Leprosy
 

Been a Discount Tire customer for over 25 years and I would have never guessed if you put high quality 10mm hubcentric spacers with extended studs on you car they treat you like you have leprosy. The manager even pulled up their requirements. I pointed out that they were hubcentric and the way I read their policy they could do it. He said no they are 2 peice. After that I called NTB and was up front with them. They said to come by so the “Master Mechanic” could look to see if they could do it. The pulled my car in and 3 people stood there and looked at the wheel. Came back and said no. No questions, had no idea what kind of spacer or anything. I could have given them all that information over the phone! Anyway I understand the problems and dangers with spacers when done incorrect and are not mad at them and their company policy. Anyway Thank you Tire Rack! Looks like you just just got a devoted 25+ year discount tire customer to convert!

So TireRack didn’t give any issues?. That’s cool!

Discount tire is a really conservative company and they have a pretty robust insurance policy on tires where they make a lot of money and differentiate themselves from competitors (they allow you to buy road hazard insurance AFTER the fact if you are still within the insurance period). The thing is in order to be able to offer this they are very conservative on fitments and don't work with spacers. Many spacers are of dubious quality or have had bad installs so they don't want to be on the hook for some unknown spacer causing a failure and resulting in them having to pay up for a tire or other damage caused by the failure.

Well I did just buy the tires from them. I go to Discount for the simplicity of going in and getting everything done at once. I figure if I am pulling my own wheels off and taking them to be mounted an balanced to the 2 buck Chuck tire shop down the street I will get them from tire rack and save the sales tax. Plus Tire Rack will get tires to Dallas the next day.

Inb4 "2 Buck Chuck ruined my wheels and won't do anything about it".

Good to know. I'm currently running 20/25mm spacers front and rear. I usually go to Discount Tire as well. I'll be sure to pull them off when I need to go in for tires.

Will your wheels fit without spacers or are they to clear brakes or something? Can you pull spacers off and just take it in with longer studs (open ended lugs obviously), then put your spacers back on when you get home?

TireRack is just online tires. It's not like TireRack would or could know that a person is running spacers or not. Hell, they'll sell you tires if you don't have wheels or a car.

Oh, and another question for OP: Will Discount Tire mount tires on wheels that are not on the car? Could you just bring the wheels in for mounting?

Call them and see. I beleive they are ok with spacers that bolt to the hub and have separate studs. They said they did not like mine because they were 2 peice, the hubcentric part is seperate from the spacer. Not sure why that made a difference? Just sounds like making policies without educating managers.

Are your spacers press on or bolt in? If press on, anything larger than 3mm can compromise bolt thread engagement on stock studs and for this reason, most places won't touch them. Bolt-in has the issue of being up to the quality control of whoever manufactures them and with so many cheap knock-offs, better safe than sorry.

They are 10MM so you realy can not do bolt on. However they are hubcentric and have extended studs. There are no safety issues with properly installed spacers. Cheep spacers and poor maintenance is the issue.

These are the spacers used.
http://www.ft86speedfactory.com/ichi...l#.W1ugiBpOmhA

Costco?

Yeah. I don't go to Discount Tire Stores because they require TPMS on all wheels that leave the facility.


I don't need a new set of TPMS + Programming on my track set, but policy is policy.


I still buy my tires on DiscountTiresDirect since rebates + free shipping + no tax add up big time. I just get them mounted at a local chain instead.




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In the end, these days I pull everything but the bare basics off my car when I take it to a shop. (In this case, remove the spacers before heading over). Then it's as close to stock as reasonable, and fewer questions are asked.

just drop the wheels and tires off at the shop and pick them up when they're ready.

I honestly have no idea what the hell you are complaining about, grady.