Beware
 

Hello fellow members,

I am writing about my experience that I recently had with a tire shop in San Jose. Tire Merchants to be exact. I found them on Yelp with excellent reviews so I went in and had my new wheels mounted on the stock tires, they even transfered the TPMS sensors for me. All for $70. Great deal I thought.

Yesterday I go to install my lowering springs and start to loosen the front passenger side lug nuts. Got 2 loose easy and then I get to one of them which doesn't want to budge. I gave it a little more force and it loosened up a bit but it's still really stubborn and is making a grinding sound. I immediately called the tire shop back and let the guy know that one of them is stuck. He said "Well it's probably because you need an air gun to take them off." I said ok, i'll take it in so you can look at it.

When I got to the shop they had closed up already but luckily they were still there and I had them take a look. They as in 2 guys. One guy, which is the one I talked to is the owner. The other guy, is a worker there, which I remembered had helped install the wheels back on. The worker took a look at the stubborn lug nut and started to turn it with a breaker bar. He noticed it was tough and said "yeah, I remember we told you that this was bad" I said no, you never told me that. I would have remembered you telling me if something was bad on my car. He then proceeds to check all the lug nuts on the wheel and notices a couple 2 other lug nuts are bad on the same wheel. He then goes around the car to check all of them and they seem to come off with ease. He says again, now adding "yeah, if i remember there were 3 total that were bad, i can bet on it" I said well if they were bad why did you put the wheels on? Why didn't you show me? He said "Well I remember telling you but we just wanted to get you out of here safely" ...... That makes no sense i said. If something is bad why do you put the wheels back ON? He then says well it might have been a bad communication between everyone. Mind you, the owner is standing there watching and saying nothing. I look at him and say what are you guys going to do to fix it? He tells me "We been doing this every day and we don't do stuff like this? I tell him so you're saying it's my fault? I brought the wheels and the right lug nuts for them and you guys installed them not me. He says "Yes, but we hand tighten them and torque them to the right setting" But they are messed up so something was not done right i say. After going back and forth the worker says "Ok, just get the 3 wheel studs and we'll fix them." I say what about the lug nuts? "we'll get you some new ones too, leave me one of them and i'll get you some by tomorrow"

I called a couple shops (pep boys, o'reilys, winchester auto) and none of them had the studs. I call Stevens creek Toyota this morning and they are out. Milpitas Piercey has some and they have them on hold for me. Thankfully they had 3. I call the guy this morning and let him know what the deal is. He said "Ok, just get them and we'll reimburse you, if it's something I can fix I will, if not I'll contract it out to a shop." I really hope all of this is taken care of. So far the biggest thing for me is the inconvenience. All I want is for it to be taken care the right way. No more shortcuts which is what caused the issue in the first place. I really just want members to be aware of this experience and I will update you soon with what happens in the next days.

If you have any feedback feel free to post up here.

I don't think it is their fault, our studs are weak as piss.
Search the forum and you'll find people doing everything right but still end up with broken studs.]

Unless you are talking about cross threading the studs?

Hey, if you are having problems getting studs, you can also get them from Subaru dealers. They may be more common. Replaced two or three of mine. You'll usually need lugs and studs because the lugs will more than likely be bad [not always] once you break the studs.

Yes, they were cross threaded. @s2d4

Thanks! I forgot about that. I will call them now. @smmmurf

So what was the actual problem with the nuts? Cross threaded? It sounds like the studs aren't broken. They probably zipped them on with an impact gun without hand threading them.

And why would they need to contract out replacing studs to a shop? that's a job any tire shop should be equipped to handle because it's really simple and is something that happens now and then when removing wheels.

Edit: didn't see the other replies.

Lug nuts are cross threaded, and studs are ruined and need to be replaced. They are grinded down. That's probably what happened.

Not sure, hopefully they can just take care of it.

I did find the studs at Subaru. They should be exactly the same correct? @murdoc

Ok, that is 100% on them in my books.

Yup, same ones. Thats where I got mine to replace some crossthreaded ones.

UPDATE: I called the owner to let him know I found the part locally. He said he was going to send me to a shop in the area to have them installed. The shop has a good rep on yelp so hopefully it gets done the right way. I also let him know that his worker was going to look for the replacement lug nuts but that I wanted the same ones. He said he would try and find a match. I let him know I would order another set if he reimburse me. He told me once again it was not their fault and they had let me know. I didn't want to keep going back and forth and just said if he would take care of it and he agreed. He said the install of the studs would be free also. So far, he is handling this like a true professional and I feel better. More updates later.

Most likely had the lug nut on a couple turns and shot it on too quick with the gun.

Ask him whose fault it was that the lugnuts were cross-threaded and forced onto the studs, since it was his people that installed them. Even if they had let you know that they cross-threaded them, how would that have made the situation any better? "Hey, we fucked up your car. Deuces!"

Also,
You know how you get good reviews on yelp? You pay for them. You could have the shittiest company in the world, but paying Yelp or the BBB to hide bad reviews and publish good reviews will hide that every time. Don't trust either of them.

Oh man, I've used these guys once on a previous car. Went there for used tires, haven't even thought on going there for the Twin.


They're actually right down the street from my place, hit me up if you need help with anything. There's a shop around the corner, Sunshine Auto Service -- they work on Euro's, but I'm sure an Import should do. Good reputation, nice guys.


Sorry to hear of your experience


.ck

@ck-GT86
Yeah, they seem like a reputable shop. I'm sure the guy might have just been in a hurry or thought he could do the whole thing with a gun. Anywhos, Thanks for offering to help out. Everything should be taken care of hopefully today and I can put this behind me and finally get my springs on. The shop they are referring me to is Taylor Arco Automotive.