I go in for a tire repair, loses enough pressure to trigger a TPMS light in five days. Repair on Tuesday, allegedly inflate all tires to 37 psi but light still on. Tech says “it’ll reset, drive it.Note nothing said about tire tread depth,any wheel problems, nothing. Mainly short trips in that time, four or five miles at a time.

Thursday light still on, check pressure. RF and RR tires at 25psi. Reinflate. Now on to Saturday, light back on, So back to the store. Pressure in RR was correct, low only in RF so they f***** up a pressure check on all tires that they performed at the time of repair, that’s why the light was on from the get go.

Now suddenly the new salesman says “You need to replace these tires, they’re getting close to 4/32” and I said “not even close to the wear bars, they have less than 40k on them and three years old” so off he goes to take the Jeep in the shop. About a half hour later now suddenly I need to replace my wheels because of bead corrosion. I said did you clean and use sealer on them?
Of course that’s not the answer he wants to hear, he replies with excuses how that’s just going to cause more corrosion and wheels and tires were the sure fix. Oh, they have financing available too. Not trying to be a cheap ass but it’s got 138k on it, already scheduled in the spring for a body rust condition at the right rear corner, bight the panel, going to be 900-1k to replace, paint and reassemble. Replaced the interior with a Katzskin kit, I maintain it but don’t toss money around when not needed to. And if I replace the wheels it’ll be a off road rated wheel, not a “bling bling” thing.

Screw that, not going to happen. My suggestion to swap out the spare’s wheel was dismissed “you’ll still have the problem”. Sure, but I could inner tube the spare tire, it’s only been on the ground probably nine years ago and only as a temporary spare since the tire size is different from what’s on the ground at present.

So I went to Belle Tire, he is willing to check to see if it’s the repair that’s leaking or the wheel, if the tire try and re repair it, wheel, clean and seal or to swap the spare wheel out at least and deal with the bad wheel later. But, he’s so backed up he is a week out for that type of work. So here I sit having to air up the tire three times a week until he can get me in.

Thing that pisses me off at Discount, I was supposed to go off roading tomorrow (Saturday) with my off road club and more importantly my S-I-L and grandson, about 300 miles round trip. I don’t want to try it and if the tire is screwed have a total failure and stuck in northern Michigan for a day or two.

Until it’s inspected and fixed I don’t want to risk it.

That's a real bummer, especially the missed kid/grandkid time.
I've been lucky that the 2 closest to me have never tried to shill me, even when something mightve been borderline.

Had an Acura that the tech said the wheel studs were about to fail
Wasn't sure how they could tell that, but they wouldn't put the tires on it due to that risk. Took it home & pulled the wheels myself, sure enough, 2 studs broke off the RF hub.
Threw the wheels in the wife's car & had them mount the tires & fixed the studs myself.

My Mercedes had a hairline [not leaking] crack in 1 wheel. Car was on its way to be traded in, so they just mounted the tires & I was on my way.

Most recently, had to go to a different DT, since my wife's truck had an unrepairable puncture & was close enough that we put 4 tires on it. Guy found an additional rebate to lessen the sticker shock of 4 20" Michelin tires.

I was pretty much done with them over one bad TPMS on each of our cars at different times. Each time they tried to pressure me into replacing all four as “they’re going to fail soon.” But I needed to get it looke at as I had a doctor appointment 35 miles away in two days and the weather prediction of lousy weather which turned out to be true that morning.

I didn’t want to have to change a flat as if that alleged patch was leaking, we have to deflate the tires down to around 15psi for off roading then reinflate. No fun changing a tire alongside I-75, my luck in Saginaw or Flint……

My Wrangler, well almost six years later and three of the OE’s are still on there at 138k. Wife’s, 48k at present also a 2012 and replaced one just before the ‘rona came around an the three OE’s are just fine.

The one thing I bring up to them is “almost a half century in dealership parts and we never replaced all four because one took a dump.” And the last dealership I worked was notorious for “banging” customers with “wallet flushes”, I trusted the service writers as far as I could throw them.

They think every elderly (I’m 72) is gullible as **** and that pisses me off. I always went by the credo “If I have to screw someone to make a paycheck I’m in the wrong business or place of business”

My dad did a bit over 30yrs in the car biz, all on the service side. Started as a teen changing tires & all the way up to fixed ops Mgr. Mostly GM [Chevrolet & Saturn] with a stint in Datsun/Nissan & Honda.
Seen/heard a lot of what you mention.

Your plan is to go off-roading in Northern Michigan in the winter with tires that have 4/32s of tread? At least you won't be on I-75 between Grayling and Gaylord.

They still use salt on the roads in Michigan? If I'm reading it right, your Wrangler is 11 or 12 years old with 138,000 miles. Maybe the guy was being truthful about the rims being corroded.

I bought Schrader TPMS sensors for my truck from Rockauto for $85 for all 4 of them. I don't know what Discount charges to replace them, but I figured for $21 a piece, I might as well do them all.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: trapper189,

I've had nothing but excellent service at Discount Tire over the years. Very helpful, with no upselling, and they're often cheaper OTD than sourcing the tires online and then having them installed. Only downside is that they're very busy so it can sometimes be challenging to get in for an appointment.

it takes a special device to do tread check, i was at discount for pressure check this week...the tech didn't have the tread checker with him.

sometimes driving doesn't reset, each wheel needs to be reset manually.

discount sure as shit isn't going to put a 9 year old spare on the ground but belle was willing to put the spare on the ground!!

Timely post! Our cold snap last week caused a pressure loss in all four tires, just enough to cause the dash light to come on. I went to a local tire shop to correct the issue but found the metal decorative valve caps had corroded to the valve stems and would not come off. Local shop said make an appointment and we will replace all 4. I thought I would try Discount Tire and see what they offered. They looked over the situation and told me to bring it back later in the afternoon and they would replace all four valve stems. Free. No cost. Which they did! Cant beat that kind of service. I want to support a local operation but Discount blew away the locals on this problem!

quote:

Originally posted by airbubba:
it takes a special device to do tread check...

I bought one for $3, I'm not sure it qualifies as special. The tread wear bars are 2/32s. Most people could eyeball the amount of tread above the wear bar and guess accurately if there was more tread or less tread above the bar than below the bar.

A Discount Tire in or near Kennesaw, GA really did well by me. I had a China bomb blowout on my boat trailer on I-75. I called them and they said if I showed up before they closed, they'd take care of me. I showed up 5 minutes before closing and they had me back on the road in an hour with 4 USA made Goodyear Endurance trailer tires. They had to manually jack the trailer up with multiple jacks because there was no way they were getting the over 10,000 pounds boat and trailer on a lift.

I bought two, one for $0.01 and another for $0.25...

A quarter can tell you if it's at least 4/32. A penny can tell you if it's at least 2/32.

I have always had great luck with Discount Tire. Les Schwab as well.

[IMG=https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/800x600q70/924/raNnBX.jpg][/IMG]

shovelhead, while what the 2nd guy was telling you was not what you wanted to hear, it sounds like that's what you needed to hear.

Particularly since...

quote:

Originally posted by shovelhead:
... I was supposed to go off roading tomorrow (Saturday) with my off road club and more importantly my S-I-L and grandson, about 300 miles round trip. .. in northern Michigan for a day or two.

You're willing to risk that with a nine-plus-year-old spare?

You're a braver man than I, Gunga Din. (And I use the word "braver" advisedly.)

I had a slow leak around one of the valve stems on one of my Jeep Grand Cherokee's wheels. Same thing: Corrosion. I suggested "How 'bout you clean it up, put some sealant around a new valve stem, stick it in, and let's see if that holds for now?" They did and it did. Then, just as they predicted would happen, one of the other tires developed the same slow leak about six-eight months later.

It was time for new tires, anyway, so it was new wheels and tires all around.

Btw: My JGC was only seven years old, and had less than 43k miles on it, when the rims started rotting-out. Michigan road salt is hell on our vehicles. Also: I've never had DT try to up-sell me. Not once in over thirty years.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
I bought two, one for $0.01 and another for $0.25...

A quarter can tell you if it's at least 4/32. A penny can tell you if it's at least 2/32.

LOL, it's true. I only bought one to keep track of how my tires were wearing when closer to new so I could make sure they were wearing evenly across the tread. The DuraTracs start out over 1/2".

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
I bought two, one for $0.01 and another for $0.25...

A quarter can tell you if it's at least 4/32. A penny can tell you if it's at least 2/32.

LOL, it's true. I only bought one to keep track of how my tires were wearing when closer to new so I could make sure they were wearing evenly across the tread. The DuraTracs start out over 1/2".

can you post a pic f this tread checker please??

First result from Google, $8
https://www.amazon.com/STEELMA...-Tread/dp/B00GWFOSRS

quote:

Originally posted by airbubba:

can you post a pic f this tread checker please??

Link - tire tread wear gauge Look like the price went up. It's now $3.73, I'm fairly sure I paid $2.99.

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by airbubba:

can you post a pic f this tread checker please??

Link - tire tread wear gauge Look like the price went up. It's now $3.73, I'm fairly sure I paid $2.99.

thanks

I have the utmost confidence that 'shovelhead' knows just what the hell he's talking about here! He's an experienced car guy and knows all the games that are played by unscrupulous Auto Service 'stealership' types...They're out there, everywhere, and occasionally those types can even get hired by Discount Tire...Just sayin'

Can’t find my tread depth gauge but none of the four are the wear indicators. 36k and almost three years to the date of purchase. Last time they were checked in September they were well in the safe range, 6-7/32nds. Goodrich rates those tires at 50k and guarantees that tread life.

In August the tires were at 6-7/32nds and maybe 2k miles since then.

Yeah, I know about the spare being aged out, but it’s never been on the ground, still has factory striping on it. Knock on wood, haven’t changed a tire on the road since my 87 Bonneville and that car has been gone since 95.

Just having a hard time understanding how nothing said on Tuesday and suddenly Saturday it becomes an issue. I’ll find out more on Wednesday when they’re going to get into it more.

Had one of their monkeys strip a wheel stud due to him being overzealous with the impact gun. I was pissed. Talked to the manager and he agreed to pay. It was a STi and I was quite fond of the thing so Subaru was the only place I was going to have that fixed. IE, the dealer. Car was tuned but under warranty and my dealership was fine and dandy with my Cobb work as it was tuned on their dyno. They fixed it, and I took the bill back to DT and that manager was pissed. “Did you have to go to the dealership? You’ve could have got that done much cheaper at an independent shop” Well tough shit, don’t fuck up customer cars and you wouldn’t have this problem.

Ever since, I insist on dealing with the manager only (different guy now) and I tip. Tire rotations, going from my summer wheels/tires to winter wheels/tires, I tip. I shouldn’t have to but I want the torque done by hand with a torque wrench. No impact guns of any kind. I give him enough to buy lunch, nothing fancy either. It’s worked out well over the years. The only problem is I will have a good relationship with the guy and he transfers out to another DT 30-45 minutes away and I have to restart the relationship with the new manager. PITA. Tires and brakes are the most important parts of the vehicle so it’s a necessary evil. At least until I have my own lift and a Coats machine. And training on one. But they are 5-8k and I don’t have the room in my garage until I move rural. Looking forward to the day I can buy directly from Tire Rack and mount/balance myself.