Today I get my winter tires on

This morning I'm going to get my winter tires on and get an oil change as well as get the cabin light in my truck looked at. Otherwise I'm not having issues with it.

I seemed to remember having a hard time moving the tires,  225 60R18. Apparently they weigh anywhere from 26-30 lbs. I guess after moving my 38lb canoe alone, the tires don't seem particularly heavy anymore. or as awkward. 

 

So tires in truck and leaving to be there for 7:45. Yuck.

Grand Vitara has brand spanking new shoes

Today at lunch, my friend came with me and introduced me to her mechanic. He's a friend of her bf's.  I hate going to garages and going to a new garage is always somewhat traumatic for me.  I probably wouldn't have felt comfortable going to this garage alone. Perhaps it was just a fluke but everyone I saw there was male.

 Anyways we went at lunch time and my car was ready by 4:30.  The tires were changed to those almost new Firestones I picked up in Pointe Calumet.  I asked to look if there was a problem as the tires seem to wear unevenly. His comment was, that these type of tires, once they get bald they wear even faster. That there did not seem to be a problem with alignment or suspension causing the tires to wear unevenly.

We'll see how well these tires do. The previous tires, the Dunlop 225 60R18 99H, from what I read were High performance tires, which adhere well to wet pavement, and ride quietly, are also softer rubber and they wear faster.  The Firestones are 225 60R18 99T. Not sure if the T stands for Touring, but if I understand correctly they are rated 20 miles per hour slower and are made of harder rubber. They are a bit noisier, but they should last longer for the type of use I make of my vehicle.. where a percentage of the time in the summer, I'm riding on gravel or dirt roads.

I also got an oil change, always a good idea after a 2 week road trip where we drove almost every day.  They also changed 2 of the filters. 

The only thing I don't like about my grand Vitara is that I'm not as sensitive to it's engine sounds as I was to my prior Protege. It had that small Japanese engine sound, that I could tell if it was even slightly unhappy, and the engine always had a nicer sound after an oil change.  I do like the V6 and the fact it can take off like a bat out of hell, if I gun it... but  I can't tell the engine is happier after an oil change.

Got a good deal on tires

My friend drove me to pointe Calumet to get them, but I got some inexpensive tires, as new. Their claim wasn't bullshit, there's still paint on the tires, and you can still see the little pieces of tire on the sides that get worn as tire uses.

The cheapest I found the Firestone 225 60R18 99T all season tires, was $150 per tire at Walmart. I got all 4 for $300. I was very thrilled.

Now I have to decide where I want to go to get both my oil and tires changed.

Not going back to Mr Lube that's for sure.  Oh and those idiots broke sunglasses in my glove compartment going to play around with some filter I told them NOT TO TOUCH.  I had to ask them to put it back together and then the idiot argued about dust.   Yes but if I told you NOT to touch my car other then the tires, then do not touch my car.  Yes really not a fan of Mr Lube.

Mr. Lube isn't touching my tires no more

Mostly because I had waiting at garages I've been going to Mr Lube to get my tires changed if I have no other need for a garage at the same time.

Big mistake. The one in DDO on the corner of Brunswick and du Marche is staffed by a bunch of incompetent assholes. For starters they should have told me that my tires were not safe to put on if the thread is worn.

Secondly for some reason during my trip my back tires got used so unevenly that there's a huge strip that is now showing metal. This had us stressed out during the trip we weren't even sure we'd make it home on the tires that were on my truck.

What kind of incompetent twit puts tires that are going to wear this badly in less then 2 months

It's not just me. My gf also went to Mr Lube to get her tires changed. Other then the fact they seem to charge more then other vendors, one of her tires is now bald to the metal, and she's not sure how much longer her tire will last.

Not sure either why my tires were finished. These are Summer tires. My SUV has only 54,000km on it. Half of the year it has winter tires, so say it did 34, 000km... most tires are good to 50,000 and these are no exception....

Now on the market to find new tires. Sadly because my truck needs 225 60R18's the cheapest I could find new are $150 per tire. Plus I have to get them installed.

Got my winter tires on

It helped they had been in the truck for the past week so I could put truck in garage. I went during "lunch" time yesterday. Don't know if I'll be going back to the Monsieur Lub to get my tires changed again.

First off when I arrived the guy said he could take me right after the guy he was going to finish, in about 10 minutes and it would take 45 minutes.   It took over 2 hours. They tried to say it's because it takes SO MUCH LONGER to balance 18" wheels. BULL. I've been out of there in about 1 hour with this truck and those tires.

There was at least 2 guys working on my vehicle, but they were going obviously as slow as they could. So when it was finally finished, I get the usual, "We noticed XYZ" about your vehicle, to which I answered "I'm getting maintenance done at my dealer next week". Get into the car, and found the cabin filter in the passenger seat and the glove compartment opened.  To which I was told "See the filter is dirty". Yeah it has a few leaves, I'm not worried about that. In fact now that I know I can access that filter via the glove compartment, I can take it out again, shake it free of stuff, and put it back in. They didn't even bother shaking it. No, they would have charged me an arm and leg to change it and taken another half hour.

I dunno that I'll be going back to this Mr Lub. I've been going to get tires changed there for years, but the level of their incompetence this time and the time it took, is not making me feel that comfortable.

When I got home I rolled all 4 tires to my back shed and put them in. So my car has it's winter tires on 2 weeks before the deadline. Usually I set off to get them put on after the deadline!

I also washed dishes for hours last night.  I really miss my dishwasher.  Need to get that fixed already.  Still have more dishes to wash tonight, but it should be the end of it.

Friend lucky in her bad luck

My gf had scheduled an oil change at her favourite Montreal garage, the Midas on the corner of St Charles near the 40.  They also do an inspection with the oil change, and the mechanic noticed that one of her tires was beyond bald, the metal was sticking out. 

How she made it from Oromocto to Montreal in the psychotic weather, with the construction holiday traffic on those tires is a mystery to all of us, but we are all grateful that none of the tires decided to have a blowout on the highway.

She was planning on shopping in Montreal, but I doubt she planned to shop for tires!  She found a good tire sale at Canadian Tire, buy 3 get the 4rth one free! Either way, her vehicle now has 4 new summer tires, that won't risk going "BOOM, boom, boom, all through the town..."