This is what happens to your wheels once the car is in the bay. It is the same sequence every time, in the same order, whether you booked ahead or walked in on a Sunday.
- Wheels off, old tire off the rim, new tire mounted, balanced, back on the car.
- We can see the inside of the tire and the rim while it is apart, and we tell you before anything changes.
- Every wheel is torqued to your vehicle's spec, not run down by feel with an impact gun.
- Pressure set to the sticker in your door jamb, valve caps on, tire shine on every tire we mount.
- An on-rim swap skips the mounting entirely: we trade the wheel sets.
The car comes in and the wheels come off
The car is lifted and all four wheels come off. This is already useful before any tire work starts, because it is the one moment where the brakes, the hubs and the inside faces of your wheels are all in plain view, and we check tread and pressures while they are in our hands.
The old tire comes off the rim
The bead is broken loose and the old tire comes off. This is the step where a rim is most at risk of being marked, which is why everything on our changer that touches the wheel is nylon or rubber faced. It has its own page if you want the detail.
If you are in for an on-rim swap, this step does not happen at all. Both of your sets are already on their own rims, so there is nothing to dismount and we simply trade the wheel assemblies.
The look you only get with the tire off
With the tire off the rim we can see the inside of the casing and the full face of the wheel, and that is where a story you did not know about shows up: a previous repair, damage from running low, corrosion on the bead seat. If we find something that changes the job, we come and find you and show you before we carry on. Nothing goes on your bill that you have not agreed to.
The new tire goes on, and gets balanced
The new tire is mounted, the bead is seated, and the assembly goes onto the balancer. The machine finds the heavy spot, we add the weight it asks for in the place it asks for, and spin it again to confirm. Most of those weights are stick-on and end up hidden inside the barrel of the wheel.
Back on the car, properly
Wheels go back on and every one is torqued to your vehicle's specification. Pressures are set to the sticker in your door jamb rather than to whatever the tire's maximum happens to say, valve caps go on, and every tire we mount gets tire shine.
If sensors are involved, the tire-pressure system needs to be reading the set that is now on the car, and a relearn is a flat rate of its own rather than something we discover at the till.
If you are taking a set home with you, we bag it. That is included, not an add-on.
You settle at the counter
The flat rate for your vehicle size, which you saw before you booked. There is no deposit on a tire service online and no shop-supply line invented at the end. Then we text you a few days later to check the car is behaving.
Frequently asked
Can I wait while you do it?
Yes. There is a waiting area with coffee and Wi-Fi, and most people stay for it. If you would rather not, drop the car and we will text you when it is ready. We are open seven days a week.
Do you torque the wheels properly?
Every wheel, every time, to the vehicle's own specification. An impact gun run down by feel over-tightens some studs and under-tightens others, and both of those are a problem later. Torque to spec is not an upsell here, it is just how the wheel goes back on.
What happens if you find something wrong once the tire is off?
We stop and come and tell you. Having the tire off the rim is the only chance anyone gets to see the inside of it and the whole face of the wheel, so if there is damage in there you should know about it. Nothing gets added to the bill without you agreeing to it first.
Is an on-rim swap the same job?
No, and it is much simpler. If your winter and summer tires each live on their own rims, nothing is mounted or dismounted at all: we take one full set of wheels off, put the other on, and torque them. That is why it is the cheaper of the two changeovers.
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