How is this possible?

[Mach VII]

If the wheels are 'bent' it is strange they would mount and balance then send you on your way. Did you inspect them to see how many and where they put wheels weights? If they are as bad as described you would think there are lots of them and loaded up in one area....

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[Steve8989]

Do you run your tire pressure too low?

Not at all with them warmed up, they sit 32-34

 

[Steve8989]

If the wheels are 'bent' it is strange they would mount and balance then send you on your way. Did you inspect them to see how many and where they put wheels weights? If they are as bad as described you would think there are lots of them and loaded up in one area....

I did not, and I got sent out of town the following morning for work, came back for a day and had to fill the front passenger tire up as it dropped from 34 to 26 in about 4.5 days figured it was just from the cold. But since I filled it up back to 33 it dropped to 28, but went back out for work and have been gone since. Hoping to be back tomorrow night and try and get this sorted out Monday.

 

[Mike Pfeifer]

I’m having déjà vu here lol!

Obviously I can’t speak to this specific situation, but I can tell you I have been screamed at for telling a client that they had 4 bent wheels before. Of course, they “never hit nothin” and how could this happen, they must be defective, this is a scam, I don’t know what I’m doing, and so on.

I have no idea what caused the wheels to bend, but bent they were.

That all said, most minor bends will balance out and are not really perceptible. Some bigger bends will cause a shake or shimmy, and some are bad enough to be unsafe to drive on. The most likely thing is that he noticed they were out of round on the balancer (super easy to see when spinning) and he is just CYA so he can’t be blamed for not saying anything if there is a problem later on. A lot of wheels show up bent on the balancer with no complaint from the client, and for the most part making a repair is not worth the cost due to how minor it is and 99.9% of clients decline the repair. So make the note, balance the tire and send it on its way.

 

[Steve8989]

I’m having déjà vu here lol!

Obviously I can’t speak to this specific situation, but I can tell you I have been screamed at for telling a client that they had 4 bent wheels before. Of course, they “never hit nothin” and how could this happen, they must be defective, this is a scam, I don’t know what I’m doing, and so on.

I have no idea what caused the wheels to bend, but bent they were.

That all said, most minor bends will balance out and are not really perceptible. Some bigger bends will cause a shake or shimmy, and some are bad enough to be unsafe to drive on. The most likely thing is that he noticed they were out of round on the balancer (super easy to see when spinning) and he is just CYA so he can’t be blamed for not saying anything if there is a problem later on. A lot of wheels show up bent on the balancer with no complaint from the client, and for the most part making a repair is not worth the cost due to how minor it is and 99.9% of clients decline the repair. So make the note, balance the tire and send it on its way.

My main thing is show me what's wrong visually, not give me a sticky note with the part number and a 4× next to it.

 

[Mike Pfeifer]

My main thing is show me what's wrong visually, not give me a sticky note with the part number and a 4× next to it.

Sure, that’s fair- I’d be more than happy to demonstrate my diagnosis to a client. I imagine they would do the same.

All I’m saying is that we tend to be fairly hard on some of the people that work at the dealers, and don’t get me wrong - often for good cause. But I’ve seen the other side for long enough to know that things are not always what they seem at first glance and it’s usually not nefarious (but it does happen). There’s usually a fair reason for things, and the problem usually lies more in communication than the technical details. I have seen what sure seems like an infinite number of people, although well meaning enough, couldn’t communicate their way out of a paper bag. Add that with what seems like predetermined distrust for the dealer (again, plenty of good cause here too!) and you have a perfect recipe for the situation we are talking about in this thread.

 

[sk47]

Sure, that’s fair- I’d be more than happy to demonstrate my diagnosis to a client. I imagine they would do the same.

All I’m saying is that we tend to be fairly hard on some of the people that work at the dealers, and don’t get me wrong - often for good cause. But I’ve seen the other side for long enough to know that things are not always what they seem at first glance and it’s usually not nefarious (but it does happen). There’s usually a fair reason for things, and the problem usually lies more in communication than the technical details. I have seen what sure seems like an infinite number of people, although well meaning enough, couldn’t communicate their way out of a paper bag. Add that with what seems like predetermined distrust for the dealer (again, plenty of good cause here too!) and you have a perfect recipe for the situation we are talking about in this thread.

Hello; I have always worked on my own vehicles. In 1974 I picked up a used Porsche 914 with the 1.7-liter VW engine. It was equipped with solid lifters. I learned to adjust the valves on my own car. That led to my working on other folks 914s and eventually other vehicles.
Got to where the juice was not worth the squeeze. I would fix something on one part of a car and later the owner would come back in complaining about some other part. Commonly some unrelated part/problem showed up after i worked on their car. An area i never looked at nor touched. I started doing two things. One was to write out everything i touched during a job.
The other was I no longer worked on a complainer's vehicle after the one time they tried to scam me. Usually refunded my labor cost and was done with them.
Eventually I stopped almost completely fixing other folks' cars. Had a rule for friends. I would work only as long as they were staying with me. No dropping off and leaving the vehicle.

The Mustangs are somewhat heavy cars and run over 300 HP to the wheels. Public roads are awful most places. The new fad in wheels is to run low profile (aspect ratio) tires. The wheels can be a lightweight alloy. Even the use of impact wrenches to tighten lug nuts is become a norm. (If a shop fits wheels on my vehicles, I loosen the lugs at home and re-set with a torque wrench) Point being there are ways for road wheels to become tweaked during day-to-day driving.

I was tempted to get a 23 Dodge Charger a couple years ago when they were cutting very good deals as the ICE was being discontinued. Not tempted enough to pull the trigger for concerns about things such as cylinder deactivation. I tried to buy one of the police type units. I wanted the steel wheels with some meat on the tires. They would not/could not sell one to me.
It is now almost December. Already had some snow and subfreezing temps. Soon enough new potholes will show up. try as i might it is hard to miss all of them.

A few years ago I test drove A Honda Civic Si. I noted the very skinny sidewall tires which are become normal. I did not buy. On the way home I saw a similar Honda parked on the side of the road. Bothe front tires flat. The likely cause was road construction. The road crew had ground out the old asphalt leaving an inch or more of a sharp bump. I would slow to maybe 10 MPH and still felt the hard bump. My guess being the Honda did not slow down.

 

[White Stallion 11]

Took my car into Art Hill ford in NW indiana to have 4x new tires put on, when they did the balancing they said all my rims were bent and I needed 4× new rims, less than a year ago I had a bent rim, had them replace it with OEM stock 19×8.5 rim for a 2016 GT/CS and the other rims were fine. Never been in an accident or spun out or anything that would of caused 4 rims to be bent. Couple other people I talked to said it's highly unlikely. Is Ford trying to fuck me or ?

Given what you have been told, and the lack of documentation to support their claim to your satisfaction, it seems to me that you need to call Ford Customer Relations in Dearborn and request that they look into it for you.

The general manager at my local dealership (where my Mustangs have been maintained for the past 22 years) has told me from time-to-time that Ford has a strong ongoing emphasis in eliminating unneeded repairs and services by their franchises, and, should a dealership be caught-up in such, it will not have a good outcome. We need to remember, Ford does not want to lose market share in their sales of Mustangs and F-150's, the two best sellers in their lineup.

For what it's worth.

RJ

 

[Oakley]

"4 bent rims because they are shaking on the balancer" sounds like a newb on a tire balancer problem. if its bent they would be able to clearly show you exactly where it is bent and how bad.

this is why i don't trust any shops. you might get a good one or you might get a place that has some high school kid that doesn't know ANYTHING and nine times out of ten you're wasting time and money.

this is also why when i find a good place actually go back for work.

 

[bKennedy]

This whole thing stinks to high heaven. If it was me I would take the car to an independent tire shop that you trust and explain the entire scenario. At the very least ask them to balance the wheels and see if they can. If they can't they should be able to tell you why.

 

[Steve8989]

Given what you have been told, and the lack of documentation to support their claim to your satisfaction, it seems to me that you need to call Ford Customer Relations in Dearborn and request that they look into it for you.

The general manager at my local dealership (where my Mustangs have been maintained for the past 22 years) has told me from time-to-time that Ford has a strong ongoing emphasis in eliminating unneeded repairs and services by their franchises, and, should a dealership be caught-up in such, it will not have a good outcome. We need to remember, Ford does not want to lose market share in their sales of Mustangs and F-150's, the two best sellers in their lineup.

For what it's worth.

RJ

Thank you and I will do that tomorrow. It sucks because I take pride in taking care of my cars maintenance and expect a reasonable amount of professionalism at the actual Ford dealer. I know its not a 2025 brand new GT but its still mine and I've put a nice amount of $ into it and keeping it healthy. It's a shame a lot of these places have gone away from proper work and just try to get the most $ out of you for the quickest time. I would love to find a shop in 46307 area code that operates properly. The performance shop is use in Illinois is A+, but they do not do tires/wheels.

 

[MidwayJ]

I’m having déjà vu here lol!

Obviously I can’t speak to this specific situation, but I can tell you I have been screamed at for telling a client that they had 4 bent wheels before. Of course, they “never hit nothin” and how could this happen, they must be defective, this is a scam, I don’t know what I’m doing, and so on.

I have no idea what caused the wheels to bend, but bent they were.

That all said, most minor bends will balance out and are not really perceptible. Some bigger bends will cause a shake or shimmy, and some are bad enough to be unsafe to drive on. The most likely thing is that he noticed they were out of round on the balancer (super easy to see when spinning) and he is just CYA so he can’t be blamed for not saying anything if there is a problem later on. A lot of wheels show up bent on the balancer with no complaint from the client, and for the most part making a repair is not worth the cost due to how minor it is and 99.9% of clients decline the repair. So make the note, balance the tire and send it on its way.

Good to see some perspective from the other side. However, in this case the dealer is recommending replacement rather than repair, implying that the problem is not minor and not repairable.

 

[White Stallion 11]

Thank you and I will do that tomorrow. It sucks because I take pride in taking care of my cars maintenance and expect a reasonable amount of professionalism at the actual Ford dealer. I know its not a 2025 brand new GT but its still mine and I've put a nice amount of $ into it and keeping it healthy. It's a shame a lot of these places have gone away from proper work and just try to get the most $ out of you for the quickest time. I would love to find a shop in 46307 area code that operates properly. The performance shop is use in Illinois is A+, but they do not do tires/wheels.

Stephen,

I grew up in Hobart and my parents and uncles bought Fords from Paul Heuring for well over 35 years and were very satisfied with theirs sales and service. Extended members of my family up there still tell me that Paul Heuring enjoys a good reputation. The dealership is located on the southwest corner of U.S. 6 and Ind 51. You may want to pay them a visit.

In the meantime, call the Ford Customer Relationship Center--their number is 1-800-392-3673 (FORD) and explain the situation to them in detail. In my mind, Art Hill needs to be taken to task.

Hopefully, this helps.

RJ

 

[Sean22]

Without any Vaseline!

 

[Steve8989]

Stephen,

I grew up in Hobart and my parents and uncles bought Fords from Paul Heuring for well over 35 years and were very satisfied with theirs sales and service. Extended members of my family up there still tell me that Paul Heuring enjoys a good reputation. The dealership is located on the southwest corner of U.S. 6 and Ind 51. You may want to pay them a visit.

In the meantime, call the Ford Customer Relationship Center--their number is 1-800-392-3673 (FORD) and explain the situation to them in detail. In my mind, Art Hill needs to be taken to task.

Hopefully, this helps.

RJ

10-4 and will do ty, and I grew up in Crown Point, right by ya and I know exactly where that dealership is.

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