Scratched Rim from Dealership?
 

Hey Guys,

I wanted to ask your opinions on somethign that happened recently. I had to get new tires for the rears of my Z due to a bad nail and somewhat low tread and I had Nissan do this. Anyways, I get it done Wednesday of last week and yesterday I am prepping the car for winter and I noticed that one of the rims had the weights taken off, all except one little one which was hanging which I took off because it was going to fall off. I decided to look at the other rim and noticed that there was a small dent and a bunch of scratches on the inner rim that looks like they used a wire brush to clean off or something. Pics are attached.

What would you expect Nissan to do about this? They are looking into it now....

Its annoying and noticeable and my main thoughts are that if I go to the dealership for a repair, my car should return to me in the same condition...

Opinions?

They ****** up. They are responsible for either repairing your wheels or replacing them.

Those scratches can easily be disputed, the dent may be your word against theirs, but the scratches are pathetic for a dealership. Especially, for nismo wheels. Those are expensive!

ouch.. another reason why i remove weights, center caps, valve caps, centering rings (if applicable), clean the barrels, and roll in my wheels loose to competent tireshops only.

Words I will live by.

Yea no kidding... The dent is whatever really, the scratches are the main thing... But I know the dent wasnt there...

I feel it should be replaced since im not sure how you can fix it...

I thought going to the dealership was the right thing and would be competent... I guess not..

I always used to bitch about them leaving the old residue on the rim, now I count my blessing that they just stuck the weights elswhere and left the residue.

Best part is, on the other rim, they didnt put any weights on! There was one weight left on, hanging by its corner that I pulled off because it was going to come off anyways...

my Z has never seen the dealership since me taking ownership. my G hasnt seen the dealer for over 9yrs...

they match mounted (balanced it perfectly..probably not) or you lost the weights. take it to a competent tire store to get your wheels rebalanced.

Your kidding right????? Have you ever tried to get the stick on weights off? Your gonna scratch them some, I don't care what you do. It's part of balancing tires. By the way, the old weights weren't in that spot. They were more to the right, I can see the old glue left behind.

Thaaaat's pretty awful. I'd raise hell if my rim was left looking like that. Not sure what recourse you would really have though, since that's going to be nearly impossible to prove it was their fault. Hope you get it worked out.

I disagree. You can easily get the tape weights off without scratching the wheel by a little thing called "being careful"

it looks to me like this person was in a hurry and used a small wire brush. Thats just being lazy

Novice. Use RC car motorspray/nitro cleaner to weaken adhesive, then pull.
Comes off rather easily.

Looks like the tech cleaned off the goop with a flat head screw driver. Firestone screwed up 3 out 4 of my wheels so I know your pain. Go up there and demand new wheels or get them repaired at their expense

They are stupid, I always tell them "no wash, no vacuum, no tire pressure check" The less they touch the car the better, sorry to hear I know the feeling

same thing happened to me today. So my TPMS alert went off. Checked my tire, had a 4 in nail in it. Yeah 4 inches. Didn't go flat so took my Z home. Ordered a replacement from tirerack.com. Got my tire within 24 hours and 200 bucks off. Awesome. Took my tire up to Nissan. Never been there before and thought it would be a safe bet since I'd never had a car with TPMS and didn't want to risk a discount place messing something up with my TPMS or scratching my rim. So I went to the dealership and the service manager was amazed I had a NISMO. (Confirms I should continue to do business else where so my Z doesn't get ridden for a joy ride). But I will say I appreciated his honesty because I told him my concern about getting a scratch or chip on my rim and he recommended I go to a pro rim shop who has more advanced equipment that will not scratch the face of the rim.

So I went to a Professional Rim Repair. I told them 3 times that I'm very particular about my things and I didn't want my rim scratched. They were able to get it on the rim without scratching it, but where they took off the old weights, I noticed they scratched the inside of the rim and its visible from the outside. Just 3 little scratches. The guy was super nice about it and is going to paint it for free of course. So I won't be driving my Z this week but at least it will be mint. They do great work which is why I chose them.

Back in 1989 I bought a set of 3 piece rims for a little over $1000. When they would put the weights on my wheels they would scratch them. They even used Teflon coated ones and put a touch of wheel bearing grease on them. They would scratch the wheel. Guess I just got use to it, didn't like it, but it is part of it. If the car is used it will not stay looking like brand new forever. All I have to say is at least a dog didn't piss on them and stain them. You guys are going to have strokes and heart attacks...LOL Some things just happen.

Wish I had a pick of my wheels for my 2001 Super charged Frontier. First wheel balance on that truck and the rims were ruined where they tried to get the weights off. Now that was something to fuss about. Not that little piddle scratchs I saw in the pics.

I'd expect something like that from Sears or Pep Boys but from the dealer?! Shameful!! Reason I hate taking my car in for maintenance; most places hire monkeys and yet real monkeys could probably do a better job.

Technology has come a long way since 1989...it's not an unreasonable expectation to not get scratches during something that has been routine with automobiles for 100 years. In my case, I clearly laid out the expectation. I'd like to hear from folks who have upgraded their rims...how they go about getting their tires changed. Especially since 1000 bucks in 89 is probably like 3000 bucks today.

Same thing happened to me last week with my 40th rims except it didn't look as "nice" as yours.
Mine had screw driver scratches going crossways from the rear to the front about 6 inches long. About 15 scratches per rim.

Long story short, the well respected tire place owned up to it and had them repainted for me.

I super was pissed! All good now.

Wtf? What idiot cleans the rims with a wire brush for weight's.

Well I am waiting for them to get back to me but I am going to push for a new rim. Will update when I know more...

Dealers are notoriously incompetent. You're better off finding a competent shop that specializes in the work you need done or a Z/G shop that does a variety of things but sends cars off for specialty work.

Now this is something to be pissed about.

i think they will only repaint the barrel(s)... :ugh: GL with it though..

They said they would have the wheel repaired by a wheel shop and that it would still have a full warranty. I asked if this would fix the dent and they said they believed it would (we will see about that when the time comes).

My next question (amatuer, lol), whats the best way to jack the car up for a couple weeks without the wheel? I am guessing jack it up in the middle of the side, then put jack stands (2) by each wheel?

Thanks for the info and opinions guys..

Whenever I'm getting tires changed, I have the SA walk around the car with me and inspect them to see that there are no scratches and then note it on the work order. If they know you're looking for it, they will be careful. I've seen tire shops pretty much destroy rims and I've seen them come out perfect. So you know it can be done - just takes more time.

search jack points.

You got lucky... I'm glad the dealer was stand-up about it. I ALWAYS remove them at home, and roll them into the shop, and let the shop manager know I have inspected them....
It sucks that you have to be a **** like that, but you do.

Great advise for everyone, this can happen to anyone, any shop, Dealership or not

Same thing happened to me.

I took my car to get some work done and I MADE SURE I did a proper walk around. My advisor even said "damn still not a single scratch on her." This isn't the first time I have taken the car in either. Came back to pick the car up and 3/4 of my rear passenger wheel was curb rashed severely. I had a scratch on the very bottom of my side skirts and my driver's side illuminated kick plate was damaged (3 huge dents).

I called the manager and immediately he denies he did it. We look at the damage sheet and see there were no prior damages (with 3 people who walked around to check it). Then he says
"We didn't do this to your car, and were not saying you did this, but we didn't do it. But well take care of it for you"

It took them 4 tries to color match it exactly like the others and they failed. They ended up powder coating it gunmetal for me free of charge.

Also to OP, they most definitely will NOT replace your wheel. Trust me. I tried very hard and they don't even come close to budging on it

I feel your misery man. Round rock nissan did the same thing to the rim on my new Nismo. Started with a leak in the sidewall. I brought it in to them and they said the leak was not repairable so they replaced the tire at a discount since the car was so new (that was nice of them). Service manager walked me out to my car and small talked for a while after the work was done. I didn't notice the damage until a week later when I washed the rims (picts attached). Dealerships can't be trusted for even basic things. Like a previous poster said, inspect all the work they do if it all possible while you are there. They will find a way to f it up.

Don't stand for that crap - take it back and make them fix it. Btw, if you're not doing warranty work, I recommend Austin Z Clinic. Small operation, but a knowledgeable guy, solid work, and good prices :tup:

yep, the only way to do it right the first time is to follow the advise i already posted.
i dont have time to deal with stupid and fix their problems later.

Yeah, I should have taken it back to them, but I figured they would have fought me on it and I didn't want to deal with it. Next time....

Dang, didn't know about Austin Z. Man, we have it lucky here =). Uprev and Austin Z.

:tup: