Rep Power: 334

K. cleaned up the car, loaded my new rims (still in boxes) and headed out in search for a shop that will unmount my old tires and mount those onto my my new rims.

5 hours later NOTHING. Went to almost 20 shops within a 15 mile radius, most of them popular and places I've been to already.


Long story short:
They didn't want to be liable when and if the new rims are damaged during tire mounting.

At each shop, I asked all nicely 'can they unmount&mount my tires'. They gave me the estimate + alignment, which the average was around $175-$200 for the set.

What seemed to scare them away was when I asked them "Can you gaurantee me that you will not damage the new rims while mounting the tires?" After hearing that they start acting all faggy and gimme excuses that they don't know what will happen blahblahblah. That was such bullshit. Basically they're saying that they might not do the job right and don't want to be blamed for it.

This was at Mothers, Strauss Auto, and a smaller tire shop, all on 46. Firestone at Willowbrook Mall in Wayne doesn't have a machine that does over 17". I also stopped by most of the shops in my town; some I knew they use the old machine (where they stick a bar in between the tire and rim to pop it on) so I didn't go to those. Also went to Autozone and Pepboys... Same crap.
The only place I'm considering is GoodYear on rt17 north near Paramus Park Mall. They said to stop in tomorrow morning to check out their special tiremounter that they only use for Corvettes. If that's a touch-less machine, then I'm having it done there.

Dammit.



ps: I saw a hella modded silver sedan pull in at the Firestone in Willowbrook. Didn't have time to chat cause I was trying to get the lowdown from the workers at the shop there.
I also saw a silver coupe with unpainted altezza grill; i pulled up next to him at the red light.

You guys on this site?

 
Rep Power: 334

oh i forgot to mention the best part about going from shop to shop. There's always someone wanting to by my old rims lol. They ask what I was gonna do with my old rims and i tell them, I'm gonna sell the set at the junkyard (got old or broken car parts? go to a major junk yard and sell to them)

I told most of them $200 (rims are used + no tires) and they gave me their numbers.

 
Rep Power: 0

Well I work as a asst manager at an Auto & tire shop(Merchants Tire and Auto). Now I can see your point of view as to being frustrated. But I can see their view as well. What makes 17+ inches harder to mount is the fact that the tires are Z-rated.. meaning stiffer side walls and balancing them is a pain(requires sticky weights and has to be done perfectly to not feel a vibration at high speeds). Also mounting a stiff tire is not a guarantee that ur rims will be unscathe. I say from experience that you have a 5-10% of getting parts of u rim damaged(not greatly damage maybe a lil scratch) but it also depends on the person doing it. I can do it fairly good as I never damaged a rim before(done 20+ inches chrome rims before).

But the price is pretty expensive to doing this. If you can only bring ur rims/tires in our Shop. I got some realll goood ppl working for me.. the best in the area literally.

Lets see Ultra HP mounting and Balancing= $29.99 a tire/rim
Alignment=79.99.

29.99x4=120(est)+80=$200(est) now thats w/o having camber adjusted... just toes. So yeah thats how much it truly is.

 
Rep Power: 301

from experience i have learned NOT to take your aftermarket 17+ inch rims to anyplace mainstream. such as jack william, bastian, Goodyear, firestone stores, ect. reason is that they dont have the unmount/mount machines that push down from the top and up from the bottom. what u do need to do is go to thoes bling bling rims stores that have the dubs and all that displayed in the windows. they have the good wheel machines that get the job done.

plus stores like that work everyday on expensive wheels so they are pretty damn careful with wheels.

good luck

 
Rep Power: 294

yea like les schwab...but only bad thing about ls is that you have to buy there tires for them to mount and balance them or either buy there rim and tire combo for them to put it on your car, cuz i went there to ask if they can put my dunlop sp sport fm901 tires on my new bronce slips, and one of the guys said that was helping me out, said that i would have to buy the tires from them, iono why i have to buy there tires, iono if it has something to do with them getting more money out of it or what, iono? but yea something like that store i guess they can do it pretty good! cuz the one here in napa, i see like h2's and escalades coming in n out of the place!

 
Rep Power: 0

Yeah that sylver coupe is me, i was at willowbrook mall today, my girl was driving the car thats why she was goin so slow, but ps my grill is painted i just left the mesh black and painted the outer part only, but yeah man u gotta drop that car u look like a suv ;-)

 
Rep Power: 334

Ahh hehe. I didn't catch a good look. I saw that there was a passenger.

yeah but I bet you can't ride down that slope I was comin out of :P
I'm getting that shop next to firestone (Autosound plus) to install spring for me as soon as I get these dam rims on

 
Rep Power: 0

did you try sears' auto center?

 
Rep Power: 334

yuppers. They have one over in Willowbrook as well as the firestone shop.

The owner was really nice over there. He at least told me straight forward "I will try, but if I know something bad's gonna happen then I'm just going to stop" and with that I thanked him for his honesty and told him that I'd rather go to a shop that knows for sure they won't mess the rims up.


I just came back from Stafford Tire on Route 3 right next to a Honda dealership. (wheel shop with blingbling rims at their front windows) They do 22s but they use the old machine. I talked to them on the phone and it was funny as hell what the chick said. I asked what would happen if they scratch my tire while mounting. She said, "Ok, this is funny." and then *whispered* "umm we've never had a bad installation before..." something shady bout the way she said it.

I know i'm blowing this outta proportion, but this my first NEW set of rims in a while. My current 18s were used, so I didn't have a problem getting new tires mounted on them at my favorite shop (with old machine). and I had new 17s before that, but it was small enough for a Goodrich shop to mount on their good machine.

 
Rep Power: 583

try firestone in fair lawn/elmwood park. they patched up my 17" rims once, so im sure they can work on yours. i dont know tho, how big are your rims?

that does seem strange about the chick wispering. why would you wisper that you have a good reputation? lol id want people to hear that.

 
Rep Power: 301

how far are you from upperdarby pa?? its about 5 mins outside philly. the shop i go to hooks me up crazy. 7 bucks to unmount 2 tires and 10 bucks to mount and balance 2 rims. my boi over there hooks me up nicely

also he gave me thoes wheel covers that they use when they ship wheels. and tons of thoes chrome valve stems and caps.

 
Rep Power: 0

Go to Action Tire on route 46 east

 
Rep Power: 314

the just tires place around here does it for 20 a tire, remounting new tires onto old rims, they did my dads tires on his monte carlo ss. but then again there stock, not rims and i think they just slam down and then up in the middle. so i wouldn't go there tho.

 
Rep Power: 334

okay

Came back from GoodYear on Rt 17 North just passed Paramus Park
Decided on them because I fell for their "special Corvette tire mounter" bullshit.

First of all that tire mounter was the same everyday tire mounter that they *manually* shove a bar in between the tire and rim to pop it onto the rim. That is exactly the machine I was trying to avoid everywhere, not a "touchless" one.

Results:
$136 and 2 rims scratched. Looks like I already curbed them. ****


I asked those ******* if that was the machine and that the rims will get damaged. The kid working it must've mounted tires only once before cause an older guy was walking him through. They wouldn't let me watch them, so I stood just outside the garage a watched from a couple feet away. And to top it off, the head guy (i guess) kept trying to get me to sign up for a card, all the while talkin to me like I knew jack about cars.

Pointed out the scratches and he didn't do anything except print out my bill. I think he only charged me for mounting and balancing, and not labor. But who ****ing cares. They suck anyways.


I ******* hate New Jersey

 
Rep Power: 334

Here's what I gathered from my experience, when getting tires mounted onto NEW 18" rims:

Stay away from ALL small shops

Firestone at Willowbrook Mall in Wayne only does 17" and less

Sears Auto Center at at Willowbrook Mall in Wayne only will try.

Stafford Tires on rt 3 West next to Planet Honda, looks good on the outside but is just another small shop, that employs teenybopper girls.

Mothers on Route 46 will only work if you buy from them

Autostores like Pepboys, Strauss & Autozone suck.

Costco in do not mount aftermarket rims.


find a shop that looks neat and professional, and are confident they will not mess up. Don't let this happen to you

 
Rep Power: 0

dude all that and ur rims still got ****ed up. lmao.

i spend 20 bucks. 5 dollars a tire mounted and balanced.
the spanish dude the ghetto does it.

see all that money I saved? lol my rims were 495 each too.

 
Rep Power: 343

wish i would have seen this thread before, my friends shop could have mounted them for you.