AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH: Gouged Rims

Sorry to hear about your rim. . and I feel exactly like you said, I paid them, in fact I paid for the most premium option (lifetime balance/rotation) and instead got 4 eff'd up rims.

It's ridiculous. . . How can you work at a tire place and not know to pull the weights before you go tearing down the wheels.

thanks for the comment on the truck btw, here's another pic:




I'll get some addtl pics (probably today) after the rear TSB is done.

-Rich

 

Personally I try to avoid the chain outfits...bottom line is they hire inexperienced people for minimum or nearly minimum wage; then give them some BS meaningless training and call them a "technician."

Same goes with the Jiffy Lube (and the like) oil change places.

It all comes back to greed...they charge big bucks while paying their employees as little as possible.

I find local run shops with good reputations for all the stuff I can't do myself. Yes, it costs me more up front, but I'll pay to minimize my chances of experiencing this kind of stuff.

BTW...your truck looks great. Hope this ordeal works out for you. Stay on them until it does.

 

i'm right there with you bro. I think if you are going to have a job in customer service then for God's sake have common courtesy to do your job right the first time. Leave your problems at the door and focus on your job. Also i feel that managers in general should hold their employees accountable for their actions and either make them pay out of their pocket to fix the issues or fire them!! I used to work at a tire shop and yes you sometimes have those rims that are hard to work with but you pay closer attention and use the right tools and guess what happens...the job gets done properly. Sorry to hear about your experience and i would be pissed just the same. Also i would inspect the hell out of the rims when they come back and if they arent as good as new i would start looking into another way of making them buy a brand new set of 4.

 

OK, got it back from Toyota. .

None of the rims are bent, but ALL FOUR were well out of balance. It has, at most, 40 miles on it since NTB balanced them yesterday. Scary.

Toyota did the TSB as well as replace the rear bumper. They noted "poor chrome plating on original bumper".

Here's the truck with the new tires, 5100's (.85), and rear TSB:



Toyota confirmed the damage was done by the wheel weights, and replacement is $465.34 per wheel. They noted a shop could refinish them, which will look better than they do now, but they won't even look close to as good as they were originally.

-Rich

 

so the plot thickens. .

Went back to NTB to talk with the manager. Firstly, I just wanna say outside of the clearly asshat attitude of the tech that did the work they've been polite and nothing but reasonable when we've talked.

They offered to re-finish all 4 rims now (instead of just 2), but I expressed my concerns about this, and said I'd get back to them by tomorrow.

They called me back and said I should take a look at the aftermarket rims on the NTB website.

I did, and I like both of these:






The first one's. . the pro-comp's might actually look like this. It's hard to tell as different sites have different pics and the model/color seems to match (did they change the style maybe?):



What do you guys think? Anyone have those pro-comp's (8081's)?

-Rich

 

also, since these rims are an inch wider, what does that mean for tire fitment (265 75 16's) and clearance?

will this be a bit wider stance?

-Rich

 

i have the moto's on my truck and i love their look and get complimented almost every day. plus i also like the look of a 6 spoke on a 6 lug truck.

the different look on sites is the finish of the wheel the site has imaged because you can order most of these wheels in the black finish, the machine finished(both you have imaged) or chrome finished

 

what size are your moto's? I love the look but I think they look better in a larger size, but I'd be locked into gettin 16's due to the new tires. I'd love to see them in 16's on someone's truck (maybe even in green )

-Rich

 

Every set of aftermarket 16's I'm seeing look "squished" in the 16" size. I think they all get "designed" as 18's or so. . and then scale down in CAD, but keep the same lip and center size . .

Now I'm thinkin about the FJ's in anthracite [PT90435071]

Thoughts? and does anyone know if the wheel includes the center caps? Do the stock lug nuts work?

-Rich

 

I like the MotoMetals.

On the note regarding NTB, I believe they'll make good on it. I worked as a tire tech at an NTB in Nashville while I was going to school for auto-mechanics. We had a couple of numb-skulls who had no clue or care about what they were doing. Whenever something got damaged, the manager took care of it without a problem. I can't imagine how that weight got caught on the machine and slid around to scratch the rim (based on my experience) but that's certainly what appears to be the case. The bitch about the whole thing is, most of the tire shops will put their best tech on the aftermarket rims that they know are risky to work with but they put anyone on the factory rims. The problem comes in when you get people like us that actually take care of the factory rims and notice the little things. Unfortunately the few bad techs provide a rep for everyone. Out of the 5-6 techs I worked with only 1-2 were careless. Because of people like this I ended up most times mounting tires on the aftermarket rims which because we were near the city I did a lot of 22" rims.lol

Keep in mind too that NTB is owned by Sears along with Sears Tire and NTW (National Tire Warehouse). My whole experience with Sears (including employment and customer wise) has always been very positive.

 

Thanks, really good info. .and they *HAVE* been very polite/helpful so far.

-Rich

 

the fjs in anthracite come with caps & lugs. I had a set once. They are super nice rims. Will they buy you those? Sweet!

 

Well the FJ's look to be ~$150/wheel vs. ~$450/wheel if I want the stock rims replaced. Seems win-win, but no, I don't know for sure they will.

-Rich

 

Mine are a 16x8 only cause the tires i was going with. I was going to go with the general grabber with the red letters but after talking to people about the red lettering fading i decided on pro comp xtreme t/a insted/

 

UPDATE:

They (NTB) agreed to order the FJ Cruiser Anthracite rims and did so while I waited. Toyota dealership stated rims were in stock at closest warehouse and would be delivered within 2 days. . . Then, they didn't come.

NTB stated Toyota dealership said there was a TSB for the rims and shipping date was now unknown. NTB called back the next day and stated the rims were now not coming at all. Called the dealership myself to confirm, and sure enough dealership states wheels are being discontinued and they cannot get delivery. They stated the rims were all "being sent back to California". It seems hard to believe, but I sensed no BS. It was the same guy who I originally talked to in person at the dealership that gave me the price and checked stock the week prior.

So, NTB stated I needed to pick some other rims. . .

Decided on the Dick Cepek Torque's, which are now supposed to come next Wednesday. Anybody have these? I thought they had the best look for a smaller rim (16").



Whatcha guys think?

-Rich

 

That really sucks about the FJ rims, I really like those. Anyway I like the ones you picked. I think those will look good. Also Maybe you can get your olds ones refinished for a decent price and either make some money or keep em as spares. Not a bad deal, sounds like you end up winning in the end!

 

For anyone still following this, it's a done deal

Got the Torque's mounted this morning at NTB. Both managers there were great and outside of the initial CRAP experience I have no complaints. They also refunded the original wheel balance on the stock wheels I paid for since I ended up paying Toyota for it again the very next day.

It was raining and crappy this morning, so I only snapped a quick pick with my iPhone, but here they are:





I got my stock TRD alloys back as well, so I suppose I have a spare set for winter tires or something else. The picture doesn't do it justice and I'll take some more with a real camera when I can.

Opinions?

-Rich

 

Looks great! Glad they came through. I'd loose the hood protector though.

 

Considered it .. but I like the look. . from inside and out

I guess to be fair I'd have to pull it off to be sure I still like the look with the mild lift + tires + wheels

 

I like the new rims & am glad it was resolved. I use two sets of rims & tires (winter & summer). We get lots of salt & tow so we need dedicated snow tires up in the mountains. Plus it would save your nice new rims.

As far a the hood shield, if its a oem brand, check to make sure its not rubbing for there were threads on this, taking off the paint over time. You might already know this though.

Truck looks great what's your next mod?