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[wkndwrrr]

Hey! hopefully someone from the 1addicts community can help me.

I recently had wheels installed at a shop.
Fast forward to present day. It turns out one of my wheel locks is stripped and inside the hub at an angle. The technician who discovered this says that it looks like a installation issue.
The shop that did the installation however, when I brought this to them, said that they believe its attempted theft, and not a installation issue. He says that if it was their fault, the other 4 bolts should be damaged too.

Is there any truth to what he's saying?

[VMRWheels]

Damaging all five would be highly unlikely, however anything is possible I suppose. In my opinion it's much easier to strip/cross thread one bolt or nut rather than all of them. Based on what I've seen or heard, it would be much more common for a thief to just leave things missing than untorque a bolt and then retorque it the wrong way.

Just my two cents.

[wkndwrrr]

Originally Posted by VMRWheels

Damaging all five would be highly unlikely, however anything is possible I suppose. In my opinion it's much easier to strip/cross thread one bolt or nut rather than all of them. Based on what I've seen or heard, it would be much more common for a thief to just leave things missing than untorque a bolt and then retorque it the wrong way.

Just my two cents.

Yeah, I don't understand how his defense for how his shop could not be at fault is that not all the wheel bolts were damaged.
Also, is it even possible for a wheel bolt to be at an angle in the hub without it having been installed that way?

[Eeighty8]

No, not possible. The shop probably used the impact gun (as most do unless you request hand tightening with the wrench) and stripped it.

It might be possible that someone attempted to get the lock off with some type of device, messed it up and abandoned the attempt. If the head isn't deformed in any way though and it's stripped, it was the shop.

They can drill it out to remove it. Don't attempt on your own.

[wkndwrrr]

Originally Posted by Eeighty8

No, not possible. The shop probably used the impact gun (as most do unless you request hand tightening with the wrench) and stripped it.

It might be possible that someone attempted to get the lock off with some type of device, messed it up and abandoned the attempt. If the head isn't deformed in any way though and it's stripped, it was the shop.

They can drill it out to remove it. Don't attempt on your own.

That is exactly what the shop that discovered the stripped wheel lock told me!
But I thought that'd I'd give the original shop the benefit of the doubt and ask around some more.
That it most likely, an impact gun was used during the install, as the bolt itself looks untouched (other than being stripped of course), and the bolt was also in the hub at an angle.

When I relayed that to the shop who did the install however, they were adamant that it was an attempted theft, with no chance as a error on their end. And of course he told me the line that if it was an error on their end, the other four bolts would be damaged too.

[ronster]

Yeah similar crap happened to me sometime ago. The tire place used impact gun and stripped the lock. End result - have to drill the locks out and damage the wheel


Good luck...

btw, using attempted theft as an excuse is bad. You should post this in Canadian section to warn us fellow Canadians to avoid that shop

[wkndwrrr]

Originally Posted by ronster

Yeah similar crap happened to me sometime ago. The tire place used impact gun and stripped the lock. End result - have to drill the locks out and damage the wheel


Good luck...

btw, using attempted theft as an excuse is bad. You should post this in Canadian section to warn us fellow Canadians to avoid that shop

Luckily the guys painting my wheels are great and managed to promptly get out the stripped lock; without getting behind on the work schedule. They were the ones who told me to contact the shop that did the installation to have them cover the removal and new locks. As they said that's what they'd do in such a situation. But the original shop is telling me that there's no way they made an error during installation. So what can ya do.

I don't want to go sh*ting on them yet as I'm waiting for a email back from them, so I'm hoping that they do a 180 and remedy the situation. Even though my gut is telling me they won't based on our emails so far. They're somewhat of a "brand-name" shop, not a Kal-tire that would get business regardless of what I write, or some unknown shop that has all the return customers they need; so I'm going to wait for the final outcome before I say anything.

[Lester]

This can only happen if you don't start to install the lug by hand. I watched a technician do mine recently through the shop window. Each lug was started by hand, then he used an air wrench at low torque - then hand tightened and checked all bolts with a torque wrench.

Some technicians get lazy and speed up the process by using an air wrench right away - and if the thread is not on straight - an air gun has enough torque to cross thread and tighten. He most likely knew it was happeneing, as you can sense it - but just left it for the next person to discover.

Obviously I would avoid that shop ever again.

[mike the snake]

I'm not sure if the wheel locks are still the same as the old ones I have experience with, but they used to be tapered, and you could find JUST the right socket size and hammer it down onto the lock lug and it would usually wedge itself on well enough to remove the locking nut.

I used to work as a mechanic at a German auto shop, and I dealt with SO many stripped lugs and studs from air wrenches. Someone would come in for a $20 rotation, and the studs or lugs would break off because they'd been air ratcheted on so tight the threads were smeared.

I ALWAYS make sure the wheel guys tighten the lugs by hand and use a torque wrench.

Many of us 135 owners have reported clicking noises from the wheels. Many report the noises going away after simply removing and reinstalling the wheels.

I am starting to think that this sound is coming from the rotor hats, from the wheel lugs being torqued unevenly by air ratchets.

My car made these sounds, and after installing my new wheels and having them properly torqued, the noises have subsided.

[VMRWheels]

Originally Posted by Eeighty8

No, not possible. The shop probably used the impact gun (as most do unless you request hand tightening with the wrench) and stripped it.

It might be possible that someone attempted to get the lock off with some type of device, messed it up and abandoned the attempt. If the head isn't deformed in any way though and it's stripped, it was the shop.

They can drill it out to remove it. Don't attempt on your own.

+1

Stripping nuts and bolts from air tools is very common. I always prefer work to be done with hand tools.

[wkndwrrr]

Well an update in case any one was curious.
The original shop has replied back to me requesting that they see the car to inspect the hub themselves. At the risk of sounding like a dick, I'm really not comfortable with them touching my wheels again. Especially with their we're-infallible, too-good-to-possibly-be-wrong attitude.

/
A little more background:
The shop painting my rims had a BMW dealership look at the wheel bolt as well, and then had THEM do the removal. So the work order is from a BMW dealership. Little did they know that even a BMW dealership isn't trusted by the original shop.
/

So it's really as if the original shop thinks that a BMW dealership would conspire with someone who didn't even buy their car from them to "scam" them out of less than $200 of labor and parts.

Not to mention their attitude throughout really leads me to believe that even if I was to take my car to them, they'd just tell me there are no signs of the wheel bolt having been at an angle in the hub.

So yeah, losing battle, I give up. I paid for a lesson, and lesson learnt.