Tire repair fiasco

[MustangBarry]

I was near Richmond, VA last Wednesday on a 300 mile trip to Annapolis, MD. I exited the highway to charge near a Walmart and hit a board that apparently had a nail. Clean puncture wound in the center of the tread. Since i was at a Walmart I went to their tire center and was initially told they would fix it. When the manager discovered it was an EV he announced that they couldn't lift it due to the the liability of damaging the battery pack. I told him I could identify the safe lift points but he refused and directed me to a Goodyear Tire store 3 miles away. Pumped up tire and off to Goodyear. Arrived and wait in line a few minutes. Manager comes outside to see tire puncture to make sure it is repairable. "That's an EV ! We don't work on Teslas or any EV's." "I suggest you go to the Ford dealer down the road". Pumped up the tire and off to Sheehy Ford. They were extremely busy but managed to squeeze me in just before closing time and then fixed it quickly (patch no plug) after a 2 hour wait.
Anyone have a similar experience? Now I'm wondering if I should buy and carry a jack but not sure if it would be safe to lift at one point.

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[hybrid2bev]

I caught a bolt in my tire last week. Discount Tire fixed in less than an hour. Jacked up the one corner of the car, took off the wheel/tire and did an internal patch. No issues at all and all done free of charge.

 

[RickMachE]

@Discount Tire is great!

We had our Lightning in California. Happened to be scrolling screens and saw that one tire was very low (TPMS alert went off shortly thereafter). Discount Tire pulled tire, patched, remounted and rebalanced. Yes, they do this free.

We got tire certificates from them after purchasing both EVs, because it's a no brainer.

 

[Snakebitten]

I picked up a razor blade in a tire on my brand new Mach-E with less than 500 miles.

Discount Tire didn't have the OEM exact tire in stock so I had the pleasure of purchasing all new tires.

I say pleasure because I had an almost instantaneous comparison between brand new EV tires vs brand new non-EV tires on the Mach-E.

It was an expensive razor blade.
But it revealed Discount Tire isn't afraid of servicing my new fat pig heavy EV. ?
And OEM EV tires aren't my personal choice.

 

[Discount Tire]

Thank you all for your kind words and stories of customer satisfaction. Thank you all for allowing us the privilege of servicing your tires.

 

[ack154]

While I can appreciate their hesitancy to not f-up your battery pack - the detail in the owner's manual should have been sufficient to allow them to do the work. If they weren't comfortable even with that, I'm not sure I would trust that same shop with much other work.

Wondering if they've had some of their techs cause battery pack damage in the past and now have just made a general "no EVs" rule to save the headache of properly training their staff.

 

[B177y]

....
Wondering if they've had some of their techs cause battery pack damage in the past and now have just made a general "no EVs" rule to save the headache of properly training their staff.

This is my guess ^^^

It's difficult to find any help these days. Extremely difficult to find any sort of qualified help.

 

[Snakebitten]

I have my own personal 2 post.
It has more than enough lifting power. (9000lbs)

But I purposely chose the lower profile and a bit shorter arm because of the desire to lift Porsche's and Miatas over F150's and such.

Regardless, I'm still hesitant to put the Mach-E on the lift unless I can do so without concern for access to the battery tray. Which of course I have no reason to access.

My point being, it is visually precarious to lift the Mach-E if you must avoid contacting the battery tray. I have the necessary pucks and still wouldn't want to lift it 6' in the air.

I think Ford provides some rails (purchase) that you bolt to the car after removing the sideskirts, that allow you to lift the car and not inhibit dropping the battery tray? Still very creepy to see with your eyes.

Having said all that, as I mentioned, Discount Tire had pucks and jacked the beast right up!

 

[zvez]

Might want to get a set of pucks, makes it a no brainer for lift points.

BTW, I can concur about Discount Tire. Local one is four miles from my house, had a nail, took it, they installed the pucks and used a floor jack since they only needed one corner. They patched the tire and then amazingly, they took a torque wrench and checked all four wheels!! All at no charge. Iwas so happy I went ahead and bought a set of black lugnuts for my nite pony wheels. I'll definitely go back to them when I need new tires.

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[Jeff-NoVA]

Thank you all for your kind words and stories of customer satisfaction. Thank you all for allowing us the privilege of servicing your tires.

@Discount Tire Please come to Northern VA. You're so close (Fredericksburg!).

 

[RonOinAZ]

I found a bolt in my tire after FordPass pushed a notification that a tire had low pressure. I wasn't sure what the best solution would be so I called service rep I work with at the dealership. He said it would be best not to drive it and that I should consider calling Ford roadside assistance to have it hauled to the dealership. That's what I did and it worked out well. Ford even provided a $30 Lyft credit so I could catch a ride to the dealership and the dealer comp'd the flat repair.

 

[Jerrytball]

When I had the aftermarket wheels switched over to my car, I got a little bit of pushback and then I pulled out the little pucks I bought from Amazon and I said these go in those four holes and just put the jack on those it’s a regular car, oh cool Thank you sir ?

 

[Jack Roberts]

I was near Richmond, VA last Wednesday on a 300 mile trip to Annapolis, MD. I exited the highway to charge near a Walmart and hit a board that apparently had a nail. Clean puncture wound in the center of the tread. Since i was at a Walmart I went to their tire center and was initially told they would fix it. When the manager discovered it was an EV he announced that they couldn't lift it due to the the liability of damaging the battery pack. I told him I could identify the safe lift points but he refused and directed me to a Goodyear Tire store 3 miles away. Pumped up tire and off to Goodyear. Arrived and wait in line a few minutes. Manager comes outside to see tire puncture to make sure it is repairable. "That's an EV ! We don't work on Teslas or any EV's." "I suggest you go to the Ford dealer down the road". Pumped up the tire and off to Sheehy Ford. They were extremely busy but managed to squeeze me in just before closing time and then fixed it quickly (patch no plug) after a 2 hour wait.
Anyone have a similar experience? Now I'm wondering if I should buy and carry a jack but not sure if it would be safe to lift at one point.

I ran over my garden rake in my driveway and punctured the sidewall of a tire that was only one month old. Called Costco but they couldn’t get one for 3 or 4 days. Called Discount Tire they had one and fixed it in 30 minutes. Expensive lesson to put away the rake before you head to lunch.

 

[Scott Libre]

Sounds like caveman discovers fire and don't know what to do with it.

Walmart would not change my oil in my F150 because it had a plastic drain plug, which I kept spares in the glove box.

 

[HuntingPudel]

When my car was about a month in my possession I got a screw in a tire. I took it to a large tire shop (one that does a lot of high end cars; I have been in the waiting room with some local celebrities there before) that I have used in the past and they wouldn’t touch it. I drove about a mile to a small mom and pop tire store and the guy there looked at the car, saw the arrows, and said “Oh, like a Tesla!” Small shop jacked the car, popped the tire off the rim, and charged me a cheap price to patch the tire. ?‍?

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