HELP! Another Discount Tire rant...

[632 Regal]

Went back last Friday as a tire was low on air, they fixed it (claimed a screw and bead leak (both at the same time!)) and somehow rotated all the tires. I didnt even want to see where they jacked up the car this time.

For a heads up these are the same tires I got 2 days after buying the car last June, Uni-egg Tigar Claws GTH4 speed rated out of round pieces of ****.

Anyways I had it down to 2 square tires which were both in the rear, I really dont mind the side to side motion in slow traffic or the serious vibration on the freeway. Anyways they somehow did me a favor and rotated them to who knows where, busted a cap and lug bolt and happily sent me on my way.

Now the steering wheel shakes and its very noticable, I have to go on 2 road trips in the following weeks and need advice as how to approach my fine friends at Discount and have this fixed without spending endless hours of them humoring me.

If I had a 540 I could simply holeshot them at a high rate of speed in an effort to make them round, another option is to again deflate the tires in question as so they self destruct as I drive (avoid all potholes) another option is to slice them in half and call my insurance company and hope I randomly get 2 more round tires.

Is it the tires that are total **** or is it the tire professionals in question? I know the tires are NOT round and have a rather rithmic pattern about them, I like it but my car says no. The rims ARE bent which is probably a problem, the dial indicator says there off by .008. Just kiddin, thats nothing at all when the tires within a half inch visibly (.500?) They tell me that the tires are "within specs" and theres nothing wrong with them.

I have only been back to Discount 8 times (13 hrs so far) so I know im just a fussy customer.

Any angles, advice, recomendations or insight to what I should or shouldnt do to have this taken care of before this weekend? They have done the road load balance and everything is within "specs" but the tires are obviously out of round and kinda side to side as they spin, they dont like in the shop yet.

[Javier]

your next visit to the shop, to review the "ON SPECS" criteria.

[DueyT]

Jeff, that sucks! I'm thinking it's more the crap tires than the Discount boys, though. I know each one can be different, but the Columbus boys looked after me really well with the ContiSport2's I got last summer. I was in a hurry out of town (ya know, to get back to the 1 July Beer Holiday in Canada, eh?) and the guys gave me a great deal, printed out a pick sheet, and phoned the supervisor at the Continental depot a few miles South of their store. I dropped by the depot and was on the road back to Kingston in less than 1/2 an hour with two 911 Turbo-rated 255/40-17s and a big smile! :D

Hope the boys do right by you, though...sounds like a replacement with another brand is in order!

Keeping my fingers crossed for you, Jeff!

Cheers,
Duey

[JohnC]

maybe you should try a different discount tire. or maybe ts the tires i havent even heard of the ones you have. they treat me great everytime i go. half the time i dont even have to wait, they just jump me to the front of the line so tire rotations dont take all day. only complaint i have was last time they threw away my metal valve covers with the old tires. they gave me new ones though.

[632 Regal]

and see what happens, there tires were grief since I got them. Hopefully I will have enough time to see what they will do with a positive attitude. I found with a bad attitude it dont help but also doesnt solve the probs, i"ll ask into a swap and see what comes over, too bad these are the etter traded replace the worn ones but have the chance of more eggs??? I dont think so!
Thanks Duey, John, Javier and that 632 Regal dude


damn microlimp eatin my letters again....wheres that guy beatin us up for punctuation?

[AllanS]

Uniegg? Tiger Slaws? must be a new brand :P

In all honesty, I've had amazing experiences with my local independant mechanic's circa 1950 tire balancing and mounting machine. As in, no issues, at any speed, under any conditions, on 17" wheels. Well, not exactly ANY speed, but I can voutch for anything up to 110mph :)

I would ditch Discount Tires and go with someone else altogether.

[AZ_Jason_S]

Call the corporate office. They don't like complaints. Discount "claims" to be all about customer service. They will take care of you if you fight enough. You really have to watch those guys close. They mounted some tires for me on aftermarket rims I bought from them. I had the rims powdercoated first. Took the rims back for mounting. They put the wheels on the car and it had a death shake at 45mph. I couldn't even get on a freeway. Upon further inspection, I found the wheels required hubcentric rings. I went back and complained, and they said "We thought they didn't need them 'cause the powder coating was kinda thick". They smiled the whole time though. Don't trust the discount tire monkeys....

[shragon]

i'm thinking it's your tires too. tires are important, get something that's a little better. no offense or anything, but i've never heard of the tires you posted. i would go back, say you're unhappy with the tires, say you want some type of credit, and put those towards a decent set of tires. if they won't do it, take it up with their corporate office.

bent rims not good too.

[632 Regal]

Well called my friends, talked to Rodney who was sympethetic and went to find me a set of Michelin Pilots or Continental Extream Contact and put me on hold. A few minutes pass and someone else picks up the phone, I told them Rodney was helping me and he hung up on me. (did I mention I've had an ordeal with this place yet?) I call back and ask for my friend Rodney, hold and my old friend Chris (who originally and subsiquently "helps" me when I have problems) gets on the phone explaining how good the tires I have are and that BF goodrich, Pirelli AND Unieggs are ALL made by Michelin (something new I learned today) I explain that he should look in the computer and see how many times I have returned there with problems, he did. Anyways since the Michilins will take 2 days and the Contis will be there by noon tomorrow thats what I ordered up (same warehouse). I looked them up on tire rack and their rating is much better than Michelins anyways. They say all I need to bring is $226.00 and they'll hook me up, I'll bring a blank check for all the hidden upcharges that I will incur and definetly post how well my experience goes.

[632 Regal]

Uniegg? Tiger Slaws? must be a new brand :P

In all honesty, I've had amazing experiences with my local independant mechanic's circa 1950 tire balancing and mounting machine. As in, no issues, at any speed, under any conditions, on 17" wheels. Well, not exactly ANY speed, but I can voutch for anything up to 110mph :)

I would ditch Discount Tires and go with someone else altogether.

[DueyT]

Well called my friends, talked to Rodney who was sympethetic and went to find me a set of Michelin Pilots or Continental Extream Contact and put me on hold. A few minutes pass and someone else picks up the phone, I told them Rodney was helping me and he hung up on me. (did I mention I've had an ordeal with this place yet?) I call back and ask for my friend Rodney, hold and my old friend Chris (who originally and subsiquently "helps" me when I have problems) gets on the phone explaining how good the tires I have are and that BF goodrich, Pirelli AND Unieggs are ALL made by Michelin (something new I learned today) I explain that he should look in the computer and see how many times I have returned there with problems, he did. Anyways since the Michilins will take 2 days and the Contis will be there by noon tomorrow thats what I ordered up (same warehouse). I looked them up on tire rack and their rating is much better than Michelins anyways. They say all I need to bring is $226.00 and they'll hook me up, I'll bring a blank check for all the hidden upcharges that I will incur and definetly post how well my experience goes.
Jeff, ExtremeContact's are nice! A friend of mine had them on his 928S. If I had decided to run one tire all year, that would be it. Since I went the summer/winter route, I went with the SportContact2's instead.

Best of luck.
Duey

p.s. Hey, isn't the Tiger Paw what they put on old folks' cars? My mom had those on her Buick Electra Estate Wagon. No wonder you never posted pics of your beast from the side!:p

[632 Regal]

First thing I noticed was the side to side massage was gone completley! On the freeway with the old Unieggs when you went from blacktop to concrete the noise was loud, real loud. With the new tires theres no difference in sound, just quiet. It also doesnt pull to the right anymore either.

I have to fine tune air pressures and will be able to give a oppinion but so far I like them a lot better.

Whew... :D

[callen]

I had perfect rims on my 94 530. Purchased set of Michelins from discount so when I got a nail took it to them......watched the guy as he put nice gash on my rim....he wasn't paying attention. Well I was little pissed so asked for the manager....he said he could have it redone. Well seen how wheels are reconditioned and didn't want my wheels painted...they were really perfect. Called office and was connected to regional manager who told me that only thing he could do was to have it fixed and he "has a new 540 that he just had the wheels refinished and they looked great".....RIIIIIGGGHHHHT...sure he did. Anyway I have a less than perfect rim and have bad taste in my mouth on Discount. Also they just throw centercaps on ground scratching them...I now bring them loose wheels and mount myself. Anal ...yea.
Callen 91 535i 94 530i 5spds

[shragon]

nice. glad it worked out for you.

[AZ_Jason_S]

I've known a couple of people that had a wheel gouged by them. I can think of at least 2 cases where discount gave them 4 new wheels. Believe me, I am not defending them. I don't trust them for $H!T. I really believe if you fight enough with them, they will take care of you.

Have you ever gone in for a balance or rotation? They always tell you "about an hour". Look in the waiting room, everyones been told "about an hour". Usually, it takes them 2 hours+. Around here the waiting room is always full of people so its a good place to make a scene.

I have a list of rants about those guys. I always tell myself I will never go back.... Somehow, I always find myself back there. I think the next tires for my truck will come from Sams or Costco. Though that still feels like dealing with the devil.

[DueyT]

I've known a couple of people that had a wheel gouged by them. I can think of at least 2 cases where discount gave them 4 new wheels. Believe me, I am not defending them. I don't trust them for $H!T. I really believe if you fight enough with them, they will take care of you.

Have you ever gone in for a balance or rotation? They always tell you "about an hour". Look in the waiting room, everyones been told "about an hour". Usually, it takes them 2 hours+. Around here the waiting room is always full of people so its a good place to make a scene.

I have a list of rants about those guys. I always tell myself I will never go back.... Somehow, I always find myself back there. I think the next tires for my truck will come from Sams or Costco. Though that still feels like dealing with the devil.
Wouldn't WAL-MART be the devil? :D

[AZ_Jason_S]

I wrote that because Sams is Wal-Mart....


Wouldn't WAL-MART be the devil? :D

[DueyT]

I wrote that because Sams is Wal-Mart....
As Johnny Carson used to say, "That's weird, wild stuff! I didn't know that!" :)

Cheers,
Duey

[632 Regal]

because of their many locations, if I went to florida or ohio or nevada there somewhare to humor me. The service you get from them in florida was exceptional, we need them guys here in michigan. The will spin the tire on the rim 4 or 5 times before they even try to put weights on. On my moms car they got both tires zeroed in where only 1 tire needed 1/2 oz. These jokers here put 2, 1 oz next to each other instead of 1 weight.

I went into the barn last night and it looks like 1 rim IS bent on the drivers side, wasnt last time I looked and cant say if the discount fools did it. I havent spun the other side yet to put the good ones on front but it is still much better. I still have 15ers and cant see how I could have wasted a rim and not know it. Are the stock basketcases that easy to bend?

[DueyT]

because of their many locations, if I went to florida or ohio or nevada there somewhare to humor me. The service you get from them in florida was exceptional, we need them guys here in michigan. The will spin the tire on the rim 4 or 5 times before they even try to put weights on. On my moms car they got both tires zeroed in where only 1 tire needed 1/2 oz. These jokers here put 2, 1 oz next to each other instead of 1 weight.

I went into the barn last night and it looks like 1 rim IS bent on the drivers side, wasnt last time I looked and cant say if the discount fools did it. I havent spun the other side yet to put the good ones on front but it is still much better. I still have 15ers and cant see how I could have wasted a rim and not know it. Are the stock basketcases that easy to bend?
Jeff, maybe my success was in just BUYING my tires from Discount. It was actually my indy who lovingly mounted the tires using a nice teflon sleeve on the machine's arm. He also match-mounted the tires by making sure that the nice fluorescent green tag was aligned with the rim's valve stem. This is so easy to do, yet very few tire folks do it. Probably a combination of nice BBS wheels, highquality Conti tires and the match-mounting, but he only needed 2 x 1/4oz weights...one just behind the #5's spokes and the other on the extreme inner rim edge (i.e. no external weight visible in the rim's dish) The tires are smooth as glass at all speeds. Damn, this car's nice! Oh yeah, did I mention that these cars are damn nice?

Cheers,
Duey

[winfred]

my favorite one is, they put like a ounce and a half on the rim and spin it again, then put about 3/4 ounce directly oposite the first weight

[632 Regal]

the rims or they did, are the stock basketweaves easily bendable? I live off 1 mile of dirt road and maybe I'm beating the rims to ****...Idonno. If they do bend easily is there something else I could use besides steel rims?

[winfred]

the oem rims are as tough as just about anything else, it's easy to spot a bent rim with the car on a jack, put a light behind it and spin it while watching through the spokes, you will see the lump if theres one, put the lumpy one in the back or use it as a spare if you have a regular spare, some of the later e34s had a steel full size spare but some still had a mag. while you are at it you can also spot a lumpy tire