The Tire Choice Steve Powell dist. managerDan and Diane Hennelly, owners Technician used incorrect tool, caused damage. Technician did not perform paid for service. North Port Florida

 10/12/2013

This morning I had four tires put on my 2005 dodge ram 1500 pickup. I wanted the tires match mounted for height. I was told match mounting does not really work and that I should have the tires road force balanced. I agreed to this and the extra cost. The technician who was working on my vehicle I noticed was using the wrong size socket in removing the wheels lug nuts. He had a hard time putting the socket on at least half of the lugs. I pointed out to the service advisor that the technician is using an incorrect socket, and he is going to damage my lug nuts. I was told by the service advisor that the socket was correct and that the lug nuts are swollen causing the socket to fit incorrectly. I asked what do you mean “swollen”, and was told that corrosion builds up under the cladding of the lug nut swelling the cladding. I asked what socket the technician was using and was told he was using a 22 millimeter. I know this is the incorrect socket, the lug is a standard thread 9/16-18 so the correct socket to use would be a 7/8 socket. I watched the technician through the rest of the process, he only spun balanced the tires, the road force wheel never touched the tire. In installing the wheels back on the vehicle, the technician did not clean any corrosion of the mating surfaces, lug nut threads or use a torque wrench or torque stick to ensure correct and safe installation.

At check out, I mentioned to the service advisor about what had just happened, he at first insisted the road force part of the balancing machine was used. He however did not know I had already asked the technician if he only spun balanced the wheels, which he confirmed, he did not road force the wheel/tire assembly only spin balance. I indicated this to the service advisor, ha took off the road force charge.

This still leaves the problem of damaged lug nuts, 10 in all caused by the use of an incorrect socket. I want to a dodge dealer and bought the correct lug nut, went to my shop and got a 22 millimeter socket, 7/8 socket and vernier caliper. I showed how the 7/8 socket fits in comparison to a 22 millimeter. The 22 millimeter socket which is .009 smaller than a 7/8 socket (.875) can slide over even a new clad lug nut, there is however no clearance between the socket and lug nut, it is an exact fit. If there is any variance in the lug nut, which there would be;  the potential of damage is very high. The technician had to hammer on to ten of  lug nuts, causing damage to them, some with enough damage that a correct 7/8 socket will not fit correctly. I confronted the service advisor, and asked to show me the swollen lug nuts, to show me the corrosion causing the swelling. He could not do so. I then went to my shop, removed one of the damaged lug nut and replaced it with the new one I just bought. I then cut the damaged lug nut in half and brought is back to the store and asked them to show me the corrosion that had caused the lug nut to swell ( there was zero corrosion ). The service advisors then decided that corrosion was not the problem and that heat buildup from driving the vehicle had caused the lug nuts to swell. Really? Do you honestly really expect me to buy that? If corrosion had shown up causing the cladding of the lug nut to expand, I would have shown them the lug nut and apologized for making a disruption. There was however no corrosion so now they had to resort to mythological  BS. Really??? This is un acceptable, your service personal should be far more professional than this. They are clearly not properly trained for the job they are doing.