My CLK55 needed new tires at 19,800 miles so I took it to where I had taken my E420 (a tire joint the local MBZ dealer even uses!). But they scraped up the clear-coat on both of my rear wheels. I complained, and they said "manufacture's defect."

The local MBZ dealer was not amused. They opined that mere refinishing would void the warrantee and they promptly provided me with a written quote to replace the wheels for $1,506.42.

I took that to the tire joint, handed them my business card, and said "give me a call when you figure out how you want to fix this." I am an attorney -- a patent attorney, but still able to strike the fear of a court action into people's hearts.

We promptly reach agreement that I would go to Wheel Techniques in Campbell, California and they would refinish my wheels. However, the mechanic at Wheel Techniques took one look at my car (from 20+ feet away no less!) and said "that's not right," you have Pilot Sport A+S (all season) tires on the front and regular Pilot Sports mounted on the rear.

Back to tire joint I went, where the manager looked like he wanted to cry but promptly replaced the A+Ss with regulars (why they even stock A+Ss in the California Bay area beats me). I have left out the name of the tire joint, since I think they have fired the 'employee from hell,' and I feel sorry for them, now that they have made good on things (like I said, I am a patent attorney, I just do not have a pit bull, go for the ***** and ask what is for desert nature).

Anyway, Wheel Techniques had two AMG "rollers" to put on while they worked on my wheels and they did a perfect job. They apparently are doing 10+ AMG wheels a week. Their mechanic and I even got into a discussion on hub-centric wheel mounting, based on a recent thread here by Luke of The Tire Rack. It turns out that one can order from The Tire Rack, with shipment to Wheel Techniques for mounting. It sounds like the way I will go in the future.

Lastly, I had asked the miscreant at the tire joint why my fronts and rears had worn differently and he had no explanation. Luke covered that in another thread, I had my fronts under inflated and my rears over inflated, not that 20k miles is bad for ZR's on a CLK55.

 

Wheel Techniques is a very good shop and I send stuff to them all the time for mounting and balancing.

I guess the first shop thought that tires are black and round and hold air .... there is alot more to them than most local shops even know.