My experience with replacing runflats

[kapps]

Hey all, I just wanted to let you know (and vent some steam) about my ordeal with getting my runflats replaced. To start it off, I went up to Tire Kingdom a few weeks ago and asked if they could mount runflats and the guy said that they could. So today, it was time and I packed the two front replacement runflats into the boot and headed off. When I talked to the guy there, he said that they didn't have the special tool to mount runflats and they would risk damaging the rims. Well that wasn't what I wanted to hear but at least this guy what honest.

I next called up Goodyear and they said that they had the tool (and mentioned it by name) so I went up there and they took the car. 5 hours later, the call and say it's ready. It's raining so I really didn't get much of a chance to inspect the goods. When I get home, I find a 1"x.5" scrape in the middle of one of the spokes and both rims have scrape marks along the edges. They even wrote on the receipt that they "found" the rim scraped when they got it! I'm ed . What really ticks me off it that tirerack recommends Goodyear for mounting their tires. I know runflats are hard to mount and I can live with the scrapes along the edge of the rims but they definitely scraped the middle of my rim and lied about it!!! Well this is the last runflat replacement I will be doing. I'm going with regular tires and some gunk and compressor. I just hate the fact that rims are on the bottom of my list of replacement items so it'll probably never get done.

[MINIAC]

Sorry about the damage to your wheels

I carry a copy of the following FAQ in my glovebox:

What precautions should be taken in changing run flat tires?

Sounds like it might be a good idea to insist the shop note on the work order any existing wheel damage before starting the job.

[Z1GZAG N]

That's why I stand right with the car and supervise the job no matter what it is they're doing. It's my car and I have the right to tell them off if they're not treating thing right! A proper tire machine doesn't even touch the rim as it feeds the tire off and the new one on. Just as an aluminum wheel or a chrome wheel, there shouldn't be a single scratch on any of them.

[kapps]

Thanks for the replies. I would have stayed with my MINI but as I stated earlier, it took them 5 hours so that wouldn't have been very fun. Does anyone know if there is any way to repair the scratches? The one in the middle of a spoke is the only one I really care about. It looks like a clean scrape that just took the top layer off. Can it be repaired cheaply?

[SoonToBeMini]

I had fairly deep scuff marks on one of my wheels (2 marks of 1/2" width x 3" long). Went to the dealer and they fixed it in no time, wheel is now same as new. Actually they didn't do it themselves they had it done by a specialized shop, cost about 50$).

After this event I'm not as stressed out about my wheels' condition anymore... Ask your dealer maybe they can do the same.

[kapps]

Yea thanks. I'm definitely not going to stress about it as I plan to have this car for a long while and things like this are bound to happen. I'll see what the dealer can do the next time I'm up there.

[Poisonedwell]

Wow, sounds like a horrible experience. Sorry to hear that

[obehave]

If you have a camera take pictures before having the work done.
Even better do it with them watching.

I could give you a big rant about Merchants/Tire Kingdom from my experiences the last 2 days getting my new wheels mounted.
The one thing they did do right was not scratch them. Thank God for that.
In a nutshell I got all my money back and I'll never set foot in that place again I odn't care if they do price match TireRack.