What's new
By:
Filters

Tire Shop WTFs

300sniper

300sniper

Gun Plumber
Joined
May 20, 2020
Member Number
695
Messages
429
Loc
Greenwood, CA
Need tires for my wife's Jeep Patriot. It has 205/70R16s, which is an oddball size I guess. The only name brand tires I could find for it in the past were Goodyear trash tires. I always prefer name brand so I stuck with them. Supposedly there are some Coopers that are better, and they probably are.

I started thinking about switching from 205/70R16 to 215/65R16 to open up the options. It got to the point where I was going to make an appointment to get tires in that size, and the guy comes back on the phone, uh, we can't sell smaller tires, only bigger.... The tires are so close in size it really surprised me.

Seriously? I think even Costco will go up or down one aspect ratio going off memory. Is this normal?

(Not a car guy anymore, just want quality tires)
 
Sounds like just a crappy shop to me, I've never had an issue with going slightly bigger or smaller on tires and I seem to always use a different shop in a different state whenever I need tires, had one or two fellas told me they weren't responsible if the speedo was off or something rubbed or broke but never been told no.
 
Brian468 said:
Sounds like just a crappy shop to me, I've never had an issue with going slightly bigger or smaller on tires and I seem to always use a different shop in a different state whenever I need tires, had one or two fellas told me they weren't responsible if the speedo was off or something rubbed or broke but never been told no.
Click to expand...
He even told me when the speedometer reads 60mph, I'll actually be doing 59.7...

Yeah, on this old analog speedo that's gonna matter!
 
It's beyond retarded, my dad went to Sams to have a leak checked on a tire (installed at Sams club). They had it for 45 mins and told him they couldn't check it as they couldn't remove the tire. The lugnuts had swollen and would not come off. They couldn't do anything else and he would have to have someone replace the lug nuts first. :shaking: He argued with the for about2 mins before walking out.
 
Discount told me they won’t mount 285/45r22 on my QX80 that has 275/50r22…. 275 is super oddball. They said it was liability.
 
I worked for sears doing tires and batteries 20+ years ago. I bet I could have found a reason to not work on every car that came in if I followed all the required rules they had. I'm sure it's not gotten any better.

I can just about guarantee that lawyers are to blame.
 
People will sue if they crash and the wrong size tires are on the car. Especially a National chain tire store with deep pockets. Even if the store wins, they spent $50k defending themselves in court and got some negative publicity.
 
I had discount tell me they wouldn't put 285's on my 07 years ago. When I informed them the current tires are 285's that THEY installed, they retorted some bullshit about wheel width. I told them to pull the tire and I'll measure the wheel since they were so ignorant.


Anyway, I got the tires and haven't had an issue since.


They must've "marked my file" :flipoff2::lmao:
 
Discount Tire is my go to tire place, never an issue, I got money and they will sell what I want, pretty simple.
 
300sniper said:
I think even Costco will go up or down one aspect ratio going off memory. Is this normal?

(Not a car guy anymore, just want quality tires)
Click to expand...
Costco has some arbitrary 3% rule. they won't install tires that are 3% different in any direction height and width. It is dumb as fuck, and really annoying.

might be worth it to just bring in the wheels, but that would probably void tread life warranty
 
Weasel said:
It's beyond retarded, my dad went to Sams to have a leak checked on a tire (installed at Sams club). They had it for 45 mins and told him they couldn't check it as they couldn't remove the tire. The lugnuts had swollen and would not come off. They couldn't do anything else and he would have to have someone replace the lug nuts first. :shaking: He argued with the for about2 mins before walking out.
Click to expand...
Same shit happened to my mom at a Ford dealership. They sold her a complete set lug lugnuts for the truck. Stated that someone used an impact tool and damaged them. I find out and have a little chat with the service manager explaining that his same dealership tossed in a service contract with the purchase of the truck. Told him I could provide him with copies of his on service records and explained his techs were the only ones to touch the truck.
He crawlfished but couldn't refund the charges. He did provide 10 free oil change services.

I later researched and found out Ford had a class action lawsuit brewing over those damn chromed lugnuts we all hate.
 
I got a bit of runaround from Costco on swapping my Outback from 225/60 to 225/65 a while back, the website said they could refuse to do it, on the phone the local store was wishy-washy, in person, they were "yeah, whatever, that's close enough we don't care". I wanted the 65's because I could get severe snow rated all season tires in that size, but couldn't get what I wanted in the 60's.
When I did the same to a second Outback I didn't even tell them anything was other-than-ordinary, just ordered the tires, showed up for the appointment, and no questions at all.
Your speedo is probably off by more than 60/59.7 now; crosschecking vs. GPS, the speedos in both my Outbacks are actually accurate with the "wrong" size tires on the cars, and were off by ~4mph at 75 with the "right" size.
Anyway, Costco was good for me, just ordered what I wanted online, made an appointment, they did it. Discount has been good for me in the past with everything but beadlocks (I don't expect anyone to deal with beadlocks though), or for really weird stuff, Brad's Tire (local tire guy, oldschool pay cash and bring beer, and as long as it doesn't tear up the equipment, anything can be made to happen).
 
Yeah, when we were first discussing the size change, he ran the calculations and even said the theoretical difference in diameter was .3" smaller, but said that the same size in different brands/styles often varies more than that.
 
Weasel said:
It's beyond retarded, my dad went to Sams to have a leak checked on a tire (installed at Sams club). They had it for 45 mins and told him they couldn't check it as they couldn't remove the tire. The lugnuts had swollen and would not come off. They couldn't do anything else and he would have to have someone replace the lug nuts first. :shaking: He argued with the for about2 mins before walking out.
Click to expand...
Elephantids of the lug nuts?
 
Roc Doc said:
Elephantids of the lug nuts?
Click to expand...
:lmao:

d1c4e222-584c-4e92-8208-8fffcd30f3b9_text.gif
 
Discount tire will not install a load range 123-4 on an f350.

F250? No problem. F350 - even if it’s the identical truck - nope
 
Void_of_Light said:
I worked for sears doing tires and batteries 20+ years ago. I bet I could have found a reason to not work on every car that came in if I followed all the required rules they had. I'm sure it's not gotten any better.

I can just about guarantee that lawyers are to blame.
Click to expand...
Me too, but we weren't too fussy.
 
300sniper said:
Yeah, when we were first discussing the size change, he ran the calculations and even said the theoretical difference in diameter was .3" smaller, but said that the same size in different brands/styles often varies more than that.
Click to expand...
A whole whopping quarter inch (and a bit for the pendantic in the crowd) they are giving you grief over? Whats the thread depth? Might want to ask what happens as a tire wears out if they don't want to sell you a tire .3" smaller... in DIAMETER.
 
this is why I found a old tire machine and have it out on the shed
I just order online, and fix my own flats. It is cheaper, easier, and quicker
you can pick up the used tires you want, peel the rims out and sell the rims for most of what you purchased the tire/rim combo for

I think I picked it up for a couple hundred years ago,
patch kits are pennies
 
SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
this is why I found a old tire machine and have it out on the shed
I just order online, and fix my own flats. It is cheaper, easier, and quicker
you can pick up the used tires you want, peel the rims out and sell the rims for most of what you purchased the tire/rim combo for

I think I picked it up for a couple hundred years ago,
patch kits are pennies
Click to expand...
The catch is that a lot of the older ones won't do 18"+ rims that new shit comes with though.
 
AKnate said:
Me too, but we weren't too fussy.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I only refused to work on one, it was a totally custom low rider with tiny knock off wheels. He even brought the lead hammer to get them off. I used the must torque lug nuts by hand rule to get out of that one. Our manager agreed fully. :laughing:
 
Sam's Club will go up or down one size but need me to sign a waiver. And the Goodyear Assurance All-Seasons are damn cheap being a Plus Member!
 
I was surprised when I was able to put my new tires on at Discount Tire. I actually had to stop 50ft away from the parking lot and bend my mud flap brackets backwards cause the truck was rubbing without any weight in the truck. :laughing:

Les Schwab is a "liability" fucking C word. Add a surcharge to mount and balance wheels out of their brands. Wont guarantee shit blah blah blah.
 
arse_sidewards said:
The catch is that a lot of the older ones won't do 18"+ rims that new shit comes with though.
Click to expand...
We modified ours a little to do 18’s but couldn’t do 20’s on it no matter what. Can squeak 18’s by but wouldn’t do them for someone who would have a shit fit over a tooling mark on their big gay wheels.
 
JR4X said:
We modified ours a little to do 18’s but couldn’t do 20’s on it no matter what. Can squeak 18’s by but wouldn’t do them for someone who would have a shit fit over a tooling mark on their big gay wheels.
Click to expand...
I'm thinking of picking up a spare tool for my center post and cutting and welding it so it's long enough to do the bigger rims. For bead breaking I don't need the machine since I have one of those little clamp tools.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Back Refresh