Is This an Acceptable Solution?
 

The Nail

Saturday I'm washing the Mustang. I notice a nail in the thread right at the edge of the sidewall. I take the tire off an rush to the tire shop. They advise me that the tire will have to be replaced. This sucks. The car only has 2,400 miles on it since new. I leave the tire/rim at the shop and they'll order me a replacement on Monday.

I call the shop at 3:00 today and ask if my tire is done. They tell me yes. I swing by to pick it up and throw it in the back of the truck. I get home and get to work mounting the tire. I decide to examine the tire to see where they put the wheel weights............there are no wheel weights.............but there are eight or so scratches on the inside of the rim. They are about 1/16 of an inch deep. Not only have they scraped up the powder coating, they have displaced some of the aluminum to the point that the scrapes each have a sharp lip on each side.

I am understandably pissed off. I march back to the tire store to demand satisfaction. They put the tire on the balancer and confirm that it has not been balanced. They offer to have the inside of the rim powder coated at their expense.

I'm not sure this is good enough. The scratches were deep enough to displace some aluminum. The car wasn't even old enough for a tire rotation yet. Yeah, the nail wasn't the shop's fault, but they manage to royally **** up everything else. Should I be concerned about a failure down the road? Should I demand a new replacement rim?

I'd want a new rim. Period.
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Dunno what your car is but my Fiat Abarth never came with a spare...just a jack and a bottle of goop.
Searched and found a mint OEM rim in a salvage yard in Michigan...$135, shipped. Bought a new tire for it and mounted it behind the passenger seat where I removed the rear seats.
Bingo!
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Most rim clamps grip the inside of the rim with sharp little points . Got any pics ??

Inside of the rim? If it takes a balance I would be honestly blow it off. Outside of the rim would obviously be different story.

How do you think it's gonna look compared to the others after a few years?

New wheel. End of story.

rjp

Inside of rim...I forgot. Be a toss up for me. But I'd be pissed.
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Coin landed on heads...I'd want a new rim.

Any rim wheel services where you live? Maybe consult with one? On a virtually new car? Yeah, odds are I'd want a new wheel.

Exactly what I'm thinking. No way around it...

Tire monkey put it on the balancer, did not clamp it right, tore it up, and set it aside without any indication he had worked on it all. They figured it must have been balanced, loose wheel here all day with new tire on it.

It would depend on how bad it was. They dinged the clearcoat on some alloy wheels mounting tires for me, and they refinished the wheel. Came back looking fine. Gouged up, even on the back, I just don't know.

I have a habit of handing a $10 bill to tire mounting monkeys at bike shops and saying, "This is for not scratching my rims."
Have had great luck.
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I know...not on topic.

Don't you just love when someone not only does not complete the job you've paid for - but then introduces a whole new set of issues that will cost you additional time and money?

If I only had a dollar for each time something like that has happened..................

had a shop fess up to taking the finish off the lip of a brand new wheel for my range rover. I was sorely pissed. They offered to have it refinished and if I did not like it, would replace the rim. Refinish was great and has held up. They were stand up about it and I was firm, but tried to be reasonable. Was a glitch in their mounting machine.

It's Not About the Nail :cool:

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^^^ Nice!

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Lol at Paul's post, that's a classic.

I've seen our local Alloy Wheel Repair place take a wheel that looked like hell and make it like new. If they spring for a full professional refinish I wouldn't be concerned, especially on the inside of the wheel.

It would be interesting to see some pictures, but unless you can see it from the other side, it doesn't sound like a problem. It's aluminum, so the scratches won't rust. I'm sure the balancing will adjust for any thousandths of an ounce of weight that was scratched away.

Ask them for half off or a free tire and move on.

^^^^^ what he said.

If you keep your wheels perfect and take the time to wash the inside I would not accept powder coating scratches that deep. On my Suburban I would not care. I’d be annoyed but it is a truck to me. On my daily driver which has nice alloys I would be getting a new wheel.
Either way you need a new tire place. I have been using the same shop for years and no way they would let that go out the door.

I would be really upset. You deserve satisfaction on this.

I can understand being upset.

If a car has sentimental value, you take care of it top and bottom equally so. Of course, nobody else cares and this dichotomy is near the top of problems with cars (or anything really) of sentimental value. Sucks.