I left the Shop and my Left front tire almost came off.
The Service Rep., he did a good job on following my instructions to write up how I wanted my tires rotated, but he assigned the work to the least experienced Tech in the Shop. This can be disastrous when dealing with a Mercedes or a BMW.
1. Proper tightening sequence and torque is critical on German cars because it can ruin rotors. I understand that some confusion took place when I asked what torque they were using. This tire might have been missed because of questioning the issue, but there should be one Tech in charge of a car and is responsible for the total work so that parts are not left off or not tight, etc.
2. The next day checked my air pressure to make sure they are the same and proper values. They ranged from 32 to 38 all the way around and not front to back. One front was 32 the other 38 and the backs were 34 and 36.
3. Also, I noticed the factory wheel weights were dug off inside the rim and weights were added to outside lip of the rim. Again, this is not the proper thing to do with a high end German car. Factory weights provide a base line for the wheel at a higher degree of accuracy than any tire store balancer can do. This has screwed up my wheels for good. Add on weights are only used to fix tire imbalances and used only when needed after following the manufactures mounting dots. Most tire manufactures provide colored dots that identify where the valve stem location should be to reduce the amount of weights needed to balance the tire.
While most of these issues are not generally common knowledge and are not issues with USA cars, they are big deals with German cars and can cause expensive damage. I don’t drive at 130 MPH but if I do I want my wheels, tires, and brakes ready and capable of it. I come to Tate’s because of experience of both Jared and Chad, who have always controlled these issues, (Chad fixed the torque after wheel almost came off). This was one of those off days and lack of training. I don’t want anything negative to happen to anyone but I do expect Training to take place to know about these issues. Granted, sometimes with turnover it’s hard to know what training people need. In that case, I would expect that my Mercedes be serviced only by the most experienced Tech’s.
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