X2Board

I purchased two tires from Mindfreak a.k.a Michael Teloniatis, https://mbworld.org/forums/wheels-ti...45-40zr18.html

I paid the asking price of $400.00, and had him ship them to me via FedEx next day air at my expense. I took the tires to discount tire direct today, to have them mounted and balanced, when the first tire was mounted, and inflated, the tech immediately called me over (I was in the bay watching them work on the car) and showed me two bumps on the tire's sidewall, he called them "impact breaks" and said that is normally caused by hitting a pothole or a curb. Basically, the belts in the sidewall are broken, causing the tire to bulge at those spots.

I sent Michael an email, with photos of the bumps on the sidewall, before it was dismounted, and requested 1/2 of my money back, after a few more emails, with additional hi-res pics of the tire, including the DOT sticker that he also has pictures of he has stopped communicating, but not before accusing me of trying to scam him, even though I told him I would send the tire back to him at my expense, so he could see it was the same tire.

I had to order a new tire from Discount Tire at a cost of $286.00 + tax + mounting/balancing.

I've bought and sold dozens of items, on many forums, over many years and my reputation is stellar, if I may say so myself. I am done venting, but as everyone knows, Caveat Emptor, even when dealing with people on a well respected forum. My sense of camaraderie and fairness has been violated, like never before.

To Michael: Shame on you

And as I said in my last e-mail, I will use every legal means to get my $200.00 back, no matter what the cost is to me.

DAGREEKNYC

I have a spare set of rear ps2's off my car if u are interested ill give them to u for dirt just to clear up some garage space. if u want PM me ill send u pix and depths .

TM

Velociabstract

Beware of people that post with CAPS LOCKED! Really, what a bad deal. You try to be fair (pay shipping) only to find out you were taken. (I got 3 good used shocks and a bad one) I doubt it was an accident.

Les

Crescendo

Bummer.
I hit a pothole and got two sidewall bulges in my front right vredstein, a week before having them taken off and put on another set of wheels. The mechanic then showed the bulges to me when he dismounted them to remount on another set of wheels. He told me there's a chance of failure, but as long as they seat right on the wheel, you should be fine.
Its been like 3k miles since the dismount and remount. Everything is fine, no vibration or anything. The tires have like 6k miles on them.
So I believe you would have been fine, if they were minor bulges. Perhaps then the shop was trying to make a buck off your mishap.
On the other hand, mindfreak should be held responsible, who knows what could have happened if they were mounted combined with you not knowing about the breaks in the sidewall and then had a blowout.

X2Board

Pictures of the tire in question.

B on my Benz

man this has to suck. hope things get better and hopefully he pays some of it back.

B on my Benz

yea thats def bad for the tires. take them off asap before driving

X2Board

Thanks, but the rears have plenty of life left in them.

SANDOVAL

It also happens when a tire is run flat.

Hotrod-Realtor

There is no way I would run a tire like this on a car as capable as ours. My truck on the other hand I might, but never my nice cars.

X2Board

I had no choice but to put my old tire back on and drive the beast home. Those bulges pushed right in with the tip of my finger, there is no way I was going to drive on that tire, even if Discount Tire would have agreed to put it on the car.

artowar

I just had to replace one of my rear PS2s (265/35) for a sidewall bulge like that. Mine was damaged by running over a tree branch laying in the road. Luckily for me the wheel checked out okay, and I had an extra tire laying around.

I gave the bad tire to the Goodyear shop that did the mounting, and I understand it is going to be shredded. It would truly suck if the seller sold that tire to you *knowing* it was damaged. Given the mass of these cars, and the speeds they are capable of, it's just an invitation to disaster to drive on a tire with a compromised sidewall.

sy1616

that's rough...sorry to hear this!

sunny_j

ps2's are very prone to getting bubbles. i got bubbles in my ps2 that were on my 760.

a lot of ppl on bimmerfest that had them on their 7 got bubbles easily too.

Esh

Happened to me once, and they looked exactly like that, although on a bigger tire (295/45/20). I let a buddy of mine borrow my SUV and he clipped the edge of a center curb divider while turning left at a light. It was late Saturday and I had a 200 mile road trip planned the next day. I drove on it for the 200 miles.

The Schwab swapped out the tire free of charge the following Monday, telling me it was unsafe to continue to drive on it that way.

"Driven on for 220 miles" until he hit something and sold the tires to you. Something is fishy there, but if he had these mounted he should have known the bubbles unless it happened when removing them from the wheel.

allenjdmb

no offense to anyone here, and I'm sorry that happened. But used performance tires? That's just something you've got to be really careful with. This is your ULTIMATE contact with the road, and your going to take a chance on a used one at 100MPH in the 100 degree heat? I'm not sayng that there's never something good that works out doing this, but jeez, you've just got to be careful, especially with someone you don't know. Good luck in your resolution....

emoving

X2board is a great guy! I totally belive his story and I am sorry to hear that! Hopefully he gets it worked out.

X2Board

I thought this was a good deal and took a chance, one of the two tires is in perfect condition, so it could have been worse, all said and done, I could have just bought a new pair, but since I get to write off my shipping charges, I figured these would save some coin.

Moral of the story: Don't try to be a cheap B'stard, because it does not pay.

X2Board

That is another possibility, depending on the method/machinery used to break the bead and dismount the tire. The seller claims the mounting and dismounting were done by a Mercedes dealer. I believe he did not know about it beforehand, but not offering to make things right and questioning my integrity just pisses me off.

Faast

I nearly bought these wheels myself but then decided to pass on them as there was just not enough savings...Any way this is an excellent post for people to be careful about purchasing the used stuff especially the wheels and tires.
You are absolutely right about damaging the side wall during mounting and un-mounting.Infact it's very easy to tell whether the lines were damaged while mounting/un mounting (crowe bar breaking the lines ) or an impact causing the bubble.
The best thing would be to take them to a tire place and let them look at the tires.

amdeutsch

You might want to reread. There were no wheels involved; just dismounted tires.

Objectionable

Dealing on this board is more dicey than it ought to be. If he lives in the Kansas City let me know - I'm a lawyer and would be happy to punish someone for you.

X2Board

He is in Philly. I have to go there in a couple weeks to renew my PA CCW permit, and I'll have a chat with someone at the Police Department at the same time, if he has not made good at that point.

X2Board

It took 3 weeks, but MindFreak refunded my $200.00 for the damaged PS2

https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...-486-tire.html

One thing for sure, next time I need tires, I'll be buying them new.

pearlpower

I only buy tires new. Just a hassle and too many unknowns as well as dishonest people that do not believe in full disclosure when buying used.