bha7176

I took my car to a local Jack William tire and auto to get new Hankooks EVO tires put on. I've dealt with this particular place for years now with my other vehicles and no issues. However, after having the tires put on, I knew I would have to go to BMW for an alignment as they said they couldn't do it. But, when I picked my car up and drove away, i noticed slight vibrations and a pretty hard pull to the right. Figured I'd let BMW look at it when it went in the next week for alignment, and told them to re-road force balance all four wheels.

Well I get the call yesterday from BMW. "The car is in spec's for alignment and tire balance, but it still pulls to the right and has slight vibration - did you know you have spaceres on all four wheels? Also, we do not recommend Hankook tires, and beleive they may be causing your vibration and pulling issues. Oh, and both rear rims are bent and the right rear is cracked. the car is ready, when will you be here to pick it up?" I have the OE type 172 wheels on my car.

WTF I said, what do you mean they are bent and cracked? I kept the loaner another night and talked to the service manager today. he is going to see if the cracked one can be covered under warratny but doubts it. He hasn't called me back yet. they do have a wheel repair guy that can straighten the one, but not repair the cracked one.

I don't have any pictures of the inside of my rear wheels before, but I didn't have ANY vibration or pulling issues with the OE Continentals which were essentially bald right before being replaced last week, so I really think Jack Williams tire bent, and maybe even cracked, my rear rims. they did not tell me that my rims were bent or cracked when I picked my car up last week, which you think they would have done when they noticed it, which they would have noticed when they tried to balance them.

Any recourse or words of wisdom from any of you guys? I am so pissed right now about this.

bigbadbull

Spacers on 172s?

Wow that sucks...no rim and tire coverage I take it, you got Road hazard coverage?
Hope every thing get straightened out...

pjinca

I afraid there won;t be much to do unless you could prove the wheels were not bent prior to the tire install. Sorry bud, good luck.

xcntrk

Honestly, how would the tire shop bend 2 rims and crack another? Even faulty installation likely couldn't cause that amount of damage. Chance are they were bent/damaged before taking it in and you simply didn't know or couldn't tell. Likely the new tires and fresh balance uncovered the problem that was already existing? Anyway sucks to hear and good luck with resolution...

NYC530XI

+1 Even the most incompetent tire guy could not cause all of that damage changing the old to new tires.

They most likely are not severe bends/cracks that occurred driving over the crappy winter roads on 19s. A new balancing will definitely make vibrations more pronounced.

My recommendation is to pick up a set of 18s or 17s for winter driving if you must use the E60. I have 40 series rubber on my 18s and I do fine in the winter, and have hit some NASTY craters in NYC with no bending/cracking. The 19 inch tires simply do not have enough rubber to withstand winter condition in my opinion, especially the 30 series rears.

Good luck with the repairs. Sorry to hear of your peril.

melimel

Maybe the other place just didnt see the cracks in the rims? Is that possible? Maybe the bends were there already, but they didnt think of mentioning it to you since you were just replacing the tires? Ive never heard of BMW not recommending Hankook tires though for the reasons youve stated.. Especially since alot of members here have them. Thats odd, but the fact is your in a rut, 2 rims bent and cracked sucks and i doubt the dealer is going to help you with that. I would try to see if the cracks can maybe get welded and bends repaired for now, then try to get your hands on another set of wheels maybe. It sucks, but im trying to be optimistic here, especailly when I know how pissed you are. The tires could have worn out unevenly especailly with the bends there and maybe its more noticalbe now with the brand new tires on? I could be totally wrong, im just guessing.. Sorry for this crap, it sucks... Let us know what happens though.. Mel

CWS530

Damn, this has been the worst year for tires and rims I can remember. Sorry.

bha7176

Thanks for all the kind words.

Update - I went to BMW yesterday after talking to the service manager about this. Also on the way there I received a call from the Jack Williams regional manager and we discussed the issue. He was very professional and asked if I could call him back after I saw the wheels at BMW. Upon arriving at BMW, the service manager and the senior tech took me out to the shop floor where my car was up on a lift. They proceeded to show me that ALL four rims are bent, not just two. And the right rear did have a very small crack on it. I asked if in their professional opinion Jack Williams could have done this, they said no. They had to of been bent and cracked before and I just couldn't tell with the worn tires and old balance. Pissed...yes. At Jack Williams...no. I called the regional manager at JW back and told him, in all honesty I can no longer say this was JW's fault.

The vehicle was still pulling to the right pretty bad, even after BMW alignment and rebalancing - had to be a bad new tire. The regional manager at JW asked me to stop in right away as he was at my local store. I did, and he couldn't have been nicer. They switched the front tires from side to side and asked me to test drive and tell them if the pull was affected at all. It was - the car pretty much tracked straight with a very slight pull to the left now. They think the right front tire is bad and ordered me a replacement.

Funny thing is, the JW regional manager was looking at the Beyern website when I came in, I noticed and asked him about it. He said he thought this was going to end up with them having to get me new rims and was going to suggest Beyern I guess. Anyway, I got into a conversation with him about replacement rims and I think I actually might get the black Beyern Mesh wheels in 19". He told me short of losing money on the sale, he will beat any price I can find. I think he was so relieved that I was being honest and a stand up guy that he wants to "help" me out in his own way.

In the end a situation that could have turned really ugly ended up being a success all around really. I formed a pretty good relationship with the BMW service manager and senior tech at my local BMW shop, and I made a friend at the regional manager level at JW. In fact, both the senior tech at BMW and the JW regional manager gave me their personal contact info and asked me to call them if/when I have any issues in the future.

I'm going to be out about $1,000 bucks on new wheels, but it's no one's fault other than mine (I guess I must have hit something at some time - that or the owner prior to me, remember I bought this at 1.5 years old with 12,000 miles on it, hit something and I didn't notice it until I had new tires put on). But I made three great professional relationships with three guys that really may be able to help me out down the road.

Oh, and I don't drive this car in the winter. Just on nice sunny days. I drive my old 2002 Jeep liberty most of the time. This baby sits in the garage on a tender under a dust cover. that's why I was so upset, its not like I remember smashing into a huge pot hole knowing in my gut that I phucked something up. That never happened while I've owned the car.

And someone else asked about spacers on 172's. Yeah I have them, 5mm and 15mm, so what? Cool thing is, the Beyern Mesh's have ET 15 front and rear, so I probably won't need the spacers anymore. I certainly won't need the sizes I have. So if you are looking for spacers, keep your eyes open cause mine are going to be for sale soon. They are H&R and will come with the new longer lug bolts too.

So, in the end I'm not overly happy, but I'm not completely pissed either.

bha7176

Oh yeah, BMW said no way on warranty coverage for this.

Kzang

Unless you paid for the tire/wheel warranty package there is nothing you can do about it.

I'm in a similar situation. Since last week my steering wheel had a slight vibration to it betweent he speeds 60 - 70 mph.. I finally called BMW to take a look at it today and the SA called me back telling me all 4 rims 124 style 18" are bent. The car only has 8300 miles on it! When I first took delivery of the car my CA asked if I wanted tire and wheel insurance since I have the sports package for $2K.. I thought to myself well if I ever needed it I would probably pay that much for all four rims and tires so I said no.. lol.

So I had the service guy go ahead and replace all 4 rims with new ones for $2,350... fronts are $380 x 2, rears $405 x 2, alighnment is $270, wheel weights is $40, valves are $27 x 4, balance is $240. Pretty pricey for having a sports packaged 18" rims I admit that I did hit my share of few potholes here in NYC but didn't realize how weak these rims are to bend...