frankyluis23

So I took my 997.1 to Discount Tire to repair a minor air leak to the front passenger tire. Since they were the last shop to work on the car (TPMS install) I thought they should also repair the leak. Anyway, they found a tear in the bead and took full responsibility because it likely occurred while they were replacing the TPMS few weeks prior. Great! I am now getting a free replacement for the front passenger tire but my other tires are only halfway thru their life cycle so I decided to forfeit the install until next time which the manager promised me he would do as long as I returned and spoke to him, also got it in writing. I was too concerned with compromising the handling by introducing a new tire with halfway worn tires. Fine, they put back my old tire and managed to seal off the leak.

Upon mounting the wheel I noticed the technician using the pneumatic impact driver to fasten the wheel to the car (I really do not like it when they do that). Received my car and left the shop, when I hit the highway traveling over 65 mph, the steering wheel started vibrating. Very obvious that the wheel was mounted incorrectly. When I arrived home I decided to remove the wheel and re-mount it myself. Raised the car, carefully hand tightened the lug bolts in a star pattern and lowered the car just enough that the tire kissed the concrete, I finished the job by torquing the bolts to 96 ft/lbs in a star pattern. Fully lowered the car and went for a drive. Problem solved.

WTF is wrong with discount tire?

BTW, I am running Hankook Evo 2s, 235 front and 305 rear.

Sneaky Pete

That stinks......sounds like they had the wheel on the car right but didn't do the proper torque and you had a wobbly wheel. You might want to check your torque again because now the boys at Porsche say 118 ft/lbs.

Wasserkühlung

When I had my R888's installed for a track event then pulled the wheels back off to install giro disc's and pagids I noticed three of the five bolts in my rear wheel were stripped. Cant believe they didn't say anything as they knew I was going for a track event. Thank god I had not installed my brakes before the tires. It would not have ended well for me and the discount tire shop. They did the right thing and paid for a new wheel bearing and hub but almost prevented me from getting to my track day. Lube tech guys are not paid very much and get paid per job so speed < quality. Did you have spacers? Not sure how just remounting the wheel could remove the vibration? Anyways glad you did it the right way and your issue is fixed.

frankyluis23

I have a copy of the latest 997 Workshop Manual and everything I do is in accordance with (IAW) the approved maintenance manual so unless it's published on an approved document, I don't do it.

Just a habit from my days as a certified aircraft mechanic.

niche

They messed up the bead of one of my wheels. Not the place to take a nice car to.

sullivas

Pete,
Do you have any documentation that says 118 ft/lbs? That's a big change.
Thx

frankyluis23

[QUOTE= Did you have spacers? Not sure how just remounting the wheel could remove the vibration? Anyways glad you did it the right way and your issue is fixed.[/QUOTE]

I don't have spacers... Basically, if you over tighten one lug bolt before the other bolts are tight then the wheel is not properly centered on the hub and gets locked into an off centered position. It is always a good practice to evenly hand fasten each bolt in a star pattern with gradual torque being applied each time you complete a single pattern. After you reached a reasonable amount of torque, you continue the pattern using a torque wrench until you achieve desired torque on all bolts.

sullivas

The dealer uses guns too. I asked about it and they said they do a final tightening with a torque wrench when they lower the car.

nwGTS

It's in the manual of any 997.2 and all over this site with a search.

frankyluis23

If the pneumatic impact driver has a regulator and they set it to a very low torque then it shouldn't be too much of a problem but that's exactly how bolts get stripped out and that is why I always recommend doing it by hand.

frankyluis23

Ah... Make sure you are not confusing it with Newton meters. 118 Nm = 87 ft/lbs

sullivas

I have a 997.1 and the manual says 96 ft/lbs.

Glyndellis

My manual (2009 997.2) says 96 lbs.ft/130 Nm. From previous forum posts, I think this was changed on later cars.

Sneaky Pete

Here is something I found
http://www.renntech.org/forums/topic...torque-change/

snake eyes

I just have to say...

I don't consider discount tire jiffy lube of tire world.

I have never had a bad experience with them and with any of the tires I replaced.
In fact just recently helped remove a nail from my tire (thankfully didn't need patch and wasn't in far enough) patch tires are no go for race tracks and auto cross inspections!!

They have always been very careful and they beat tire-racks prices.

Lived in a couple states, been to a couple no problem.

The c6 z06 is notorious for being horrible to mount runflats on and they even did a good job on that.

Looks like a few bad techs but the shops have fixed everyones problems...
Is it a problem if they go out of their way to correct it?

just don't see any issues myself.