Recently I had a blow out on my front right tire, sidewall burst on me. Hit a piece of glass and the tire was slowly leaking air during a 180 mile trip and blew not far from where I was going.

Here's where it gets sticky, I pulled off the side of the road, jacked up the car, got the spare ready, and started looking for my wheel lock key. The dealership now 180 miles away lost my wheel lock key when it was in for service and didn't bother to tell me about it. My locks are 12 ribbed and any other socket besides the key won't work. All of my lugs are locking. I had to call a buddy who had to hammer on sockets and break the locks off. This damaged the rim a bit obviously and took a long time, but finally got the spare on.

My tires are 235/40 and no one stocks them, so I had to throw on a 225/45 temporarily in order to make the drive back home. Ordered a new tire when I got home as well as new lugs with a key to match my set. Now here's the issue I want to bring up to the dealer, should I argue with them to repair my rim from the damage caused by breaking the locks off? There are a few chips around the lugs, and the dealer overtightened the lugs causing chips where the lugs go on. I'm thinking about just asking them to put on my new tire for free but if anyone has any idea how I could get more from them, let me know.

 

Unfortunately, I doubt that is going to happen. Never hurts to ask though. Present the facts to the dealer: they might have overtightened the lugs on the rims and you could not get the rim and lugs off after a flat tire. Be curteous and kind, and you never know what you're going to get. They might say yes.

Whenever I rotate my tires, I put a little bit of WD-40 on the wheel hub and the such as to make it that much easier to slip the wheel off the hub. You might want to try it next time

 

I think you will have a hard time proving that the dealer lost the key.

I'd be amazed if the Chevy dealer does anything for you. Keep us updated!

 

+1

If you didn't notice the lost key that day the car was at the dealer last, it's your word against theirs. I doubt you're going to get anywhere with the dealer..

Good luck!

 

Sadly

 

I went to the dealer to plead my case, They installed my new tire for free...I guess i'm not complaining, can't argue with free labor.

 

nice, i would expect that they may even replace the locks or just give you new lugs. That one reason is why i do not have locks on any of my cars. The mcgard locks are crap and the keys can break easily if the lugnuts are tightened too much

 

So, just so that I understand ...

The dealer lost your key and so you trashed your wheel locks - $50?
Screwed up your wheels - Who knows how much that would cost to fix

And gave you $20 worth of mounting a tire?

Fuck that ... Stupid greasemonkeys