There's nothing technical about this post. I just felt I needed to vent. Here is my story: Today, I went to Wal-Mart to get some new tires for the front of my car. The previous tires were made by Firestone and with less than 20K both of the tires had huge humps on them. I thought about going back to the Firestone place I bought them and asked them about the 50,000 Miles warranty; but I figure they probably would slap another set of Firestones. So, I went to Wal-Mart and got a couple of Michellin tires. So I wait there for an hour and then the guy that changes the tires tells me to come out. Once I'm next to my car he tells me that the wheel studs are stripped and he can't get the lugs off (two lugs). Funny that the day before I took out the tire and the lugs come out and in nicely. I always make sure the lugs go in easy, if not I replace the lugs, and I also torque the tires to spec (learned this from warped rotor story). So anyway, the bastard stripped the two lugs. My question is, how is this possible? He was using an impact gun. Regardless, after that he only changed one tire and let me hanging... so I went back to my garage broke off the studs (rather difficult), and replace all of the studs and lugs (a couple of good hours, had to get the parts and everything). Anyway, the next time I am taking the tires off myself and driving them to whatever place, then putting them on in the car myself. Has anyone ever had any experience like this? Also, the reason why I did the job of replacing the lugs myself is the following: I could have asked them to replace them for free, but then again, do I really want the same grease monkey working at something even more complicated than changing my tire? Probably not.
- JR