So I had my snow tires installed at the beginning of winter in December. I brought my car there and they installed it with no issues. The problem surfaced as I tried to change back to summer tires... I don't know what they used to install the nuts but it was definitely not torqued correctly. The first wheel I tried to remove had one stuck nut that I heated repeatedly and impacted for 2 minutes with no success. Finally I had to loosen it with a breaker bar. On to the next wheel. Same story one nut that was waaay over tightened and would not budge. Had to use the breaker bar again. The third wheel nuts all came off and were somewhat loose. Then finally the last wheel had 3 nuts all frozen! After spending 2 hours to swap 4 wheels I've had enough. Someone must have used a super impact gun to install and not a torque wrench. Obviously each nut was installed at various torques which could have distorted my wheels. Luckily I have old Toyota rims that were pretty robust to take the abuse. So long story short be wary of a simple wheel install. They don't use a torque wrench to install properly and just buzzed on with an impact wrench.
Tom, We use torque sticks that are specific to foot pounds, Sorry you had a issue removing the wheels. I did let my shop supervisor know of this review and instructed him to make sure all technicians are using the torque sticks when installing wheels. Sorry for your inconvenience.
- Fenkell Automotive Services