Motorsport_S

guys im pissed off. i took my brand spanking new volk ce28n to a supposedly 5 star shop to have them install new tires and balance. after i got the wheels back i noticed gashes in the paint in the roundel inner rim part where the center caps go on every single wheel. they are not deep gashes in the metal but just to the paint. you cant really see them from the outside and they are hidden with center caps. they said its from the wheel balancing machine and it is totally unavoidable. they gave me a full refund but it botheres me. on old rims i wouldnt care as much but since these are brand new it bothers me. is this bound to happen eventually and i should just let it go or what should i do ?

Mugen_is_best

You should ask the people who have perfect wheels with brand new tires if it's possible or not

IMO, it's completely possible to mount tires without leaving a mark on a rim. It's just that most shops and technicians could care less. Just wait until you start getting scratches on the inner barrel of the rim, then you'll really be pissed off

rpg51

This sort of thing scares the cr*p out of me. I don't blame you for being upset.
I have been using the same shop most of my adult life. The owner is a great guy and I do spend a lot of money there. When I have high end wheels like Volks etc. that need to be mounted, I always take the owner aside and tell him that the wheels are very special to me and I offer to pay a little more for him to tell the guys in the shop to slow down a bit and be extra careful. He never takes the extra money, but they always take extra care. I have not had problems.

TsukubaCody

Yes it is possible to get wheels mounted/balanced without damage.

Source: My brand new RGIII were not damaged when I got tires mounted on them.

B serious

Pictures of the damage would help us ascertain what happened.

No, the wheels should not be visibly damaged in the area you're describing, from balancing. That's a crazy thing to claim.

The inner barrel should also not be damaged. They should be outside-clamping the wheels. Request that next time.

Stealth2k02

Yes it is possible, if they have the correct wheel balance machine (Road Hunter) or something like that then it would have been prevented. The machine essentially lifts the wheel for them and they slide the wheel sitting on the platform over the rod before tightening down for balance. My daily got fresh powdered coated wheels after repair and scratched in that same area your talking about.

Bruunz

This is what happened to me... I only spotted this a couple of months ago. Had the rims for nearly 3 years and 1 puncture repair a year ago. So not quite sure when it happened

B serious

Did you drive on a flat tyre for a while?

RussianHammer

Brunnz; thats from driving on the wheel with a puncture. The tire mount tools will not do something like that.


OP; what shop did you go to? It is good to share so other members can think twice before going there.

Bruunz

Tyre was never flat - i ran over some screws and was slowly losing pressure but i left the screws in the tyre. Never went below 25 PSI.

Then the only other possible cause would be riding the inside of of a curb too much at the track? I would suspect that i would have more consistent damage across all the rims though and not only one?