I've only had my car for about a week. I take it to the Infiniti dealership in town because I needed the rear drive axles greased. They call me telling me I need brakes and a new rear driver side tire. I tell them that I'll deal with that in time (besides, dealership/service dept basically rape your wallet for that kind of stuff. he wanted to charge me $420 for the rear brakes alone..pfft..)

anyways i pick up the car and when i get home i noticed that there are some serious scratches on my wheels from the impact wrench. to the point where you can see the dark primer (on my 19" forged rays). i called the dealership to complain and the counter guy swears that they didnt do that, so i drive up there and show him and he tells me that, "that kind of this is unavoidable. it happens all the time." and i'm thinking, and customers are ok with that?? he offers to get it painted, but i turned it down because i didn't want one brand new looking wheel and the others not in the same condition (i'm going to have all of them resurfaced and painted anyways) so i talk him into getting me a few free oil changes for my trouble.

next day, i call my bf's brother...he owns a speedshop..and he finds me my bridgestone potenza 245 tire and i get it at cost. he then refers me to a small auto shop down the road. he trusts them because they're Z specialists and they bought his old tire machine and balancing equipment. i get there and they try taking my rear wheel off and it turns out that one of the studs is stripped. as the guy is balancing my tire i'm trying to figure out what moron at the dealership is responsible for this. it had to have been there, i have yet to hear about threads being stripped off of a stud/bolt as its being removed...it usually snaps. so i call the dealership and the counter guy there is still being the "we didn't do it" jerk. i told him it would have to be handled and i KNOW that they did it. i watched my wheel being removed to change the tire. the counter guy tells me to drop by and he'll talk to his manager about it; but warns me that he may not do the repair. whatever..

i get to the shop and he tells me that the manager will fix the wheel. but the entire...ENTIRE time he's placing blame on the other shop and that they where the ones who scratched my wheels and stripped the wheel stud. he kept insisting that i was lying about getting my tire/parts at cost and said he knew i took my car to BIG 10 tires and said "what do you expect from that place?" I asked that maybe next time they can break the torque with a breaker bar and use a speed handle, that doing it by hand they wont scratch the wheels or a special impact socket that wont damage wheels can be used. he kept saying it happens all the time, that theres no special way to go around the damage and to deal with it. he didn't listen to my theory of what happened and the logic of stripping threads. i guess its because im a female and thats all they see and think i'll believe whatever they say. after listening to his bull**** i snapped and yelled at him that he didn't know what he was talking about and i didn't have time to listen to his blame game and excuses. i told him he can speak to me as an adult and that i can understand mechanical jargon and that i've been fixing planes for the last 10 years of my life and that i knew for a fact that when the dealerships get the cars from shipping and that they torque test the lugs on arrival and for him to tell me that every single $30k+ new car on the lot and used car that comes through here has damaged rims with absolutely asinine and that i expected more from a LUXURY car dealership.

anyways...sorry about the rant. i'm just pissed off. but my question was...IS there a special tool/process to help prevent wheel scratches when removing/replacing a tire? i dont want to keep dealing with those jerks at the dealership...it was my FIRST visit and i've been back 3 times with complaints.

jessica

 

The lug holes can be protected. At my job we use the smallest sockets possible so that this doesn't happen. they also sell a rubber slip on for the socket. http://www.gorilla-auto.com/thin.wall.impact.sockets you can use these.

 

I picked up a set of the "padded" ones from (I think) Griots a few years ago. They were just big enough not to fit in the hole and turn freely - back they went. You may look for some though. I know I've seen other options.

 

I put a few layers of masking/painters tape around the outside of the socket, does the job just fine.

 

+1 ^^^^

 

Use duct tape, it holds up longer then painters tape.

 

sweet maybe i'll buy that Gorilla set of socket slips, the Griot's set is really cool too.... and i'll keep em in my car for future use. but i'll make a note to print out those pages and secure it to the counter guy's forehead with a staple gun.

 

Get some spray anhesive and some felt. cut a strip of felt the width of the socket. Spray the adhesive on the outside of the sockt and roll the felt on around the outside of the socket. It will prevent scratching and as a result will actually clean the lug nut holes in your rimms as you spin the lugs on

 

I had the same problem every time i went to get work done on my car. I just bought new lugnuts where the key goes inside the lugnut which reduces the possibility of them being sctrached here are some pics of mine.