TRD Rim Damage from Dealer!! Ugh!!

[Maz]

Sounds like they plan to repaint the scratches or something, which from a practical stand point might not be unreasonable.

No offense intended to eddie, but if airforce accepts that solution....he better be prepared for unhappiness in the future.

I had a well known high end tire / wheel shop screw up a set of 20" factory wheels on my Porsche. The rocket scientist taking off the weights used a butter knife to scrape off the sticky residue. The fact these are very open wheels with narrow spokes and matching paint on the inside rim was apparently too difficult to notice.

No problem the shop said...we'll get this really talented guys to to a repaint of the damaged areas. It'll be perfect! True, it looked (almost) perfect, which was supposedly justifiable because the wheels had 15,000 miles on them. That is until about a year later when weather and wear caused very noticeable differences appearing in the form of separation and discoloration.

Count on the same thing airforce, regardless of what they tell you.

 

[eddiebx]

No offense intended to eddie, but if airforce accepts that solution....he better be prepared for unhappiness in the future.

I had a well known high end tire / wheel shop screw up a set of 20" factory wheels on my Porsche. The rocket scientist taking off the weights used a butter knife to scrape off the sticky residue. The fact these are very open wheels with narrow spokes and matching paint on the inside rim was apparently too difficult to notice.

No problem the shop said...we'll get this really talented guys to to a repaint of the damaged areas. It'll be perfect! True, it looked (almost) perfect, which was supposedly justifiable because the wheels had 15,000 miles on them. That is until about a year later when weather and wear caused very noticeable differences appearing in the form of separation and discoloration.

Count on the same thing airforce, regardless of what they tell you.

No offense taken sir, if you see in my original post, I said I wouldn't bother having it repainted if that was their only solution.

I rather have a few unsightly scratches than a whole messed up looking wheel
[MENTION=86818]airforce1[/MENTION], I didn't realize you posted pictures of what they did to the wheel. That's freaking horrible, it's like they were going at it blind folded! Man it's no wonder you were upset, I'd be pissed too. Sorry to see that kind of damage, it's things like this that keep me from ever wanting to redeem my 2 years of "free" oil changes and tire rotations.

 

[Antman]

No offense taken sir, if you see in my original post, I said I wouldn't bother having it repainted if that was their only solution.

I rather have a few unsightly scratches than a whole messed up looking wheel

[MENTION=86818]airforce1[/MENTION], I didn't realize you posted pictures of what they did to the wheel. That's freaking horrible, it's like they were going at it blind folded! Man it's no wonder you were upset, I'd be pissed too. Sorry to see that kind of damage, it's things like this that keep me from ever wanting to redeem my 2 years of "free" oil changes and tire rotations.

He deserves nothing less than to have his wheels returned to the same condition they were in when he arrived at the dealer in the first place. Period.

A nick, or even two would be reasonable, but anyone that scratches wheels that bad during a rotation either:

A- Didn't care.

B- Didn't take care.

C- Didn't know how to use his equipment properly.

D- All of the above.


My vote goes to "D".

 

[dekeman]

I once had a set of wheels refinished for my wife's Odyssey and they looked nothing like the "new" I was promised. Insisted he fix them or replace, he eventually replaced all four with new OEM after trying a fix the second time to no avail. Very rarely can OEM wheels be repaired to look new. It is possible, but you really have to know "the right guy."

 

[eddiebx]

He deserves nothing less than to have his wheels returned to the same condition they were in when he arrived at the dealer in the first place. Period.

A nick, or even two would be reasonable, but anyone that scratches wheels that bad during a rotation either:

A- Didn't care.

B- Didn't take care.

C- Didn't know how to use his equipment properly.

D- All of the above.

My vote goes to "D".

Haha yeah I agree...I was originally under the impression that they just kind of scuffed up the recessed wells where you stick the socket in to fasten the lug nuts; but after looking at the pictures, it's pretty clear they were just being negligent jerks :bash:

I mean accidental nicks and scratches happen, but not like 20 times in a row!

 

[UtahSooner]

for the SECOND time in a little over a year they have damaged my rims during a service appointment...They were almost nonchalant about it saying "the lock key is shallow so the air gun makes contact." Like I'm supposed to accept getting my expensive OEM rims torn up!! I asked them why the *&%%@#$% they are using the gun if they know this, and why don't they use a torque stick or lug wrench and do it right, even if it takes an extra few minutes!!??

Sounds errily similar to my experience when I bought my TRD rims in 2011. You can read about it more on the thread below (pages previous to this permalink). In addition to having the paint horribly damanged from the balancing machine, all 4 of the brand new wheels had damage around the lug holes where the tech hadn't taken any care at all when he decided to play NASCAR pit crew putting the wheels back on my truck with an air ratchet.

As it turned out, the original spline lugs and spline tool I'd been sent with my order weren't the right version (the P/N was correct but the kit I got was a pre-release version I guess). The original spline tool was too short (3.5") and the lugs were shorter than they're supposed to be as well. Even with the shorter 3.5" spline tool I originally received the tech should have been able to install the wheels w/o damaging the lug holes.

The tool that you're supposed to have is 5" long and sticks out far enough that the socket and air ratchet won't ever make contact with the lug holes on the wheel. With the longer spline tool it's still possible to scrape up the log holes if the tech is going too fast, but it at least prevents the socket head from making contact with the wheel.

Definitely make sure your spline tool is the 5" long version. If it's not, call the place you ordered it from and make them swap out your lug/spline kit for the correct one (and of course, don't voluntarily tell the dealer that you'd had the wrong spline tool!)

http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/95279-got-trds-off-road-5.html#post883666

I've been doing all the lug removal/install work everytime I go to the tire shop since then b/c I don't trust any of the techs to take the extra minute or two to do the job right w/o damaging my wheels...