Warranty/liability question on damaged wheel(hub) due to spacers use

[distinctperson]

So here is what happened: I was driving on the freeway with the top down, and then I suddenly noticed the car vibrating as I started to increase speed. At first, I thought perhaps it was the wind causing the steering wheel to vibrate, so I pulled over, put the top up and drove again only to notice the symptoms not abating at all.

So I pull over again, get out of the car to inspect the wheels and I notice that on the rear driver wheel one of the lug nuts/bolts has fallen off, second one sheared with half of it remaining inside while the third is loose and can be adjusted with my bare fingers. So, I end up calling a tow truck and towing it to the dealer in the afterhours.

After waiting patiently, the service adviser leaves me the following voicemail (pasted from Google Voice transcript):
{
Just wanted to give you an update on the your wheel stud issue that you've got so it looks as though. You've couple things you've got a wheel spacers installed on there, and it doesn't fit right in your wheel, and they werent torqued properly to begin with so your wheel was actually about to fall off. It was wobbling really badly to the point where it's actually damaged the face of the wheel and you need new wheel studs. We don't use after our component. So we're we're not going to put on the that wheel spacers on there either, and we can't use the original wheel studs cuz they're too short if you want to use a wheel spacers. So at the cheapest we could do a wheel and new studs know spacer. There is a little bit of damage to the wheel hub so we would probably recommend doing that but you can try and get you know doing the job without a wheel hub to replace all the studs that it needs you're looking at about $300 the wheel itself is about $875, but we have to order it. We don't have it in stock, and then the wheel hub that's been damaged. We want to replace one you know that would be about 1600. Give me a call back so we can discuss what your options are and what you'd like us to do right now as you can imagine the car is not in a safe condition. I cannot be driven. It's just kind of dead in the water until we figure something out so call me when you can.
}

A month and half prior, I had replaced the runflats with 235/265 MPSS with 5mm spacer in the rear at a decent tire shop. The owner told me that they had to use longer studs because of the spacers understandably and that was that.

My question is, who is going to be liable for those repair costs ? The car (2014 MY) is still obviously under original warranty, but it doesn't seem like it's going to cover this presumably (I haven't been able to get in touch with the service adviser since his voicemail). Will the tire shop owner bear responsibility for this cost ? or am I going to be stuck with this ? Bear in mind that the tire shop was the last business/person to touch my wheels.

I attached a picture of the wheel in question.

Your answers are very much appreciated!

[Lambobimmer]

Did the tire shop put on the spacer without your knowledge or something or did you ask them to use the spacer.

I assume that latter is the case so it sounds like the liability is on you. Not sure why BMW or the Tire shop would pay for this. You will never prove that the studs were not torqued correctly as they probably came loose because there were still too short.

If you are going to use spacers you had better buy quality spacers and buy your own quality studs that are the correct length and not depend on what ever the shop has laying around their garage. Not a good idea to use spacers, especially if you are going to drive you car with any speed. Chalk it up as a lessen learned and move on.

See if you can find a used wheel or buy a set of wheels that have the proper offsets so you don't need spacers.

[davis449]

Originally Posted by Lambobimmer

Did the tire shop put on the spacer without your knowledge or something or did you ask them to use the spacer.

I assume that latter is the case so it sounds like the liability is on you. Not sure why BMW or the Tire shop would pay for this. You will never prove that the studs were not torqued correctly as they probably came loose because there were still too short.

For sure this is going to be on you. Lambobimmer is right. Even if it's the shop's fault for not torquing the studs properly, you won't be able to prove it. Like it or not, you approved the use of spacers with the installation. The fact that they told you after the fact is of no consequence. You accepted delivery of the car with the spacers installed.

If you are going to use spacers you had better buy quality spacers and buy your own quality studs that are the correct length and not depend on what ever the shop has laying around their garage. Not a good idea to use spacers, especially if you are going to drive you car with any speed. Chalk it up as a lessen learned and move on.

This is exactly right. And it's not just quality. I would\will NEVER, EVER use non-hubcentric spacers on a car. I have NEVER seen a 5mm spacer that is hub-centric. In my experience, 10mm is the min. to be hubcentric. Same with the studs. You have to do your own extensive research before getting into this type of stuff. Also, no matter what, you should own a torque wrench and you should know the torque specs for the application you are applying to the car. I would NEVER trust a tire shop with this kinda stuff. If you want to do fitment involving spacers\adapters\etc., it's always best to have it done by professionals at a performance shop.

Where I vehemently disagree with Lambobimmer is the use of spacers "if you are going to drive you car with any speed." Race cars use spacers. I have run them on two sets of wheels on two different cars and had very little issue. Both cars were driven with serious speed and around many, many curves at strenuous speed. Then again, I was working with a professional performance shop, the lead mechanic with 25 years experience modifying cars from VW to Ferrari, my very good friend who was a serious mod freak, and much research of my own. I also bought a good torque wrench immediately after install.

See if you can find a used wheel or buy a set of wheels that have the proper offsets so you don't need spacers.

Even though I have run spacers with much success, by my third set of aftermarket wheels, I have since bought wheels in the offset that achieves the purpose so I don't have to use them. IMO, you need to do all of what the SA recommends. For an $875 wheel, just buy a set of VMR's (or whatever) in the proper offset that will fit your tires.

[distinctperson]

It seems like you are all right. I was essentially at fault for not performing due diligence after the install. I simply asked the shop to install 10mm spacers, and when they couldn't (reason was that it did not "fit", whatever that meant), they installed 5mm hubcentric spacers. And they also used non-OEM studs to complement the spacers (the quality of which I'm unaware of).

Interestingly, I posted a reply to my own thread here regarding the installation of wider tires, where I stated that right after installing the spacers, I felt the following

So I had the tires replaced with MPSS 235/265. The tire shop owner stated that he couldn't fit 10mm hubcentric spacers in the rear; he only managed to add 5mm (any ideas why he wasn't able to ?).

This certainly improved the look of the vehicle, however, I am having some issues with stability. At higher speeds, the vehicle is no longer as stable as it were prior to the switch. There is a particular wide stretch on the highway here that I used to take at 140-150mph without any issues, that I'm now struggling to control the vehicle at a mere 130mph. At lower speeds stability is unaffected, but that's a given.

Any ideas what's causing this ? Is it the combination of the rear spacers and wider tires that's affecting the geometry of the car such that this is an unavoidable cost, or are there some other settings that need to be adjusted to complement this change ?

So in hindsight, something was wrong that I didn't further investigate and it took 5 thousand miles of driving on them for this outcome to finally occur.

I have decided to tow the car from the dealership to the tire shop to fix it at my own cost. I'm simply not going to pay the stealership rate to have it fixed -- atleast the tire shop will sympathize with me and surely offer me a discounted rate. Will update tomorrow.

[NoQuarter]

When I added my spacers I went with a stud conversion kit at the same time. Something to consider for you.

Also, short of ordering custom wheels, I did not have any success finding VMRs in the offset I wanted. Seemed like everyone carried the OEM offset and anything else would be a custom made wheel.

[distinctperson]

Just an update: I just picked up my car from the tire shop. It turns out that the wheel is fine minus some scratches and that the wheel hub is in impeccable state without any damages whatsoever. The spacer luckily absorbed the brunt of the damage and was subsequently thrown out. OEM studs were re-installed and everything is fine.

So, it turns out, that the dealership tried to over-exaggerate the extent of damages in the hopes of bilking me out of $2k+ in repairs. The shop owner, furthermore, graciously refused to take any payments on top of it.

I am very happy that I didn't leave it at the dealer, instead learning a potentially costly lesson for free for a change. I haven't driven the car hard yet, but will do later today and if I notice anything askew I will for sure follow up on it.

[jts1981]

Glad to see the shop owner stepped up to help you. I agree with Lambo on the spacers, personally, but davis449 is right that some racers use them.

For a daily driver I'd recommend spending the extra cash in quality wheels with right offset. Getyourwheels.com is really good at that, try giving them a call when you're ready for an upgrade.