Another not so good dealer experience with the dumb reverse mount wheels

[MooMoo]

I am not a fan of the fact that Honda decided to make the stock wheels reverse mount. Such a dumb move, the only car they offer that has reverse mount wheels, a ton of dealers can't even mount tires on these wheels and some try and end up scratching the hell out of your wheels.

Story time...

About a year and half ago I was taking the type R to Palmer motorsports. Great track in MA, one of my favorites. My apex wheels did not get here on time to get tires put on so I just took the stock wheels with the PS4s. The PS4S are not terrible on track, I know I was not going to get a great time but I was going to take it easy since it was my first time with the car on track. On the way there hit a Mass pothole, felt in my bones. Everything seemed fine. I did do the track day, fun... Got home and noticed my tire had a bubble in it. FXCK! Car had 600 miles or so.

Bought a new tire from tire rack and took it to the dealer since its only 20 min from me and they have to know how to reverse mount, they sell the damn car.
Get a call a few hours later, "hey we scratched your wheel cuz its reverse mount". Ok at least they didn't pretend and let me go over and find out. Told em all good, fix it and let me know.

Call me a few days later, wheel is all good. Go there and it looks like crap, I tell em this is bad and they say ok we will fix it again.
Go back 2 days later, its much better, still not great but I was done wasting my time, I don't really use these wheels a lot and they look fine from a few feet (if it was today i would have demanded a new wheel). So a year and half went by, I barely have used these wheels, maybe put 1k miles on them.
I took the car to the track again and I usually take my track wheels and an extra set just in case. I had a weird vibration going at speed so I decided to put the stock wheels on to check. Vibration still there (was the brakes), I was lazy so ended up doing the rest of the track day on the ps4s and drive home.
On the way home get a low tire pressure warning. Meh pretty common after the track so I though whatever. Get home, nope the wheel is really low, I definitely have a flat. Take the wheel of and no nail or nothing, spray with soapy water and its the bead.

I decide now its time to just put some all seasons on the car since I might need it in winter here and there. Take the tires to my tire guy (I should have done this with the ps4 wheel but he is 50 minutes away). Go get the wheels and he did an awesome job, he has the best tire machine money can buy (hunter revolution) and he also knows wtf he is doing/cares.

When I got home I was gonna take pics of the tires so I can sell em, cheap tires that still have a ton of thread... $50 a pop get em out of here.
Well low and behold the tire that had the flat (I had marked it with a marker where it was leaking from the sidewall) had 2 huge gouges at the bead. I think my tire guy prob forgot to tell me and I will ask him next time but I am pretty sure it was either the dealer or the place that fixed the wheel and mounted the tire (dealership told me they will never accept that job and that they had to have the place that fixed the tire mount it). The gouges are at the bead so no wonder it started leaking after a track day. This whole thing is crazy to me and could have resulted in a pretty bad accident at the track.

Not sure what to do here, I should probably call the dealer to tell them. I don't expect anything back I just want someone to know that this is messed up and could really cause some big problems.

Anyways, be careful who you take your wheels to to get tire mounted and specially if they are these dumb reverse mount wheels.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk, sorry if it ran long

 

[MoodySara]

My Honda dealer can't (won't) deal with FL5 rims.
But, they couldn't deal with FK8 rims, either. They farmed them out.
The same dealer group owns a Porsche dealership. They can do the reverse mount rims, and know what they are and what they require. I've had them do the two I needed. They didn't have a scratch. It's a Porsche dealer, so they're not cheap, but you get what you pay ...

 

[J_D]

Same thing happened to me. Mechanic destroyed a set of ECS 02s

 

[MooMoo]

Same thing happened to me. Mechanic destroyed a set of ECS 02s

but did he go ahead and installed them?

 

[optronix]

First year I owned the car I had the brilliant idea I'd just swap back and forth between the PS4S and all seasons in the spring and fall. Had the dealer do it.

Two of the all seasons came back looking like your pictures.

Fortunately (?) I did end up doing the "wheel and tire package" when I bought the car so they put in a claim for them and I got brand new ones. Apparently they have the equipment to handle these wheels, but their techs are ignorant/negligent.

 

[MooMoo]

First year I owned the car I had the brilliant idea I'd just swap back and forth between the PS4S and all seasons in the spring and fall. Had the dealer do it.

Two of the all seasons came back looking like your pictures.

Fortunately (?) I did end up doing the "wheel and tire package" when I bought the car so they put in a claim for them and I got brand new ones. Apparently they have the equipment to handle these wheels, but their techs are ignorant/negligent.

Yeah thats insane that someone installed a tire with a cut like that on a bead. Its asking for a big lawsuit when someone stuffs the car into a wall.

I agree that the techs should know how to do this, although I bet some don't have the adaptor as it does not come with all the machines. Regardless I still think Honda should have not done reverse mount on the wheels for 1 car in their fleet. Not to mention there really is no discerning benefits of reverse mount.


I may call the dealer next week and complain just so they know the severity of the situation. Don't expect anything from it.

 

[timestamped]

My FL5 has only been back to the dealer for the steering recall. I put the stock wheels back on specifically for that, then used them all summer. Finally took them off to swap to 18s/all seasons, and just got around to cleaning them up for storage last weekend. Saw a big scrape in the barrel of the one wheel and know it’s the dealer.

Probably not going to bother showing it to them, as I have no plans to go back and risk parking even my 10-yr-old car there. While I was waiting for the recall, I was standing outside and saw some girl that works there back a civic into a parked car, pull the civic forward into the waiting line for service, checking the damage and then walking away.

 

[Nothing]

What a terrible experience. It makes no sense to have a bunch of one-offs on one model AND not provide sufficient info to the dealers. Everything from the wheel/tire mounting, incorrect lug nut torque, alignment numbers, and the shipping blocks, etc.

Dealer scratched my wheels when I had a pair of tires replaced after a pothole. I hope they didn't do this to mine, but if they did I figure with the other potholes I have hit it would be flat or debeaded.

Easiest to get different wheels I guess. Then again, they left a rag in my intake after an oil change, so part of it is just plain incompetence. Parts dept is probably the only reason I'll visit.

 

[MooMoo]

What a terrible experience. It makes no sense to have a bunch of one-offs on one model AND not provide sufficient info to the dealers. Everything from the wheel/tire mounting, incorrect lug nut torque, alignment numbers, and the shipping blocks, etc.

Dealer scratched my wheels when I had a pair of tires replaced after a pothole. I hope they didn't do this to mine, but if they did I figure with the other potholes I have hit it would be flat or debeaded.

Easiest to get different wheels I guess. Then again, they left a rag in my intake after an oil change, so part of it is just plain incompetence. Parts dept is probably the only reason I'll visit.

I surely hope they didn't either man. The crazy thing, or I guess not so crazy is that took me a year and a half to find out lol, wheel held air just fine for that long but I probably only put like 1200 miles on them.

I considered buying another set of wheels or even the forged honda oem wheels but I already have 2 other wheel sets that I use for track duty and having 4 sets was just a bit too much lol. I do like how the OEM wheels look too and at putting so little miles on the oem wheels I bet I won't have to deal with replacing tires on these for a LONG time. I also went 35 sidewall so hopefully no more pothole damage.

 

[AZCWTypeR]

Sorry the dealer screwed up.

I was worried about reverse mount wheels living in a small town, but it wasn't a problem for the local tire shop (Big-O-Tires, western chain).

I got a nail through a sidewall and plugged it, but the plug eventually leaked (as expected). At least the plug gave me time to collect estimates.

 

[CTR]

I've had no problems taking reverse mount wheels to my local Discount Tire. They have pretty new machines and their techs seem to take their time if you make it clear you care about you wheels.

 

[coldradio1]

I called around and found a local tire shop that I trust. They were super knowledgeable and I felt confident/comfortable with them. I would suggest you do the same.

 

[MooMoo]

I called around and found a local tire shop that I trust. They were super knowledgeable and I felt confident/comfortable with them. I would suggest you do the same.

My tire guy just did all 4 wheels for me which is how I found out that the dealer mangled the wheel.

 

[PointByPatrol]

My tire guy just did all 4 wheels for me which is how I found out that the dealer mangled the wheel.

Add a little bead sealer and you're good to go!

 

[J_D]

T

Same thing happened to me. Mechanic destroyed a set of ECS 02s

I saw them when dismounted. They were mounting my new winter tires at the times. I’m assuming the new set they mounted didn’t get mangled ….

Sponsored