hhaschem

Hello guys,

Took my car in for service last week and had my two front 245 tires replaced because they a sidewall bubble. Washing my car today I noticed that they mounted the 275 that were in the rear to the front and the new 245s were mounted on the back. Is this standard practice, shouldn't the 275s always be in the rear? If it makes a difference they are the 20" sport plus one package wheels.

550x2

It is a huge mistake hat could result in a crash due to improper handling and braking of the car! Go back immediately and have them put the tires where they should be and suggest a free service for putting you at risk and to make good for their utter incompetence. Whoever did it should be fired!

ItalianJoe1

Love these customers...

Hope you never make a mistake in your line of work.

OP, yes, they should not have rotated the tires, have them switched back. I'm surprised you don't have any rubbing issues with the wider tire/wheel in the front.

Mitch Alsup

In reality, some pion rotated the tires; but the dealer should correct the issue.

hhaschem

I appreciate the responses, I will call the dealership and make sure they get it straightened out.

jenz

Are the sport rims different widths like the AMG? If so double check they out the wide tires on wide wheels, too. Such an idiot move.

ItalianJoe1

If they only replaced 2, there's no way they moved the wide tires to the narrow wheels. The guy just replaced the two front tires and installed them on the back of the car, which is correct on a non-staggered car, but in this case shouldn't have been done as the car has staggered fitment. It just needs to be rotated back to the correct position.

It sounds retarded, but in a shop where you're only paid on production and you're pressed to finish every car as fast as possible, stupid mistakes like this get overlooked. At least no damage was done or other issue created. I'm a little surprised there aren't ESP faults with the swapped sizes.

it's good

A good argument for never having tire work done at a dealership.Pretty bad!!Find a tire shop with qualified techs and a road force balancer.I rotate side to side every 5k and check balance.Obviously,asymmetric tires only.Good wear,zero vibration.

clembo

I had my OEM tires replaced last year by one of Boston's leading tire specialty stores. Even after properly ordering 2 tires of each size properly, the mounting guy mounted one set on the wrong wheels. They were on the passenger side. Driving home I felt something strange, got out and looked - you could see easily that the wrong tires were the wrong wheels (or however you say that).

Jackasses. They fixed it and said that the next tires I purchase there would include half price balancing! Huh

sean1.8t

^AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Half price balancing? They told you that with a strait face??

Wow bud, exaggerate much?

It's not that big of a deal. Did they mess up? Yes. Is it a fireable offense on it's own? Not even.


You're one of those people that complain (throw a hissy-fit of a scene) to the manager and demand your entire families bill be comp'd when they mess up a tiny detail like give you onion rings instead of french fries, aren't you?

Manofsteelpt

Soooooo, you would trust a tire "tech" making $10/hr at a tire shop over an actual MB tech at the dealership? Lol


OP, I'm sure this has been ironed out by now... but I'd be surprised if they didnt offer to come pick up the car, fixed it, and return it to you. At least my MB wouldve. They're very good with cust svc.

550x2

It's not a tiny detail! I only complain when an idiot puts my life in danger. Obviously, you have no idea how dangerous it is so if it happens to you just ignore it. Only a moron would call this no big deal. Until you get a clue STFU!

sean1.8t

LOL Tough guy over here


Show me proof to what you are freaking out over. Show me where putting a slightly wider tire in front is going to realistically cause you to crash..

-Does it change the dynamics of the handling? Yes.
-Is it going to make a person crash? Maaaaaaaaybe if they're pushing the absolute limits of their 6,000lb luxury sedan
-Should a person be fired over this? Not unless they do this type of thing often.
-Should you chill out? Definitely.

550x2

Easy. The reason why the tires are wider in the back is because the car oversteers by default. The larger tires in the rear have more grip to mitigate the tendency to oversteer. Putting the larger tires on the front gives them more grip exacerbating the oversteer. Putting narrower tires on the rear makes it even worse. Taking a high speed cloverleaf off ramp could easily result in the laws of physics come into play and the car could spin. A 5000lb unguided middle is not out of the realm of possibility, more so if it is wet. If some untrained or uncaring sends a car out on the road like that he could injure or worse someone who to it in to MB because the dealer 'knows the car'. Instead of competence he gets an unsafe vehicle back. Would you drive around with the tires reversed? Why not? Because it is dangerous. Having an employee like that is a liability. Do you have employees that are known to put your company in legal jeopardy? I would hope not. Questions answered.

Wolfman

You are making a few too many assumptions.
The primary reason why MB is using a staggered tire setup is that it looks good and customers like it (including me).

It's design over functionality. MB chooses the setup for both AWD and RWD for the W222.
The standard 18" wheel setup on the W222 is actually non-staggered; just the 19" & 20" wheels use staggered tires/wheels. For practical purposes and AWD, non-staggered actually make more sense (ability to rotate and identical roll diameter).
The S-Class is not a sport car by design; wider tires help put the power of a RWD car down a bit better but that's hardly a key aspect of the design choice. It's not a Porsche...

That said, having the wider tires up front will definitely impact the steering feel and potentially cause rubbing but it's not dangerous, as long as we are talking about OEM wheels. ItalianJoe1 is right. Not great; make them fix it and get a discount but this is not a grave issue.

gooner

There are mistakes and there are MISTAKES. i.e those that can have catastrophic consequences paarticularly from a professional whose job, whose very existence, whose paycheck is predicated on his supposed knowledge to know better than to make such a schoolboy "MISTAKE"!!!


I suppose the guy who fixes brakes should be allowed mistakes too?

ItalianJoe1

Look I hate to argue with you guys online about this but here's my take on it.

I've been in the retail tire service side (Firestone) as a tech and manager, I've been a service writer and tech at multiple dealerships. So there's my background.

If you leave a wheel loose or for whatever reason a wheel comes off after you work on the car at Firestone, it's a ONE TIME termination possible offense. You will be sent to the regional office, for us it was in Atlanta, all the way from Miami, with your store manager, and it will be determined if you should keep your job or not. There is a huge fine, IIRC it was $25,000 to the store per offense. I'm not saying any actual damage had to happen or someone get hurt, all you had to do was not tighten lug nuts, it was that serious.

If you rotated the wheels on a staggered car, guess what the punishment was? Rotating them back for free. Carry on with life.

You guys make too much of this. Is it a mistake? Sure. A dangerous one? Not really, on a car with an ESP system as advanced as a benz, it will catch you. If the car starts to slide, the computers kick in and calm you down. If the tires are reversed it will happen at a lower speed, but the result is the same.

Lets take your brake statement. I put a set of brakes on and the car makes noise and comes back. Should I be fired? I doubt many reasonable people would think so. I do a service and forget to close a brake bleeder after a brake flush, you drive out and lose brakes within a mile. Should I be fired? Somewhat more reasonable at that point, depending on how much of a ****up I am on a daily basis. You see the difference in severity? You can't just lump every "tire" job together and call them all life threatening. Technically, when I do most jobs I do daily on cars, they could be dangerous if not done properly.

People just love to overreact when they get a little chance to point out someone's fault.

Jan AMG

Well said..

Interesting to see insider's perspective on this issue.

550x2

[

People just love to overreact when they get a little chance to point out someone's fault.[/QUOTE]
Wrong.
I guess people just think it's important to have their car returned in a safe and proper condition. If you find it acceptable to pay a professional to do a improper job go right ahead. I hope you don't feel that way about your doctor. Have a nice day.

ItalianJoe1

Wrong would be if you could prove otherwise, all you are doing is *****ing. IMO would be a better starting line there.

Nobody here is saying what happened is right. Come down off your high horse.

Nobody here is advocating paying for something that isn't right. The general consensus is that he should have the work corrected and get some sort of compensation. Not sure where you get this idea that people are ok with it?


Your problem is, you can't seem to separate your fantasy world from reality, where mistakes happen and as long as there's no real harm, there's no real foul. If the guy crashes because he's driving like a douche and wants to legally pursue the dealer that did the work, then he has some ground to stand on. If he just wants to ***** and moan because this gives him an excuse, he needs to remove the stick from his *** and find a hobby. Life is too short.

550x2

Actually, come back to the real world and read my initial comment. I said go get it fixed and have the dealer give you a free service. If you don't like me saying the guy should be fired, you are entitled to your opinion as am I. The bottom line is that it was dangerous and should never have happened if you can't understand that you are beyond reason. When I buy the best I expect the best service, again not unreasonable where your implication of a fantasy world comes in, I have no idea. Have a nice day.

RSouthern

A few other things to check for the original poster. I'm not sure if these cars with the 20" sport wheels have directional tires (there's a marked forward direction), but my other cars with staggered wheels all have directional wheels. Look on the sidewall of the tire to see if you can see a directional arrow that's pointing the wrong way from normal forward rotation (i.e. arrow pointing backwards).

While you're at it, you should also check, especially if the tires are directional, that they put the tires on with the correct side out. You may find an "inside" or "outside" molded on the sidewall that indicates how to install.

The tire installer may be someone different from the person putting the wheels back on the car, but with a mistake like that (incorrect stagger), it pays to double check.

And not to be too paranoid, double check the air pressure and verify what the torque values were for the lug nuts. (not sure what the correct value is but I'm sure someone will provide it - a quick search didn't find it for the W222 20" sport wheels using google)

gooner

w

Jan AMG

One more thing to check after you pick-up your car from the shop, that's for sure!!
I usually (not always but I do it quite often) check tyre pressure.
I wish there was a way we could check suspension and brake jobs easily too!

Anyway to the topic of directional tyres
http://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/...ymmetric-tyres

If a directional tyre is fitted the wrong way round, the tyre won't be dangerous, but you won't gain the benefits of its design.

hyperion667

If you can't trust them to do a simple rotation.........then fawk! This is BS!
All you clowns defending the 'mistake' are retarded!


Since when did making mistakes become a regular, acceptable part of doing business?
And FWIW: Discount tires is way better than the stealer for tire changing......