From: Built_Well on
Ray O wrote:

> IMO, paying extra for lifetime wheel balance is a waste of money because
> wheels rarely go out of balance once they have been balanced.
========

That's what I thought. I've thought for years that the need to balance
tires is rare, but then one of the techs at Walmart the other day was
telling me that I should have the tires balanced every other rotation,
because tires easily become unbalanced, like from dips into potholes and
other reasons.

I know I had my old Tercel's tires balanced at Ewers once, and they
were never the same again.
From: Scott in Florida on
On Sat, 13 Oct 2007 23:39:19 -0500, Built_Well
<built_well_toyota(a)hotmail.com> wrote:

>My local Target store doesn't carry a lot of
>motor oil, but it does have some. What surprised
>me was all the 5w-30 Mobil 1 quarts were API SL,
>the old standard. The only API SM they had for
>Mobil 1 was 10w-30.
>
>An unsuspecting consumer would easily pick up the
>old stuff. It was priced the same as the SM, $6
>per quart

I personally don't do business with Target.

They kicked out the bell ringers at Christmas time a few years ago.


Any enterprise that has no use for the Salvation Army gets none of my
business.

I've corresponded with the CEO to tell him why. He must get a lot of
letters about that screw up, but so far...he has not relented.

--
Scott in Florida




From: Scott in Florida on
On Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:43:58 -0500, "Ray O"
<rokigawaATtristarassociatesDOTcom> wrote:

>
>"Built_Well" <built_well_toyota(a)hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:47119e9f$0$68449$892e0abb(a)auth.newsreader.octanews.com...
>> Built_Well wrote:
>>>
>>> Ray O wrote:
>>>
>>> > The Sears Auto Center near my house always installs wheels with
>>> > a torque wrench and they make a note on the customer's receipt
>>> > that wheel torque should be re-checked after 100 miles. I did
>>> > re-check the torque once, and it was right on.
>>> ========
>>>
>>> Ray, I would have guessed you rotate your own tires, since you
>>> change your own cars' oil.
>>>
>>> I do know that both Sears and Walmart offer /free/ /lifetime/
>>> tire balancing and rotation after you pay for your first, initial
>>> balancing and rotation. The cost at the two stores is between
>>> $30 and $45, but then, forever after, your balancing and rotations
>>> are totally free for that set of tires. The tires don't even have
>>> to come from Sears or Walmart.
>>>
>>> Is that the reason you let Sears rotate your cars' tires? Do you
>>> ever do it yourself?
>> ========
>>
>> Just to clarify, I would have guessed you rotate your cars' tires
>> yourself to be sure the rotations are done properly, accurately, and
>> with high quality.
>>
>
>I rotate my cars' tires myself because I can do it in about 5 minutes as
>opposed to the 15 minutes it takes to drive to Sears, 1 hour waiting for the
>car to be worked on, and 15 minutes driving back. The local Toyota dealer
>is about 3 minutes away so less time is spent in transit, but I'd still have
>to wait 30 minutes to a half hour for the work to be done. As for doing the
>job properly, accurately, and with high quality, tire rotations are not
>rocket science, and I'd trust both Sears and the local Toyota dealer to do
>the job properly.

The benefit of having it done at Sam's club is they balance the wheels
every time they rotate them.

That is a gigantic plus to me.

--
Scott in Florida




From: Scott in Florida on
On Sun, 14 Oct 2007 01:32:00 -0500, Built_Well
<built_well_toyota(a)hotmail.com> wrote:

>Ray O wrote:
>
>> IMO, paying extra for lifetime wheel balance is a waste of money because
>> wheels rarely go out of balance once they have been balanced.
>========
>
>That's what I thought. I've thought for years that the need to balance
>tires is rare, but then one of the techs at Walmart the other day was
>telling me that I should have the tires balanced every other rotation,
>because tires easily become unbalanced, like from dips into potholes and
>other reasons.
>
>I know I had my old Tercel's tires balanced at Ewers once, and they
>were never the same again.

I hate to disagree with Ray, but at least in the case of the wheels on
my '92 Corolla, they DO go out of balance. Just a little is very
irritating, especially on a light car like mine.

--
Scott in Florida




From: Nate Nagel on
Built_Well wrote:
> My local Target store doesn't carry a lot of
> motor oil, but it does have some. What surprised
> me was all the 5w-30 Mobil 1 quarts were API SL,
> the old standard. The only API SM they had for
> Mobil 1 was 10w-30.
>
> An unsuspecting consumer would easily pick up the
> old stuff. It was priced the same as the SM, $6
> per quart

I'd rather use SL than SM, SM standard allows less ZDDP.

nate

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel