Any tyre fitters or experts on here please? Advice needed

[stevef182]

This is a very long story, the short version of which is as follows:

I ordered 4 new tyres from an un-named (for now) tyre supplier to be fitted by one of their recommended garages. On one wheel, I now have damage to both the tyre and wheel that wasn't there before.

The wheels had zero damage before fitting, they were recently refurbished, and I have photos of them a few days before fitting - the car wasn't driven in-between. The tyre was also closely inspected before fitting as a) I wanted to check the DOT code and b) there was some debate with the garage as to whether the tyre was directional and so we looked over it thoroughly for a 'rotation' or 'direction' stamp on the tyre.

I didn't spot the damage immediately, but after driving away I noticed all 4 tyres were over-inflated and none of them at the same PSI (42, 39, 45 and 48 PSI). I stopped at a petrol station to adjust the PSI and at that point noticed the damage. This was a matter of minutes after leaving the garage (I have time stamped photos of wheels off the car whilst tyres were being fitted and photos of the damage shortly after)

However, the garage denies any wrong doing. After a lot of back and forth, the supplier however seem to have acknowledged responsibility for damage to the wheel - at very least they have agreed to repair it.

They are however asking for the tyre to be sent back to the manufacturer to be inspected - they suggested that I had driven the tyre flat which has caused the damage, which is frankly a joke and absolutely not the case. Once inspected by the manufacturer, if the damage is found to be a manufacturing fault or caused during the fitting process, they will cover the cost. If it is found to be my fault, I have to cover the cost of the tyre. Seems fair...(just about)

However - said tyre supplier is owned by the manufacturer of the tyre, so it feels like I inherit a lot of risk here. It would certainly be in their interest to find me at fault, even though I know categorically it is not the case. As such I am trying to understand if the cause of the damage to the tyre is obvious to anyone that has experience in this sort of matter?

Please see photos. The tyre itself, where the damage is, (which also happens to be the same spot where the wheel was damaged) was sticky and coming away on my hands when I touched it, only in tiny pieces but leaving a black sticky residue on my hands.

I gain absolutely nothing from this, and have inherited instead only a huge waste of my time. But by principle more than anything at this stage I want it resolved. All I’m asking for is what I paid for - new tyres, fitted properly, without damage to my car or to the tyre..

I know I absolutely didn't cause this, but I am concerned that the manufacturer won't draw the same conclusion...

Any advice appreciated.

[Catnip64]

Is the black residue some form of lubricant from when they fitted the tyre? Does it clean off or is the rubber damaged underneath?
I'd be more concerned over the scratches around the edge of the rim rather than the paint chip.

[stevef182]

Catnip64 said:

Is the black residue some form of lubricant from when they fitted the tyre? Does it clean off or is the rubber damaged underneath?
I'd be more concerned over the scratches around the edge of the rim rather than the paint chip.

No it doesn't clean off - the rubber is damaged / the black residue is the rubber coming away, almost as if it's been heated or melted.



There is more damage than just the paint chip, including the scratches, but also around other parts of the rim (more photos below) - but given they have agreed to sort the wheel (I have my concerns as to how well they will actually sort it but benefit of the doubt right now) I am more focused on the tyre at the moment.

[TheWokeBlob]

Out of interest is the entirety of the edge of the tyre breaking up or is there a section that is fine?

From the look of the damage on the rim and tyre it looks like it was a mega tight tyre and the force required to get it over the head when seating top bead was enough to deflect the tyre machine's head into the wheel (and cause the damage to that) AND possibly get the tyre lip carved away on the other side of the mounting head.

[stevef182]

TheWokeBlob said:

Out of interest is the entirety of the edge of the tyre breaking up or is there a section that is fine?

From the look of the damage on the rim and tyre it looks like it was a mega tight tyre and the force required to get it over the head when seating top bead was enough to deflect the tyre machine's head into the wheel (and cause the damage to that) AND possibly get the tyre lip carved away on the other side of the mounting head.

No not entirety of the edge, just a few sections - the rest is absolutely fine, which makes the damage more noticeable.

They were struggling to get it to inflate initially, the tyre was on and off the wheel a few times, lots of banging and hitting the tyre with what looked like a crow bar - I was watching pretty closely... then they shut the door on me so I couldn't see what was going on and all of sudden the tyre was on

Edited by stevef182 on Wednesday 10th April 14:54

[MustangGT]

I'm just wondering whether they used a lubricant to assist the fitting and picked up something corrosive by error.

[TheWokeBlob]

stevef182 said:

No not entirety of the edge, just a few sections - the rest is absolutely fine, which makes the damage more noticeable.

They were struggling to get it to inflate initially, the tyre was on and off the wheel a few times, lots of banging and hitting the tyre with what looked like a crow bar - I was watching pretty closely... then they shut the door on me so I couldn't see what was going on and all of sudden the tyre was on

Edited by stevef182 on Wednesday 10th April 14:54

Right rubbish screenshot from Youtube aside

At this point you've got to provide a counter point (I.E a bar or machine with a 2nd/3rd arm if you're posh) on one side to keep the rubber low and tight so the tyre can stretch over the head at the top and ultimately on the rim when rotated

Going from personal experience big low profile tyres can be very tight at this stage, easily enough to deflect the head into the rim if you're not careful and cause damage, or sometimes even tilt the head to a different angle than what is normal.

I'm guessing they deflected the head into the rim to cause the wheel damage, probably multiple times if you say the tyre was on and off, and on at least one occasion it was so tight that instead of deflecting the head just into the wheel, it deflected it so the bead/edge of the tyre was riding on the wrong part of the head at a very tight point and started to peel off the top level of rubber.

I'm the first to say tyre fitting is awful but them waving that off is absolutely a poor show. The fact that it had to come on and off and banging on it (which by is fine and not a sign of a cowboy) just screams it was a ridiculously tight tyre, which although is something that does happen, ups the odds of something going wrong exponentially.

Cheeky to blame flat damage - Flat damage would be around the entirety of the tyre not just one section, would have been so slow it would have certainly started to wear down the lettering and numbers which seem fine on your and very vitally, be very obviously clearly damaged on the inside of the tyre.

[Jo-say8k]

Easy start and a match to get it to seat is my guess

[Depthhoar]

/\ /\ What he said

Scorch marks on the alloy rims + rubber that looks like it's been burnt.

An example of red-neck bead blasting to get the tyre to pop onto the rim?

[Summit_Detailing]

Depthhoar said:

/\ /\ What he said

Scorch marks on the alloy rims + rubber that looks like it's been burnt.

An example of red-neck bead blasting to get the tyre to pop onto the rim?

Also my first thought.

[stevef182]

Appreciate all responses so far. It very much felt and looked looked like melting rubber.... and would explain why all of a sudden they shut the door.

[stevef182]

TheWokeBlob said:

Right rubbish screenshot from Youtube aside

At this point you've got to provide a counter point (I.E a bar or machine with a 2nd/3rd arm if you're posh) on one side to keep the rubber low and tight so the tyre can stretch over the head at the top and ultimately on the rim when rotated

Going from personal experience big low profile tyres can be very tight at this stage, easily enough to deflect the head into the rim if you're not careful and cause damage, or sometimes even tilt the head to a different angle than what is normal.

I'm guessing they deflected the head into the rim to cause the wheel damage, probably multiple times if you say the tyre was on and off, and on at least one occasion it was so tight that instead of deflecting the head just into the wheel, it deflected it so the bead/edge of the tyre was riding on the wrong part of the head at a very tight point and started to peel off the top level of rubber.

I'm the first to say tyre fitting is awful but them waving that off is absolutely a poor show. The fact that it had to come on and off and banging on it (which by is fine and not a sign of a cowboy) just screams it was a ridiculously tight tyre, which although is something that does happen, ups the odds of something going wrong exponentially.

Cheeky to blame flat damage - Flat damage would be around the entirety of the tyre not just one section, would have been so slow it would have certainly started to wear down the lettering and numbers which seem fine on your and very vitally, be very obviously clearly damaged on the inside of the tyre.

Thank you very much

[Pica-Pica]

To be honest if:
“ there was some debate with the garage as to whether the tyre was directional”
… happened, I would have little faith in that tyre fitting shop.

[stevef182]

Pica-Pica said:

To be honest if:
“ there was some debate with the garage as to whether the tyre was directional”
… happened, I would have little faith in that tyre fitting shop.

To come to their defense here, they were merely pointing out and showing evidence that what was written on the suppliers website, (that the tyres are directional), was in fact not the case.