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Frustrating experience at Discount Tire - HELP!

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This afternoon I had an appointment with a local Discount Tire to rotate and balance the tires of my M3 - this is my first rotation after 10,000 enjoyable miles. I've used Discount Tire for over 10 years and they generally perform great work.

Today I pulled in and saw a M3 in their parking lot which relieved some of the stress associated with them lifting my car. I asked the Manager and Tech more than 5 times if they have experience with this model and are familiar with the jack points. Each time I was reassured that they know exactly how to handle my car.

My car was a few bays from the window when it was lifted. This is what I saw when cars blocking my view pulled away! They appear to have used square blocks in the wrong location.

Does this look horribly wrong to anyone else? Considering taking my car to a service center to have the undercarriage looked at for cosmetic damage ASAP.
IMG_1597.jpg
 
What bugs me is the Manager initially told me they lift a ton of Teslas and always use a floor jack and some sort of pad. When I saw my car there wasn't a floor jack in sight and I was very angry to say the least.

The jack locations concern me as the rear pad is near the middle of the vehicle - fine for an ICE vehicle with more weight in the front, but probably not a good idea for a vehicle with 50/50 weight distribution. Great way for the car to fall off...
 
I will definitely be rotating my own tires in the future.

If this were your car would you schedule a service appointment to have it lifted and evaluated? The rain combined with my fat head make it tough to see underneath without lifting the car.
 
Ok, the sky isn't falling. My local place, Town Fair Tire uses these flat "pan" lifts all the time for my Model S and there's never any damage. I'm always right there watching too. You can see the contact points, or really, the entire contact 'surface'. The bottom of the battery is flat, as is the top of the lift.. and it distributes the weight of the car over a much much larger flat area than the four jack pad points.

Of course the pendants around who want to do everything "by the book" will certainly disagree and argue with my assertion, and that's fine. But I've had two Model Ss lifted like this dozens of times and there's never been any damage or issue.

Now if Discount Tire used a standard four-point lift in the wrong places (i.e. battery), yeah, that would be a serious issue.

Now having said that, they did once use an impact wrench on my original style stainless steel lug nuts and destroyed all 20 (it was a new guy who didn't get the memo to do it by hand).. but they paid for all new ones, too.
 
I take the wheels off my car and take them to the tire shop to get mounted and balanced. Maximum paranoia :cool:

You can see the contact points, or really, the entire contact 'surface'. The bottom of the battery is flat, as is the top of the lift.. and it distributes the weight of the car over a much much larger flat area than the four jack pad points.
You're assuming that the battery has support members distributed through it. Why does everyone want to lift the car from somewhere other than the jack points? It's not that complicated...
 
You're assuming that the battery has support members distributed through it. Why does everyone want to lift the car from somewhere other than the jack points? It's not that complicated...
It tends to be hard to get shops, other than Tesla, to use the jack points. Every service person thinks they know better.
 
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My local America's Tire (same chain as Discount Tire) sees lots of Teslas (...this is the SF Bay Area). When I bring in our Teslas, I hand them my 4 hockey pucks (keep them in a Ziplock in the trunk well). They pull the car into an empty (read: no lift) bay and use 4 floor jacks to lift the car. All good. FWIW they don't use the side rail lift as in the OPs photo upthread for the reasons noted.
 
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It tends to be hard to get shops, other than Tesla, to use the jack points. Every service person thinks they know better.

I had to go around to a couple of shops, but it didn't take one who knew exactly what to do.
My process was "Do you know how to lift a Tesla" if the answer was anything but an immediate yes, I walked on. A number of them just said no.
 
Yep. I guess going to Tesla is the only way to be sure which is a bummer.
On the other hand has anyone actually heard of a battery being damaged by improper jacking? Maybe it's strong enough.
I haven't heard of any, but that doesn't mean there aren't cases. My guess is that the problem won't show up immediately.

The easiest way, but not the cheapest, is to have three sets of wheels. One summer, one winter, and one old. The issue that this solves is that new tires are needed a few weeks before changeover time. It's annoying to have to change to the other set and then change back for a few weeks. Having an old set means you get new tires mounted on the old set, and the worn set now becomes the old set. Doesn't matter if they are summer or winter.
 
The issue that this solves is that new tires are needed a few weeks before changeover time.

Why not just get the new tires mounted on the set of wheels when they're already off the car? Or the end of the previous season, have the tire shop mount four new tires on the wheels that just came off the car with the old tires, so they're already ready for the next season switchover? I guess I don't understand "needing new tires a few weeks before the changeover"? If your tires are that worn they won't last a few more weeks (in the Spring or Fall), (A) I wouldn't be driving on those tires to being with, or (b) I would just do the regular changeover and then mount the new tires on those rims.

The three sets of wheels method also doesn't work if you switch between 21" and 19" rims between summer and winter (or whatever sizes your car has).
 
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