the rope type plug!

[hcoles]

Why no mention of taking the tire off and patching from the inside? This assumes the sidewalls are okay.

[porsche930dude]

The best plugs are tech permacure II we have done many thousands of plugs over the past 30 years and they almost never come back leaking. The plug patches are good too for the larger holes but you need to remove the tire

[Norm K]

Originally Posted by chapstic2001

The sad part is that I have the plug kit, I just didn't have the time.

Sorry, not buying this, as plugging the tire would've taken less time than making the phone calls you cited.

_