- First Name
- Ray
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2025
- Threads
- 19
- Messages
- 363
- Reaction score
- 933
- Location
- Brockville, Ontario, Canada
- Vehicle(s)
- 2024 Bronco Sport
- Thread starter
- #1
On Monday Nov. 17 I had my summer wheels and tires swapped off for my winter set. Seemingly all good with my Ford dealer delivering me the car when the work was complete.
But when the driver came to give me the key she mentioned someone waved at her at a stoplight to tell her the passenger real wheel was wobbling even though she said she felt nothing amiss when driving. When we went to look at my Bronco everything looked fine, but nonetheless she advised me to drop in a the dealership and someone in service would check it. I should have asked if there was a chance something was off why didn’t she turn around back to the service department to have it checked before delivering the car to me?
Nonetheless after work I went straight down to the dealer to have the wheel checked. I, too, didn’t feel anything wrong when driving there. When I got there someone came out and retorqued all the wheels and said everything seemed fine. This is where the first mistake happened in that they should have hoisted the vehicle to check the wheels. But, stupidly, I accepted his assurance and went home. And the next day everything seemed fine when I drove to work.
But when I was driving to the grocery store after getting out of work late someone honked for my attention at a stoplight to tell me rear wheel—the same one—was wobbling noticeably.
I called the dealership service department right away wherein they told me to bring the car back right away and they would set it right properly. Unfortunately by the time I got there all the mechanics had left for the day. The service advisor said she couldn’t let me drive the car as is so she gave me a loaner for overnight. She said they would bring the car in first thing in the morning. Fine, so I left with the loaner. I also felt a twinge of something looking back at my Bronco Sport parked there almost forlornly in the dark. Weird.
I ran my errand at the grocery store and when I was almost home when the second mistake hit me—I suddenly remembered I left my house key on my car key’s keychain!
Damn! I had no extra key or garage door opener to get into my house (and there is no external panel for my garage door—you need the remote). I felt like an idiot. The service department was now closed, but the sales department was still open. When I called and explained my predicament they assured me to just come back to the dealership and they would get me my house key. Good—I didn’t relish the idea of paying for a hotel room in my own hometown just because I forgot my damned house key. So back to the dealership I went, and fortunately it is only barely ten minutes away. And again I saw my Bronco Sport parked there forlornly in the dark.
Now I get home and immediately check something, the box of lug nuts for my aftermarket rims. The lugs were all there, but the hub rings were missing. I now suspected that whoever swapped the wheels overlooked removing the hub rings before mounting the factory rims (with my winter tires on them). If thats what happened then they effectively crushed my hub rings (they are made of plastic although you can pay extra for metal ones).
Wednesday morning the service department opened at 7:30 and I phoned them at 7:35 to tell them about the missing hub rings. She said they were bringing the car in that moment and would check. About 9am, shortly after I started work, they called me to say that not removing the hub rings is indeed what caused the problem, but everything was now set right and tested and all was fine and they would deliver the car to me before lunch.
All good, but I told her the dealership now owed me a new set of hub rings destroyed by their mechanic’s negligence. Funny, but she hesitated because she thought I said they owed me new rims. I corrected her immediately, “No, not rims. Rings. Hub rings. You owe me a set of new hub rings because I will certainly need them next March or April when I put my summer wheels back on. They’re only about $25-$40 Canadian For a set.” She agreed, of course, and said they would go ahead and order them.
This had happened once before with my CrownVic where someone should have known that aftermarket wheels usually have hub rings installed with them because aftermarket wheels are meant to fit different vehicles with varying hub sizes. Obviously factory wheels don’t need hub rings.
Part of me wanted to lose my temper, but then what would that gain? Everything was set right and Tuesday night they responded promptly to set things straight. But you can be damn sure from now I will ask them to note it down that the hub rings need to be removed first before reinstalling factory wheels.
Part of this is my own fault. I should have checked the box of lug nuts right away when they first delivered the car wherein I would have seen the hub rings were missing and then I could have demanded they hoist the car to check if they were still in place. They would have been crushed anyway, but the error would have been fixed immediately and I wouldn’t have had my little adventure Tuesday evening.
Finally, though, I didn’t appreciate someone changing my instrument panel setup to suit themselves. It wasn’t their car so that was inconsiderate. I didn’t like the setup in the loaner, but it wasn’t my car so I left it as is.
Such is life…
Factory 18x7 wheels.
Aftermarket 18x8 wheels.
A little extra to the story. The loaner they gave me was a black 2024 Bronco Sport Outer Banks with 15,000 km. on it. The outside definitely needed a wash as it really stood out in a lot of clean cars. No matter since I wasn’t being charged for it. I will also say I didn’t like it in black—simply too much black. I didn’t like how they had the instrument panel setup—I prefer the basic analog setup—but again no big deal it wasn’t my car. But more noteworthy is the loaner drove like crap. Why was it so noisy? And the brakes felt mushy. This didn’t drive anything like mine. It drove like something that had been abused and maybe somewhat neglected. Thats not impossible when many different people use something that is not their own so they don’t treat it decently as their own.
Several years earlier I had had a loaner from this same dealership when my father’s car was being serviced (the aforementioned CrownVic which had been his car before I inherited it). At that time the loaner had been an immaculate red metallic 2017 Ford Fusion SEL 2.0 with AWD—a very nice ride I was very impressed with. If Ford still made the Fusion I might have seriously considered it over the Bronco Sport. I think it was really dumb of Ford to stop offering cars (other than the Mustang) in North America, particularly in light of how stupidly overpriced fullsize trucks and SUVs have become. Given I had considered a VW Jetta before buying my Bronco Sport then a Ford Fusion could have been a viable alternative.
But when the driver came to give me the key she mentioned someone waved at her at a stoplight to tell her the passenger real wheel was wobbling even though she said she felt nothing amiss when driving. When we went to look at my Bronco everything looked fine, but nonetheless she advised me to drop in a the dealership and someone in service would check it. I should have asked if there was a chance something was off why didn’t she turn around back to the service department to have it checked before delivering the car to me?
Nonetheless after work I went straight down to the dealer to have the wheel checked. I, too, didn’t feel anything wrong when driving there. When I got there someone came out and retorqued all the wheels and said everything seemed fine. This is where the first mistake happened in that they should have hoisted the vehicle to check the wheels. But, stupidly, I accepted his assurance and went home. And the next day everything seemed fine when I drove to work.
But when I was driving to the grocery store after getting out of work late someone honked for my attention at a stoplight to tell me rear wheel—the same one—was wobbling noticeably.
I called the dealership service department right away wherein they told me to bring the car back right away and they would set it right properly. Unfortunately by the time I got there all the mechanics had left for the day. The service advisor said she couldn’t let me drive the car as is so she gave me a loaner for overnight. She said they would bring the car in first thing in the morning. Fine, so I left with the loaner. I also felt a twinge of something looking back at my Bronco Sport parked there almost forlornly in the dark. Weird.
I ran my errand at the grocery store and when I was almost home when the second mistake hit me—I suddenly remembered I left my house key on my car key’s keychain!
Damn! I had no extra key or garage door opener to get into my house (and there is no external panel for my garage door—you need the remote). I felt like an idiot. The service department was now closed, but the sales department was still open. When I called and explained my predicament they assured me to just come back to the dealership and they would get me my house key. Good—I didn’t relish the idea of paying for a hotel room in my own hometown just because I forgot my damned house key. So back to the dealership I went, and fortunately it is only barely ten minutes away. And again I saw my Bronco Sport parked there forlornly in the dark.
Now I get home and immediately check something, the box of lug nuts for my aftermarket rims. The lugs were all there, but the hub rings were missing. I now suspected that whoever swapped the wheels overlooked removing the hub rings before mounting the factory rims (with my winter tires on them). If thats what happened then they effectively crushed my hub rings (they are made of plastic although you can pay extra for metal ones).
Wednesday morning the service department opened at 7:30 and I phoned them at 7:35 to tell them about the missing hub rings. She said they were bringing the car in that moment and would check. About 9am, shortly after I started work, they called me to say that not removing the hub rings is indeed what caused the problem, but everything was now set right and tested and all was fine and they would deliver the car to me before lunch.
All good, but I told her the dealership now owed me a new set of hub rings destroyed by their mechanic’s negligence. Funny, but she hesitated because she thought I said they owed me new rims. I corrected her immediately, “No, not rims. Rings. Hub rings. You owe me a set of new hub rings because I will certainly need them next March or April when I put my summer wheels back on. They’re only about $25-$40 Canadian For a set.” She agreed, of course, and said they would go ahead and order them.
This had happened once before with my CrownVic where someone should have known that aftermarket wheels usually have hub rings installed with them because aftermarket wheels are meant to fit different vehicles with varying hub sizes. Obviously factory wheels don’t need hub rings.
Part of me wanted to lose my temper, but then what would that gain? Everything was set right and Tuesday night they responded promptly to set things straight. But you can be damn sure from now I will ask them to note it down that the hub rings need to be removed first before reinstalling factory wheels.
Part of this is my own fault. I should have checked the box of lug nuts right away when they first delivered the car wherein I would have seen the hub rings were missing and then I could have demanded they hoist the car to check if they were still in place. They would have been crushed anyway, but the error would have been fixed immediately and I wouldn’t have had my little adventure Tuesday evening.
Finally, though, I didn’t appreciate someone changing my instrument panel setup to suit themselves. It wasn’t their car so that was inconsiderate. I didn’t like the setup in the loaner, but it wasn’t my car so I left it as is.
Such is life…
Factory 18x7 wheels.
Aftermarket 18x8 wheels.
A little extra to the story. The loaner they gave me was a black 2024 Bronco Sport Outer Banks with 15,000 km. on it. The outside definitely needed a wash as it really stood out in a lot of clean cars. No matter since I wasn’t being charged for it. I will also say I didn’t like it in black—simply too much black. I didn’t like how they had the instrument panel setup—I prefer the basic analog setup—but again no big deal it wasn’t my car. But more noteworthy is the loaner drove like crap. Why was it so noisy? And the brakes felt mushy. This didn’t drive anything like mine. It drove like something that had been abused and maybe somewhat neglected. Thats not impossible when many different people use something that is not their own so they don’t treat it decently as their own.
Several years earlier I had had a loaner from this same dealership when my father’s car was being serviced (the aforementioned CrownVic which had been his car before I inherited it). At that time the loaner had been an immaculate red metallic 2017 Ford Fusion SEL 2.0 with AWD—a very nice ride I was very impressed with. If Ford still made the Fusion I might have seriously considered it over the Bronco Sport. I think it was really dumb of Ford to stop offering cars (other than the Mustang) in North America, particularly in light of how stupidly overpriced fullsize trucks and SUVs have become. Given I had considered a VW Jetta before buying my Bronco Sport then a Ford Fusion could have been a viable alternative.
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