Had new rubber put on yesterday and did not notice the damage until today when I got the car washed...rims were covered in salt which hid damage











Needless to say I am pretty po'd about this...for 76K miles these rims were pretty much flawless, well scratch free at least.

Am I SOL here or should I have some recourse with the installer? Town Fair is one of the larger tire chains here in the New England area...

I mean some of the scratches are deep...I'm sure the clear coat is trash so am I looking at rust and corrosion setting in? Are these scratches repairable?

I'm gonna call the manager tomorrow and raise a little hell...discount tire chain or not I don't think it is normal to lay out close to 600 dollars for new tires and go in with pretty much stellar rims and come back out with scratched up one


BUT before I open up on him is this unavoidable when changing tires? I've had tires changed before on different cars with alloys and don't recall my rims getting all fubar


Goose

 

You said you took it to a car wash. Could it be when the person moved your HHR into the carwash it could have hit against the metal "bumper" railing that some washes have to guide the car in?

 

Nope, self cleaning bay car wash, kind you get out and was the car yourself


Goose

 

I've bought a few sets of tires on varying styles/finishes of wheels and those scratches are avoidable. The tech that mounted the tires could have been in a rush or not paying attention when that happened. If it were me, I'd definitely call them and complain

 

i don't have scratches like that on mine and I just had the same tires installed 3 weeks ago.

I checked and photographed my rims before (shined them up even though the car is dirty as hell) and then expected again when I got them done. I noticed some curb rash on mine that I hadn't noticed before, and checked the photos, and it was there...

 

Oh, I'm going to..I'm just wondering there is anything that can be done to correct the damage....I was one of the first people in yesterday and it was cold that is for sure...but still no excuse

.....can a body shop fix this?


I probably should have cleaned them up but it was degrees out when I brought the car in. I know for a fact that no rash, no scrapes etc..... I'm pretty anal about stuff like that so that is why I'm so ticked off


Goose

 

Have the clear coat touched up..if its not into the metal its a minor fix..can even be done in the drive way, if it is into metal it can be cleaned up and smoothed over with clear

 

The scratches don't look like a tire machine issue. Here's why, they wouldn't taper down or up, they would be in and exact circle equal to the edge of the rim. Don't get defensive here, this is just my observation. If you have your mind made up, nobody will be able to change it.

 

Had the same thing happen to me at my dealer on my SS,they had to change out one of the TMS and scratched the hell out of mine. Talked to them and have been waiting over 2 weeks for a replacement they said they would cover it. Well see ??????????

 

I thought you picked up a set of 17" polished a while back?

Don't know what to tell you about the scratches. I've had that happend at tire shops before, but the damage was at the very edge of the lip.

Good shop will stand behind their work though. Just not sure this was done by a tire machine.