Jump to content

New tyres and wheel balancing - how much scratching is acceptable removing the old wheel weights +/- adhesive


Ian718

Recommended Posts

So I got a flat drivers rear tyre on Saturday whilst 120km south of Sydney (I was heading back to Sydney after enjoying some Macquarie Pass driving :) ). I ran over a big bolt lying on the road, there was a massive rapid pressure drop detected by the TPMS, so I pulled over quickly in a safe location.

I saw the tyre was deflating very quickly from a 1cm diameter bolt rammed into it, and I had to get a flat bed tow truck to Sydney. I rung Tempe Tyres on the way, and arranged 4 new Michelin PS4S (N0) tyres. I had done 22,500km in 11 months of ownership, and had been planning to change the Goodyear F1's into Michelin PS4S in the near future anyway. So this was as good an excuse as any to make the change.

Tempe Tyres is a very busy place. Maybe that is a good thing... because therefore they should know what they are doing. But maybe it could also be bad... because they could be too busy to take care with your car.

Anyway my question is this: What would you consider an acceptable level of scratching to the wheel when the shop removes the old wheel weights +/- the black adhesive tape when they are balancing the wheel after the new tyres are fitted?

Attached are the pictures of my wheels when I cleaned them today. The pictures are in this order: Passenger Front, Passenger Rear, Driver Rear, Driver Front (before), Driver Front (after).

The passenger rear wheel and driver front wheel scratches really hurt me to look at. The driver front wheel has 2 pictures. The 'before' picture is before a lot of elbow grease in removing the remaining black tape adhesive and glue residue (although after my basic wheel cleaning routine). It is meant to show that the shop tried reasonably hard to remove the black adhesive tape, and in doing so scratched the hell out of the wheel.

I would have much preferred if they left the adhesive tape still mostly attached - like in the driver rear wheel picture (which is also a before picture). They caused much less scratching, and I could carefully remove the adhesive myself, taking as much time as I wanted.

Am I expecting too much from a tyre shop?

Does anyone have any advice how to avoid this in the future? Different Sydney tyre shop recommendations? Should I have told them explicitly beforehand to just leave the black adhesive tape intact after removing the metal weights?

1 Passenger Front.jpg

2 Passenger Rear.jpg

3 Driver Rear.jpg

4a Driver Front Before.jpg

4b Driver Front After.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IMHO no level of scratching is acceptable. I’ve probably had 4 full tyre changes on porsches over the last 8 years & never a scratch. I use Blairs at Peakhurst as I know the owner, he always assigns his most careful guy, they use a trolley jack & do one wheel at a time, very careful. You can also watch the whole process at close range. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Ian718 said:

So I got a flat drivers rear tyre on Saturday whilst 120km south of Sydney (I was heading back to Sydney after enjoying some Macquarie Pass driving :) ). I ran over a big bolt lying on the road, there was a massive rapid pressure drop detected by the TPMS, so I pulled over quickly in a safe location.

I saw the tyre was deflating very quickly from a 1cm diameter bolt rammed into it, and I had to get a flat bed tow truck to Sydney. I rung Tempe Tyres on the way, and arranged 4 new Michelin PS4S (N0) tyres. I had done 22,500km in 11 months of ownership, and had been planning to change the Goodyear F1's into Michelin PS4S in the near future anyway. So this was as good an excuse as any to make the change.

Tempe Tyres is a very busy place. Maybe that is a good thing... because therefore they should know what they are doing. But maybe it could also be bad... because they could be too busy to take care with your car.

Anyway my question is this: What would you consider an acceptable level of scratching to the wheel when the shop removes the old wheel weights +/- the black adhesive tape when they are balancing the wheel after the new tyres are fitted?

Attached are the pictures of my wheels when I cleaned them today. The pictures are in this order: Passenger Front, Passenger Rear, Driver Rear, Driver Front (before), Driver Front (after).

The passenger rear wheel and driver front wheel scratches really hurt me to look at. The driver front wheel has 2 pictures. The 'before' picture is before a lot of elbow grease in removing the remaining black tape adhesive and glue residue (although after my basic wheel cleaning routine). It is meant to show that the shop tried reasonably hard to remove the black adhesive tape, and in doing so scratched the hell out of the wheel.

I would have much preferred if they left the adhesive tape still mostly attached - like in the driver rear wheel picture (which is also a before picture). They caused much less scratching, and I could carefully remove the adhesive myself, taking as much time as I wanted.

Am I expecting too much from a tyre shop?

Does anyone have any advice how to avoid this in the future? Different Sydney tyre shop recommendations? Should I have told them explicitly beforehand to just leave the black adhesive tape intact after removing the metal weights?

1 Passenger Front.jpg

2 Passenger Rear.jpg

3 Driver Rear.jpg

4a Driver Front Before.jpg

4b Driver Front After.jpg

Not acceptable at all, make them refinish them all, I know it`s not convenient for everyone, but I always take my wheels off at home and clean them and remove the old weights and just take the wheels to be re tyred 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's crap and just careless, I wouldn't be happy about that either, for gods sake the guys that put my track tyres on my track wheels are WAY more careful than that (they don't scratch)... there is no excuse for that, lazy, careless idiot worker, you should go back and talk to them asap. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, StevepGT3 said:

Not acceptable at all, make them refinish them all, I know it`s not convenient for everyone, but I always take my wheels off at home and clean them and remove the old weights and just take the wheels to be re tyred 

What do you use to clean them Steve?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's terrible .... I can't believe someone could be so uncaring.

I would leave them as is and go and speak to the owner ... show him what his moron workers are doing to his customers cars ...

The others are right ... they should be paying for them to be refinished at your choice of wheel refinishers ..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Every time I get new tyres I specifically remove the old wheel weights myself because of things like this (it would upset me as well). I use a small screwdriver for the weights then a small plastic spatula thing + de-greaser, agent orange and eucalyptus oil for the rest of the tape - its a PITA...

I also bring the wheels in two at a time, that way I can reinstall them properly - nothing worse then trying to get off a wheel thats been done up with a rattle gun... All good to take them off like that (also have a kincrome 19mm rubber coated socket) - you don't put them back on with one.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the opinions and advice everyone :)

I think next time I will be like Steve and Dan and remove the old wheel weights myself.

I sent an email to Tempe Tyres last night. If I get no response by Thursday I will see if I fare any better with a direct phone call.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...