Discount Tire rim maintenance

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Seems Discout tire is into grinding down the rim mount flange. Where it bolts to the rotor. This is supposed to remove corrosion on rims. I told them one time in the past not to do it, but they still did.

They use a fairly course 3M Roloc disc. I think they are trying to mitigate vibration from corrosion. I feel like they are going to cause run out over time from doing this. I left a tire/steel rim for a flat repair yesterday.

Then realized I forgot to tell them not to do it, and called and told them don't bother to grind it down because the rims are only about a 1 year old, and not corroded. He assured me they would not.

Picked up the rim put in in the back of my truck, then I thought I would check if they had ground it, and found they did. I'm about ready to not buy tires anymore from them. One location the guy who worked there told me they started doing the procedure, then stopped doing it, then started again. I guess for someone that has a lot of corrosion it would probably help. But are they doing the rotor flange as well?

I just look at it as they are mindlessly doing it whether it needs it or not. The rim they did yesterday was a painted steel rim. With maybe a spec of light rust. By the time they did their grinding I had about 6 sq inches of bare metal. So I just painted the bare metal when I go home. I bought this car new Dec 2017
 
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I think they're trying to prevent the rim from welding itself to the rotor or drum. Odd they would do it on a carry in flat repair steel rim.
 
I don’t think they are grinding your rims, just cleaning them. Grinding implies a stream of flying sparks and considerable loss of steel. It’s probably company policy to do it, regardless of the need. A classic case of employees are not paid to think. I avoid such problems by avoiding chain stores and I have all my tire work done at a locally owned independent shop.
 
In the future I plan to buy my tires from Discount Tire Direct but have someone else install them. Discount tire is fine if you are a normal person but if enjoy your car and like to keep it nice they are not for you.
 
DT did not do any grinding on my Suburban rim last time I was there installing new tires from DTD.
 
I use Permatex anti sieze lube on the contact areas between the wheel and the disk/drum and they leave it alone.
 
OK I over exaggerated. They do remove some material, maybe it is only a thousandth or so of metal. But if you have different tires changed, then maybe a fair amount of flat repairs etc. Then it starts to add up.

I just don't like my rims being molested.....with metal removal. Also don't like the idea they sanded down the paint off about 6 sq inches of my rim. Because then how does it make sense to 3M disc the paint off in the name of a maybe a spec of rust. They then 3M disc all that paint so there is now a ton of bare metal exposed to the elements....and rust.

I'm anal about this, but I tell myself I'm getting better over the years......
smirk.gif
 
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The DT I use simply hits the mounting surfaces with a wire brush attached to the impact gun to clean off any rust or corrosion. I'd say a grand total of 5 seconds worth of spinning brush, I highly doubt it removes anything other than the corrosion, let alone metal from either surface.
 
Originally Posted By: ctechbob
The DT I use simply hits the mounting surfaces with a wire brush attached to the impact gun to clean off any rust or corrosion. I'd say a grand total of 5 seconds worth of spinning brush, I highly doubt it removes anything other than the corrosion, let alone metal from either surface.


Don't bet on it. I use brass wool and a product called BullFrog RustHunter which you can get online.


https://www.theruststore.com/RustHunter-Firearm-Cleaner-P31C22.aspx

 
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Originally Posted By: ctechbob
The DT I use simply hits the mounting surfaces with a wire brush attached to the impact gun to clean off any rust or corrosion. I'd say a grand total of 5 seconds worth of spinning brush, I highly doubt it removes anything other than the corrosion, let alone metal from either surface.

This.
 
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