well i'm on leave in louisville ky. on my merry way here i hit me a nice pothole in wv. i'm not sure exactly where so i won't be able to file a claim. that's neither here nor there, so i've got this lovely bend in my 6 month old rims. i do a google search for companies that fix these sort of issues. the nearest one is in cincinnatti ohio. ok, no problem, i call him up and he said he requires the tire to be off or the rim. not a problem, i'll take my car up to ken towery's a company i used to work for before i joined the navy, i had them pull the tire off of the rim and put the spare on. as i put drive the car the steering wheel is vibrating violently, i stop the car and check the tire pressure of the spare, it's at 22psi. WTF? so i wobble up to the nearest gas station to inflate it, a spare tire that says to inflate to 60psi is not taking any pressure whatsoever, ugh, so i drive it home and i really didn't want the car to sit on this under inflated spare all night so i decide to take the spare off and let it sit on a jack stand. when i get everything ready to take off the spare, i see that they placed TUNER lugs on my spare tire, these lugs a PITA to get off because you are supposed to use OEM lugs (i keep them in the trunk) for spare tires. none the less, i pulled one lug off, it took half the stud in the lugnut, three of the other lugnuts came off, but the thread from the studs came off with it, and one i cannot get off at all, it free spins, so i have a feeling i'm going to have to cut this stud so i can get the spare tire off. i have called the manager at ken towery's and he said to keep the receipts of everything and they'll reimburse me but damn, i'm on vacation, i shouldn't have to do this crap. on the brighter side, we made the trip to cincinnatti yesterday and the guy FIXED the bend. did a great job. if anyone is interested i can give you his contact info, he lets you ship wheels to him...

 

damn dude. that really sucks.

good to hear it all worked out at the end though.

 

3 words - Torque to spec