New Tyres Time - Do Any Fitters Ever Listen
Discussion
I know I shouldn't really expect anything else....
....but it does P one off a bit.
Used to be that I'd take the TVR in and say "24psi all round please" and then later I'd wonder why the car seemed like it was skating on marbles. (Yup - 32psi all round when I checked)
Anyhow, this time was the Eurobox. A big outlet currently doing 20% off a set of 4 nice shiney new Michelins. Not too busy, can do them then and there and sensible discussion with boss man about what the different books/manuals say about pressure. But my Eurobox specifies 38psi front and back (38 front 42 back for fully laden) - "...see there's a sticker there to specify - and in 70,000 miles I haven't noticed tyres wearing badly through over-inflation, OK?..."
Yup - about 32psi all round when I checked.
I should have done it on the forecourt before driving away shouldn't I?
But why, oh why, oh why....
.......and breathe......
....but it does P one off a bit.
Used to be that I'd take the TVR in and say "24psi all round please" and then later I'd wonder why the car seemed like it was skating on marbles. (Yup - 32psi all round when I checked)
Anyhow, this time was the Eurobox. A big outlet currently doing 20% off a set of 4 nice shiney new Michelins. Not too busy, can do them then and there and sensible discussion with boss man about what the different books/manuals say about pressure. But my Eurobox specifies 38psi front and back (38 front 42 back for fully laden) - "...see there's a sticker there to specify - and in 70,000 miles I haven't noticed tyres wearing badly through over-inflation, OK?..."
Yup - about 32psi all round when I checked.
I should have done it on the forecourt before driving away shouldn't I?
But why, oh why, oh why....
.......and breathe......
HellDiver said:
Last time I got tyres, one tyre was 47psi and the other was 27. Book says 31. I told the fitter to put them at 32. Was an interesting trip home with front tyres like that...
I've no trust at all.I've my own torque-wrench to do up the nuts properly (typically they are massively overtightened) - and a proper pressure guage.
Can't imagine any commercially successful companies would pay much more than minimum wage for that job, and training's probably nonexistent. You do come across the odd guy who knows exactly what's what, but in my experience, those guys are in the minority.
C
First thing I do after new tyres is drive home and fix the pressures. Over inflated new greasy tyres on a lightweight rear drive makes for a slow drive home. I once had a debate in the tyre place where he showed me a book that had the pressures in it, I then showed him the door shut but he insisted he had to follow his book!
Dad's civic came back from being AT S the tyre fitters last time with nearly 50 PSI on both front tyres (30 is spec).
Fitters putting wheels back on with air guns then diligently checking with a torque wrench afterwards always make me laugh (or shout if it's mine).
I tend to use mobile fitters now. Even from the big chains they seem to be knowledgeable. I guess they only send them out in the van if they know they'll be able to cope with anything on their own without having to ask the gaffer for help.
Fitters putting wheels back on with air guns then diligently checking with a torque wrench afterwards always make me laugh (or shout if it's mine).
I tend to use mobile fitters now. Even from the big chains they seem to be knowledgeable. I guess they only send them out in the van if they know they'll be able to cope with anything on their own without having to ask the gaffer for help.
Not all tyre shops are like this, all of my staff are city and guilds trained which I pay for, I train them myself in the correct use of auto data charts and tourqe wrenches/pressure gauges, the gauges are also calibrated every 6 months and replaced every 12 months. We also have strict quality control procedures in place and everyone earns well above minimum wage! Unfortunately not all garages have the same standards and sometimes give the rest of us a bad name!
kambites said:
The last place I took mine dug out the handbook and looked up the tyre pressures themselves before setting them properly with a hand-held meter. They also torqued the wheel nuts up to the figures specified in the book using a manual torque wrench.
I'm going to takea wild guess that you went to Micheldever.kambites said:
Out of interest, why replace the gauges if they pass calibration?
it's just something we have always done, they get calibrated at 6 months old then replced at 12 months, they are quite cheap to replace and come off our profit and loss when we remove them from service anyway agent006 said:
Dad's civic came back from being AT S the tyre fitters last time with nearly 50 PSI on both front tyres (30 is spec).
Fitters putting wheels back on with air guns then diligently checking with a torque wrench afterwards always make me laugh (or shout if it's mine).
I tend to use mobile fitters now. Even from the big chains they seem to be knowledgeable. I guess they only send them out in the van if they know they'll be able to cope with anything on their own without having to ask the gaffer for help.
I can echo the mobile fitter comment. My company car provider use one of the quicker fitters, and their depots are a bit of a nightmare. The bloke in van approach has been good: 2 out of 2 so far.Fitters putting wheels back on with air guns then diligently checking with a torque wrench afterwards always make me laugh (or shout if it's mine).
I tend to use mobile fitters now. Even from the big chains they seem to be knowledgeable. I guess they only send them out in the van if they know they'll be able to cope with anything on their own without having to ask the gaffer for help.
C
Jimmytno1 said:
Not all tyre shops are like this, all of my staff are city and guilds trained which I pay for, I train them myself in the correct use of auto data charts and tourqe wrenches/pressure gauges, the gauges are also calibrated every 6 months and replaced every 12 months. We also have strict quality control procedures in place and everyone earns well above minimum wage! Unfortunately not all garages have the same standards and sometimes give the rest of us a bad name!
I did say "minority" to be fair, in my original comment. I've just had too many nutters fit nuts back on with airguns at 250nm in the past. Not a good idea on an elise, that.C
Fair shout, I know of some garages that don't use tourqe wrenches at all and stop with the airgun when the wheel nut/bolt "feels tight"! This then sometimes causes us problems if we are the next place to remove the wheels and the threads on those bolts/nuts are damaged cos the were over tightened previously!
Some places have employees and procedures which frankly are absolutely first class.
Others unfortunately give these guys a bad name and you'd get a better job from those chimpanzees that advertise tea.
Now imagine the latter outfit not fitting car tyres and wheels but doing commercial work.
Then you'll realise why as a nation UK has several thousand lost and loose wheel incidents a year and on average 7 fatalities with wheels bouncing down the road. I do mean fatalities not ksi.
All those yellow plastic arrows, fancy nuts and what have you are just security theatre, wheel fixings have to be done properly and maintained properly all according to the code of practice. Without that look out.
/hobby horse
Others unfortunately give these guys a bad name and you'd get a better job from those chimpanzees that advertise tea.
Now imagine the latter outfit not fitting car tyres and wheels but doing commercial work.
Then you'll realise why as a nation UK has several thousand lost and loose wheel incidents a year and on average 7 fatalities with wheels bouncing down the road. I do mean fatalities not ksi.
All those yellow plastic arrows, fancy nuts and what have you are just security theatre, wheel fixings have to be done properly and maintained properly all according to the code of practice. Without that look out.
/hobby horse
Jimmytno1 said:
Fair shout, I know of some garages that don't use tourqe wrenches at all and stop with the airgun when the wheel nut/bolt "feels tight"! This then sometimes causes us problems if we are the next place to remove the wheels and the threads on those bolts/nuts are damaged cos the were over tightened previously!
Just out of interest how do you get a wheel bolt/nut out if it is damaged? Depends on the situation in hand, if it's a stud and wheel nut set up we usually strip down the hub and replace the stud, we keep common ones in stock and have several local main dealers to obtain others from, if it's a damage wheel bolt and it comes out of the hub the threads in the hub can sometimes be rethreaded and the bolt replaced,
Jammy2008 said:
Jimmytno1 said:
Fair shout, I know of some garages that don't use tourqe wrenches at all and stop with the airgun when the wheel nut/bolt "feels tight"! This then sometimes causes us problems if we are the next place to remove the wheels and the threads on those bolts/nuts are damaged cos the were over tightened previously!
Just out of interest how do you get a wheel bolt/nut out if it is damaged? 2. Swear at it.
3. If the head is intact, big breaker bar + impact socket + scaffy bar.
4. More swearing.
5. If the head is damaged, use a stud extractor.
6. Yet more swearing.
just to play devil's advocate here...
but imagine you're the tyre fitter. you've got a chart which tells you what pressures are needed etc. some bloke comes in demanding that you deviate from your chart....which, because you want to please the customer, you oblige.
on the customer's trip home, they crash.
in an attempt to absolve themselves they blame the tyre place for incorrectly fitting the tyres and deny any requests to deviate from the chart.
police investigate.
tyre pressures not in accordance with chart.
tyre fitter potentially charged with some form of negligence.
i can understand why they're going to refer to their own data. keeps them safe in the event of someone ballsing things up.
but imagine you're the tyre fitter. you've got a chart which tells you what pressures are needed etc. some bloke comes in demanding that you deviate from your chart....which, because you want to please the customer, you oblige.
on the customer's trip home, they crash.
in an attempt to absolve themselves they blame the tyre place for incorrectly fitting the tyres and deny any requests to deviate from the chart.
police investigate.
tyre pressures not in accordance with chart.
tyre fitter potentially charged with some form of negligence.
i can understand why they're going to refer to their own data. keeps them safe in the event of someone ballsing things up.
utgjon said:
just to play devil's advocate here...
but imagine you're the tyre fitter. you've got a chart which tells you what pressures are needed etc. some bloke comes in demanding that you deviate from your chart....which, because you want to please the customer, you oblige.
on the customer's trip home, they crash.
in an attempt to absolve themselves they blame the tyre place for incorrectly fitting the tyres and deny any requests to deviate from the chart.
police investigate.
tyre pressures not in accordance with chart.
tyre fitter potentially charged with some form of negligence.
i can understand why they're going to refer to their own data. keeps them safe in the event of someone ballsing things up.
This.but imagine you're the tyre fitter. you've got a chart which tells you what pressures are needed etc. some bloke comes in demanding that you deviate from your chart....which, because you want to please the customer, you oblige.
on the customer's trip home, they crash.
in an attempt to absolve themselves they blame the tyre place for incorrectly fitting the tyres and deny any requests to deviate from the chart.
police investigate.
tyre pressures not in accordance with chart.
tyre fitter potentially charged with some form of negligence.
i can understand why they're going to refer to their own data. keeps them safe in the event of someone ballsing things up.
If you want to fiddle with tyre pressures (and there's nothing wrong with doing that if you know what you're on about) they do it when it's only you that's liable.
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