Kwik-Fit Tyres

Loganfire

just use one of the on-line companies like etyres and black-cycle good on price and good on fitting, plus they come to you rather you wait for them

learningaboutinsurance

Loganfire wrote: »

just use one of the on-line companies like etyres and black-cycle good on price and good on fitting, plus they come to you rather you wait for them

Many thanks I think i like the Etyre one plus the added bonus of them coming to me wooohooo :T

anyone had any bad experience with etyre

DCFC79

I use local firms and have never used kwik fit.

Lum

Most of these tyre places use similar balancing machines, only way to tell if the staff are competent is to watch them working.

Signs to watch for:

If they can't get the tyre to balance after a couple of goes, do they just keep adding weights until the machine says it's ok, or do they actually take some off (the former is bad)

When they pull out a pair of new tyres to go on the same axel do the lines drawn about the tyres match. The lines indicate the run out of the tyre. Some people argue that both should pull the same way. Some argue that you should flip one so that they pull the same amount in opposite directions and cancel each other out. In any case if the lines are totally different to each other then that isn't a good choice of a pair of tyres.

When they put the wheels back on do they just tighten the nuts with the powered impact gun, or do they finish up by getting out a big torque wrench and doing the final tightening by hand until the wrench makes a click sound. Not doing that is bad.

A bit ageist, but in my experience the places that are staffed entirely by teenagers/20-somethins with no-one supervising them tend to do a crappy job.

I too use a local place (EK Tyres in Bulwark) and would recommend them to anybody. Probably a bit far to travel from Islington though

Robisere

I speak as a Motability customer, so my Kwik Fit experiences may be different for that reason. Motability use Kwik fit exclusively and we are very fortunate in that we can have as many tyres as we need during the 3 year lease.

Kwik Fit have a Mobile service, whether that is also for non-Motability customers I do not know, but I have had tyres fitted by them now on 5 vehicles. The first lease term was not then a mobile service, I had to drive around 20 miles to my nearest KF centre but the experience was painless, I was treated to a coffee and biccies and they also tracked the car. I am an ex-workshop foreman and I pointed out that the tyres were wearing on the outer edges ("toeing-in") so tracking the steering was necessary. 2 days after, I was called by a KF rep to ask if it had been well carried out.

The last KF visit, was 2 nights ago, I needed 2 new front tyres and a KF van arrived at my front door. It was almost dark, freezing temperatures but the guy was pleasant, carried out the work, gave me a report to list the work done, and advised me to have a new tyre at rear nearside in the better weather. He refused a hot drink and the whole process took less than an hour.

Of coure I realise that KF have a valuable contract with Motability and that no money changed hands, for what was probably an expensive job. However, I and other Motability customers, pay for this service from our DLA payments, so it cannot be called cost-free. And if anyone should feel that I am lucky - well, share my disabilities and feel as lucky as I do. Not.

{I don't mean to sound as if I expect such comments here, but I have had them in the past and they are not pleasant.}

Lum

Lease companies, such as Motability, will be carrying out checks from time to time. My company car has a contract with ATS for that sort of thing and ATS are not allowed to replace any tyre with more than 2mm left, so when I had three at 1.9 and one at 2.01 they insisted they would only replace three if I did it now. Needless to say I waited until the tyres were a bit more worn before getting them done and didn't do anything naughty involving the handbrake at all.

I was told that the least company insist that the old tyres are kept for a certain length of time and that they randomly inspect them.


And I know what you mean about the "free car" rubbish. You can blame the Daily Mail for that one. We don't have a motability car but are considering getting one when either my partner or her car have fallen apart sufficiently that her current car is no longer suitable. Hopefully this wont happen until the DLA has finished paying off six grand's worth of wheelchair.

red_eye

Browntoa wrote: »

from personal experience Kwik-Fit will probably find "problems with your brakes"

they tried to tell me this about a month after the MOT was done......

to be fair your brakes could need replacing. Could of had the minimum amount of friction material at the time of the test, 3 months later they could be 5mm left. How would you know unless you checked your self?

Never take some ones words for anything, have a look for your self.
all decent garages would let you have a peek while the cars up on the lift

In reality the MOT pass cert is only good for the day of the test.

red_eye

Lum wrote: »

Most of these tyre places use similar balancing machines, only way to tell if the staff are competent is to watch them working.

Signs to watch for:

If they can't get the tyre to balance after a couple of goes, do they just keep adding weights until the machine says it's ok, or do they actually take some off (the former is bad)

When they pull out a pair of new tyres to go on the same axel do the lines drawn about the tyres match. The lines indicate the run out of the tyre. Some people argue that both should pull the same way. Some argue that you should flip one so that they pull the same amount in opposite directions and cancel each other out. In any case if the lines are totally different to each other then that isn't a good choice of a pair of tyres.

When they put the wheels back on do they just tighten the nuts with the powered impact gun, or do they finish up by getting out a big torque wrench and doing the final tightening by hand until the wrench makes a click sound. Not doing that is bad.

A bit ageist, but in my experience the places that are staffed entirely by teenagers/20-somethins with no-one supervising them tend to do a crappy job.

I too use a local place (EK Tyres in Bulwark) and would recommend them to anybody. Probably a bit far to travel from Islington though

I dont use a torque wrench to do up wheels, it is unnecessary I have taken off and put back on so many wheels that I can do it up with a braker bar and they will be near or a little over 100Nm depending on if I had lunch or a big s#it.

Lum

With a breaker bar and some experience yes you likely could get it pretty accurate by hand.

With an impact gun? I don't think so.

red_eye

Lum wrote: »

With a breaker bar and some experience yes you likely could get it pretty accurate by hand.

With an impact gun? I don't think so.

impact guns have a valve that bleeds off the air tus limeting the amount of torque it can put out with experience you can find the right setting