Re: Aftermarket Wheels Spacer problems
OKay..so this is how the morning went with the wheel problem. I decided not to go to the Discount Tire store b/c I knew they would not touch it. I ended up at Tire & Wheel Connection who initially didn't want to touch it. He came out and took a look at it with me and I think took pity on me and decided to work with me on the problem. He said the Enkei wheels are completely wrong for the tire and in fact so much so that they are detrimental to the car, the mileage and that I should be feeling every bump in the road. He had me get in the car and turn the wheel completely to the right. He showed me where if I put my hand behind the tire, there is a bolt that is so close to the tire it could shread it. I put my hand in there and I really felt like it was sitting on top of the tire. When I got home I ran a single sheet of paper between the bolt and tire it was able to slip through. The spacers are 1/8" btw. He was considering putting on larger ones, but after pulling someone else from the back to look at it they felt that it would just not make the car safe. SO..I really couldn't spend alot of money and what the wheels look like isn't nearly as important to me as it to probably alot of you guys :-) although I did like that they matched the car..but safety first! He tried to find some of the factory wheels locally here but didn't have any luck, so he showed me these Motegy wheels and they are coming from California and they will bore them to precisely fit my tires. He isn't charging me for shipping and told the guy to include hubs and he'd cover it. He took my car to the back and took the wheels off and told me he could tell where someone had grinded down the bolt that I could feel behind the tire which he said was not good. They found that they back tires were not weighted at all *Thanks Firestone* and the fronts were not weighted correctly. I told him about the TPMS light being on and he told me he didn't think I had those sensors in the tires but had one of the guys check. Fortunately I do have them, but the back left is not working, so will pick up one of those at the Dodge dealer and they wil install that when they install the new wheels. So I was really nervous driving up there b/c of all this talk about a bolt breaking off the me losing my tire off the car, which I expressed to this guy that was helping me. They got me set and he told me to call him if something felt really weird on the way home. This is wild! I pull onto the freeway to head home and am only on it for a minute and the car in front of me...seriously...THE BACK TIRE COMES OFF AND ROLLS OFF ONTO THE FREEWAY. I swerve to miss it and then it rolls to the side and the person who lost the tire is able to pull to the side of the freeway. Don't know if the tire ended up hitting a car behind me or not. WHAT are the odds! I definitely saw that as a sign that the new wheels need to happen to make my car safe and it is PARKED in my garage until they call me to tell me the rims have arrived. WOW! Aside from that last exciting bit...what do you all feel about this. Let me see if I can get the pic of the wheels that are on order. I click on manage attachments and it doesn't do anything so I'll try posting with just the photo next. Ohh..and he told me I should take a photo and see the rims on Craigslist.