Is It Possible To Bend A Wheel During Tire Dismount Or Install?

[justflyin83]

I recently purchased new factory rims for my is350 as my old one were pitting around the center caps. The wheels were bought off of ebay from a Lexus dealer. The wheels were mounted on a 2009 is350 and were never driven on the road. The customer wanted other wheels so they were dismounted prior to delivery to the customer. When I got the wheels they were prestine and were actually in toyota boxes. with felt covers over them. I insepcted each wheel thoroughly and only find a small hairline sratch in one of them, otherwise they were perfect. I brought my car to discount tire and had the new Continental DWS's installed (awesome tire btw!). My appointment was at 4pm and they finished at 5:30pm which it was already dark outside. I brought my car home which is no more than 2 miles down the road and parked it in my garage so I can take a closer look at the tires and the tread pattern. Upon inspection I immediately noticed one of my brand new rims had paint chipped off around the center caps about 1.5 inches long. As a matter of fact 3 out of the 4 rims had paint chipped 1 slight, one moderate, and one extreme down to the bar aluminum. Also upon further inspection I noticed that 3 of my rims were slightly bent around the lip. they each had a mark on the very top edge of the lip about 1.5 inches long where there tire almost covers it. One rims had no damage whatsoever but both my rear rims have significant damage from the bent lip. You can tell it was done recently and was also done by a tool or machine and not a pothole. The bend is clean but very noticable. I called discount tire and they are owning up to the paint chips but they say that it's absolutely impossbile to bend a rim while mounting a tire, they said it would require significant force which is just not possible for their equipment or tools. I'd like to take thir word for it but the reality is that I inspected each wheel twice, one when they were delivered and once prior to bringing them to the tire shop. These bends were absolutely not their before because I check oall outer edges and it's also very noticable.

Do anyone have any advice to shed on this? Any tire installers out there willing to shed some light? I'm very concerned and I may take this up with corporate if it's not resolved.

[DRJAMZ]

I recently purchased new factory rims for my is350 as my old one were pitting around the center caps. The wheels were bought off of ebay from a Lexus dealer. The wheels were mounted on a 2009 is350 and were never driven on the road. The customer wanted other wheels so they were dismounted prior to delivery to the customer. When I got the wheels they were prestine and were actually in toyota boxes. with felt covers over them. I insepcted each wheel thoroughly and only find a small hairline sratch in one of them, otherwise they were perfect. I brought my car to discount tire and had the new Continental DWS's installed (awesome tire btw!). My appointment was at 4pm and they finished at 5:30pm which it was already dark outside. I brought my car home which is no more than 2 miles down the road and parked it in my garage so I can take a closer look at the tires and the tread pattern. Upon inspection I immediately noticed one of my brand new rims had paint chipped off around the center caps about 1.5 inches long. As a matter of fact 3 out of the 4 rims had paint chipped 1 slight, one moderate, and one extreme down to the bar aluminum. Also upon further inspection I noticed that 3 of my rims were slightly bent around the lip. they each had a mark on the very top edge of the lip about 1.5 inches long where there tire almost covers it. One rims had no damage whatsoever but both my rear rims have significant damage from the bent lip. You can tell it was done recently and was also done by a tool or machine and not a pothole. The bend is clean but very noticable. I called discount tire and they are owning up to the paint chips but they say that it's absolutely impossbile to bend a rim while mounting a tire, they said it would require significant force which is just not possible for their equipment or tools. I'd like to take thir word for it but the reality is that I inspected each wheel twice, one when they were delivered and once prior to bringing them to the tire shop. These bends were absolutely not their before because I check oall outer edges and it's also very noticable.

Do anyone have any advice to shed on this? Any tire installers out there willing to shed some light? I'm very concerned and I may take this up with corporate if it's not resolved.

Sorry to hear about you unfortunate experience. Do you have any pics you can post? You have to be very careful now days to whom you have mount tires on these expensive wheels especially the painted ones. If it was me, I'd be climbing the coporate ladder if the shop is not willing to work with you. I'm no expert on mounting tires and don't know if the machines they use can cause damage or not however, you seem to be pretty sure of yourself of their condition prior to handing them over to the shop for installation and I have no reason to doubt your assessment. Again, these wheels aren't cheap and I know your inspection was thorough. As for any advice, reccommend you go to the following site and find a repair shop near you to get an estimate of what the cost to repair will be. http://www.awrswheelrepair.com Questions I have are: How can they own up to the chips and not the bends? What reputable installer would not mention the fact that you are requesting new tires installed on bent rims? It doesn't make sense. You would think once the installer noticed the damage, he or she would stop to make sure the customer is aware before proceeding. I just replaced my front tires I bought online and had the dealer install them. They were a little higher of course but I was able to keep my peace of mind. Recommendation to all; whenever replacing tires, go over the condition of your wheels with the installer or better yet the manager to identify and document any discrepancies prior to any work being done. If they have a problem with that, take your business elsewhere. Good luck in getting this resolved to your satisfaction and keep us posted on the outcome. Oh yeah, make sure you check them out on the Better Business Bureau website to see if there are any similiar complaints against them that could be used in your favor.

[justflyin83]

You did bring up a very good point which I didn;t think of. If the shop is saying they didn't bend the rims then why would he not inform me that they were bent when he was mounting the tires at the time. Needless to say I was getting the run around but they were owning up the the chipped paint but not the bend. The assistance manager said it's very possible to chip the paint. I find that absolutely insane that is possible! Needless to say the assistance managers weren;t giving any help so I decided to climb my way up the corporate ladder. I contact a Discount Tire site vendor on the my.is forums. He sent my complaint to corporate where I got three calls within an hour. The second to last call was from a regional manager who was very plite and apologized for my inconvenience. He stated that the store manager would call me. As soon as I hung up with him the store manager called 5 minutes later. I brought my car in and he took a look at it, once again owning up the chipped paint but did not know how the bends could happen as nothing they have could cause that sort of bend. Funny thing was that when I spoke with the regional manager he said it's not impossible for a tire installer to bend a rim. After the store manager looked more closely at the bends he did not own up to it but he did agree to fix. After looking at the bends I think he could tell it was not caused from a pothole, the bends were very clean and all the same size and shape on all four wheels.discount tire dismounted the tires from the wheels this past Saturday and sent them in to get reapired on Monday, I should have them back tomorrow. The store manager personally took the tires off himself and i'm going to make sure he personally put them back on himself. I haven't got my wheels back yet but I have to say I am very pleased with the service discount tire provided, atleast it's corporate end. It's good to see that there is still some customer service out there. In the end I know it was their fault even though they have not owned up to both claims. Mistakes do happen, no one is perfect but you must own up to them in order to keep customers.

[lambobaby1218]

I hope it gets worked out for you and everything is as good as new.

My husband had an E55 with defective tires that got replaced under warranty. He took it to the dealer, and when he got the car back, all wheels had chips in them. And, of course, the dealer said they didn't do it. They finally fixed it after a week of haggling. I can't believe how insane some ppl are!

[justflyin83]

Yeah I do find it to be insane for as expensive and nice looking as wheels are i'm suprised that tire shops don't take special care. These are steelies with hubcaps!