Walmart knowingly put wrong tire on and left it, having issues

I took my car to walmart for a new tire, I used a donut to get there after waking up to find my car sitting on a flat. They didnt replace it with the specified tire size, the 3 good ones were 205-60-R15, the tire they put on was 205-65, it was the end of the day and they were short handed but noticed the tire was bigger than the other 3. They said itd be fine as long as it cleared the wheel well when turning and if so theyd leave it the wrong size (The new tire was put on the front and car is fwd). This was done on 4-19-16, in the past 2 weeks. My steering is now out of alignment and the car slides all over the road now just at the sign of moisture on the road… Obviously something was wrong so I checked the tires to find the new tire and the right size tire have both worn down to the steel belt, found a used tire to match the bigger tire to try evening the pressure and steering out and to take it back to show them the problem. They refuse to replace the 2 week old tire thats showing steel and say its because its out of alignment. It was aligned before I took it to them. Now I dont have the money to replace the 2 bigger tires or get an alignment. Please I need to know if they are responsible for the excessive wear and misalignment and what I can do about it. Can I get them to replace both tires with the right sized ones and pay for the alignment?

I’m having a near impossible time believing that changing the profile on a tire from 60 to 65 series caused any kind of alignment problem and especially one severe enough to chew up a tire in 2 weeks time.

What year and model of Nissan, how many miles on it, and what areas of the tire are showing steel? (Inner or outer edges, etc)

You should know that since the invention of tires countless millions of vehicles have been run with mismatched tires.

If your front tires wore out in two weeks there is a bigger problem than an alignment adjustment, something is bent. Did you hit something while driving? Why did you need one tire replaced?

I agree with the two previous posts.
There is clearly another issue here, over and above the size of the replacement tire.
I am not excusing Wal-Mart’s slip-shod approach, but I don’t see their mistake destroying a new tire within a couple of weeks.

In fact, I will go out on a limb and say that it is virtually impossible for their mistake to have led to the destruction of that tire.

Walmart did NOT install a 205/60R15 . . . they put on a “205-15”

205R15 in other words

That amounts to 205/85R15

HUGE difference . . . WAY taller than the correct tire

OP should not have bought the second bigger tire to try to “balance” the sizes in the front

OP should not have accepted the wrong size tire, to be gin with

Unless there’s something I’m missing the OP said they put on a 205-65; which I took to mean a 205-65-15.

Unless you have some inside information on this, I have believe the OP that they put a 205-65. That’s what he wrote. Do you know something that isn’t in the thread?

I’m also wondering why a “205-15” would have to be assumed to be an 85 aspect ratio. That makes no sense to me.

While the difference between a 205-60 and a 205-65 should not cause any major problems, Walmart should not have done this. It can cause an imbalance at highway speeds and a braking imbalance. And an imbalance on wet roads. Since they got the size wrong, it’s also possible that the type of tire is different; vis-à-vis a traction difference.

These differences cannot, however, wear tires down to the steel belts in two weeks. There’s clearly something else going on here.
What was the cause of the original flat?
Were the tires worn out?
Did you whack a pothole?

At this point I think it’s prudent to take the car to a reputable chassis shop for a good look-see. And new tires after it’s repaired.

I guess my aging eyes are playing tricks on me :frowning:

I could have sworn OP said Walmart put on a 205-15

I just went back and looked, and Walmart “put on a 205-65” . . . which is a little bigger than the correct 205/60R15, and technically the wrong size. It will definitely have a larger overall diameter than the correct size, and could affect alignment, handling, pulling, etc.

Shame on me

Sorry for questioning you guys :anguished:

Check out this website . . . it’ll let you figure out the tire height.

https://tiresize.com/height-calculator/

As you can see, the incorrect tire is more than 1/2" taller . . . IMO a big enough of a size difference to potentially cause all sorts of problems

No problem. Many of us here, myself included, are no longer 25 either. :smiley:
I miss my youth. But I have to admit that my new lenses are better than the OEM ones.

I can tell you that if you came to me close to closing time and I didn’t have the correct size tire for you I wouldn’t have put the wrong size on. I would have kept the car overnight until the correct size could have been gotten or I would have sent you on your way with a flat.

Having said that, having one 65-series tire on a car and three 60-series tires might cause a slight pull if it’s on the front. But I can’t possibly see any way that it would cause a tire to wear out to the cords in 2 weeks. There’s something else wrong with your car.

I’m guessing it was something more than a puncture that caused the flat. If the OP is that low on bucks, they would have had just a puncture repaired.

I’m guessing it was something more than a puncture that caused the flat. If the OP is that low on bucks, they would have had just a puncture repaired.

While I agree with most here there must be more going on than meets the eye I will share I have had similar issues with Walmart tires, while mine was not the incorrect size, I had just had new tires put on car not long ago, but got a puncture that was to close to the sidewall to repair so had to replace tire, and purchased a replacement tire at walmart. Car drove straight as an arrow before, but the second I put the new replacement tire on the car pulled hard to the right, I called and they said oh it’s a 94 regal with 250,000 miles on it and must be an problem with the car not the tire, even though it was fine before adding their tire. While fighting with them drove for a month or so and the inner part of tire was down to the point you could not see the treads anymore, and it also wore my other side down in the process, they flat out refused to replace the faulty tire even with 2 mechanics stating that the car was fine, in fact just 5 months before hand I had the front end redone, new tie rods ball joints ect. so I knew it wasn’t an alignment problem. Car did have lots of miles but was in great shape, whle fighting with walmart to get replacement tire ended up purchasing a $10.00 used tire from junk yard and as soon as put that tire on car drove streigth as an arrow again, I ended up posting story on walmarts online comment page, and the next day had a call from district manager, told story, in an hour I had the manager of the walmart store calling me to bring car in that they were going to replace the tire.

Was just a defective tire, was the same size and brand and all of the other new ones I had purchased from the start.

I can’t believe W/M would tell her to “keep driving” with ONE tire (not a set) that’s a different size from the other three! WOW is that unprofessional.

Car was on lift. Why didn’t they move a rear wheel to front and put new tire on back? Let’s hope your diff has no issues.

I think there is something missing. I am struggling to believe that WalMart would mistakenly put on a tire of the wrong size and not try to get the right sized tire on there just to avoid a potential legal issue.

So 2 scenarios come to mind:

  1. That a 205/65R15 is the proper size for the vehicle and while WalMart is not going the go to a 60 series tire for obvious reasons, the OP is not reporting to us that he is refusing to buy 3 more tires of the correct size.

  2. That the vehicle is in obvious poor shape that WalMart slapped on there what they had in stock to get the guy out the door.

^You think that one mismatched tire is safer than 4 matched? I’m just asking, BTW, not rhetorical. And I’ve never had any issue buying tires, going up or down 5% AR on any car I’ve owned…I know we’re getting more safety-ninnyish by the day, so perhaps my experiences of 5 years ago are outdated.

I just think somebody “got sloppy” and read the “Stock” tire size and did not match it to what was on the car. Then, perhaps compounded by some junior manger whose bonus is directly tied to maximizing profits by minimizing returns, and fails to see “the big picture.”

(FWIW, I’ve had the opposite happen: they wouldn’t put a pair of “stock” tires on my F150…235 75R15(?)…because I had acquired used 255 70R15s all around at some point. I had to get a new pair in the odd size, and then get them to wear out all at once.)

Capri, I’ve had a shop mount the wrong size tires on a vehicle of mine. It’s totally inexcusable, but I have no doubt that it happened. What I can’t figure out is the rest of the story… and I feel confident in saying there’s a whole lot more to the story than what the OP posted.

I’m in full agreement that Wal Mart, or any other tire facility, should just bring things to a halt if they don’t have the exact same size tire as what’s specced for the car.

However, I don’t buy that a 5 difference in profile caused this problem. There has to be more to the story.
Who knows, maybe WM told the OP that’s the only tire they had in stock that was close and the OP chose the option of going with that close enough tire.

I’m not accusing the OP of this but I will say that it’s quite common for someone to make a car complaint and intentionally leave out details which affect responses to the question they asked or the complain they make.
In other words, it’s done to get a pat on the back and a go get 'em cause they done you wrong response.
Think of the old Saturday Nigh Live routine, “Daily Affirmation”…

PissedNissan, are you willing to return and answer some questions? If we don’t hear from you we’ll have to assume you’re not and in that case we’re wasting our time.