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How do you properly dispose of your old tires when you DIY change your tires at home?

12K views 15 replies 8 participants last post by  bluebee 
#1 ·
How do you properly dispose of your old tires when you DIY change your tires at home?

Of course, if you have a tire shop replace your tires, they dispose of them properly for you; but what do those of you who change your own tires at home do to properly dispose (or repurpose) them?
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Googling for "proper way to dispose of old used tires", I find the EPA has an FAQ on the subject:

I have a few tires at home. How can I recycle them?

You may be able to return surplus tires to either a tire retailer or a local recycling facility that accepts tires. Be sure to confirm that the facility accepts tires for recycling and check for quantity and size limitations. Some local municipalities will also periodically conduct "tire amnesty days" when any local citizen can bring a limited number of tires to a drop-off site free of charge. For more information, or if you have large numbers of scrap tires, contact your local solid waste management agency.
Since I bought the tires at Tire Rack, I looked to their web site for advice:

From that link, it looks like California doesn't get a fee from Tire Rack themselves:
Tire Rack collects these state fees when selling tires to consumers in states in Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, and Nevada.
These states use slightly different names for these funds and the amount per tire varies from $.25/per tire in Indiana to $2/per tire in Louisiana. The state fee the Tire Rack collects is tied to the retail sale of new tires and is passed directly to the state.
Looking up the specific resources for California:

That pointer comes up with a search engine for locating recyclers near you:

Unfortunately, as with a lot of this earth-marketing BS, the locator was totally useless. It found NOTHING in the 10th largest city in the USA, for example.

Giving up on that useless (all marketing an no substance) site that the EPA referred me to, I google some more and find this PDF which covers all 50 states' laws on the subject:

CALIFORNIA: Since July 1, 1990, a $1.00/tire fee is collected on all tires at point of sale. The fee generates $3 million to $4 million annually
CALIFORNIA: Since January 1, 1993, whole tires have been banned from landfills.
----

That PDF contains a link for "more information":

  • CaRecycle Home
    • Which itself, references this:
  • Tire Recycling
    • Which, circuitously, has the very unhelpful link back to the garbage marketing site I had just left in frustration:
    • To locate a convenient recycling center, call Earth 911, which has a nationwide automated hotline at 1-800-CLEANUP. You can also get the same information online from the Earth 911 website.
    • Tire Management Program Hotline: 866-896-0600 WasteTires@calrecycle.ca.gov
Since the government sites were just going in circles, I went back to google, and found this (has anyone used them?).


Googling also found these guys; they don't take away old tires, but they listed the disposal fees by state:

  • - Tire Buyer 866-961-8668 (M-F 5am-6pm, Sat 6am-4pm Pacific time)

I called most of the numbers above, but it's too late now, so I'll have to call back in the day.
Googling some more, I find Wikipedia is in on the gig:

 

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#4 · (Edited)
Been there, done that.
The EPA & California state links stink.

Luckily, the research we are doing will help others, even if they are not in California.

I'll make a few phone calls tomorrow, but, the most promising avenue is to see if I can drop them off at a local tire shop or my local disposal company (paying them the disposal fee).


It's interesting what happens to the old tires at the recycling facility:
the scrap tires will be treated with chemicals to break them down into a material that can be reused. Some plants use a process called devulcanization, which breaks down and removes the sulfur that originally was added to the rubber to make it harden. The result is a material called reclaim rubber, which is cheaper than virgin rubber, although it sometimes lacks the tensile strength. The reclaim rubber is then put through a mechanical grinder. Sometimes it's first frozen by exposing it to liquid nitrogen, which makes the reclaim rubber brittle so it can be more easily ground into a fine powder
In my search, I found this 182-page Microsoft Word document commissioned by the State of California in 2003 for $250,000 (about a thousand dollars a page!).
- Publication # 622-03-004, Consumers' Tire-Buying Habits and Their Knowledge of Tire Maintenance, Recycling, and Disposal (MS Word, PDF)

EDIT: Reading that entire 182-page report, it's sad to realize how ignorant most people are when it comes to tires (read the report, and you'll see they concluded the same thing).

BTW, check out the appendix. It has phone numbers and contact information for tons of tire specialists we can make use of in the future! :)
 

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#5 ·
Bluebee, that is a very informative article.
Seeing has how I'm a little jaded from our Government in my pockets
24/7 I would do this.

I see the tire recycling like this. You go out to dinner have a nice time, and when
you are done eating, they CHARGE you to take the empty used plates away.
They NEED the plates to keep the place running smoothly.
The tire recyclers NEED the old rubber to make new products.
Why in the Sam Hill do I need to PAY them to take my valuable resource from me?
They should be paying ME!
 
#7 · (Edited)
They should be paying ME!
Understood.

Out here in California, they get you coming and going, by charging an additional dollar when you buy the tire (plus sales tax, of course), and then another $3.50 or so when you throw it away.
Over a fifty-year lifetime of a two-car household, that's well over a thousand dollars in just tire-disposal fees (assuming you replace tires at the same two-year interval that I do).
Is there a Pep Boys near you? I took a couple old tires there and they accepted them without any issues or fees.
This morning I ran a phone survey and, while nobody (yet) was free, Pep Boys & America's Tires (at $2.50/tire) and Costco (at $1/tire) were the best.

Here are the running results of my phone calls today... (bear in mind that many shops only take tires if THEY sold you the tire! This is an important distinction that I didn't pout in the outline below but which is in the recyclestuff.org site).

  1. California Waste Tire Management Hotline 866-896-0600
    • Nobody answered, I left a message, will update
    • OK. I called back and talked to an admin. I got some of the most useless information a human being could get.
    • I was so frustrated with the lack of any useful knowledge from that person, I asked that person to have their supervisor give me a call back.
    • Luckily, the supervisor *did* call me back, who was professional, and interested in improving the lookup for your average mom-and-pop consumer.
  2. California Integrated Waste Management Board 800-229-2783
    • It said: "You have dialed a number that is not available from your calling area"
  3. Allen at Tire Rack 800-461-5527x4357, Recommended Tire Installer Program Coordinator (installersupport@tirerack.com)
    • He didn't answer; I will call him back
    • Called back. Got a Customer Service Representative who didn't have a clue and who gave me useless platitudes.
    • I asked for Allen to call me back again. Still waiting as of the last update.
    • OK. I spoke to Allen who agreed there's nothing on the Tire Rack site that will give the required information.
    • He said he'd see if the folks there can do something about that in the future.
  4. Tom Ditsch 916-255-2578 tdietsch@ciwmb.ca.gov http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov
    • It was someone else's recording, so, maybe he's no longer there
  5. Got Junk 800-468-5865
    • $5 per tires (labor, transportation, recycling)
    • You make an appointment & a trucker comes to pick up the tire
  6. Goodyear Auto Service Center
    • $5 per tire
  7. Midas repair shop
    • $3 per tire
  8. My local trash collection service
    • They only have one charge, and it's for "bulk" trash pickup, which costs a whopping $90.25 for two items (i.e., two tires!).
    • When I commented that nobody would pay that, they suggested http://recyclestuff.org (which actually was a good reference)
    • I called my previous trash collection service, and they said they didn't even ACCEPT tires, under any conditions!
  9. My local Pep Boys Auto Parts
    • $2.50 per tire
  10. My local America's Tire store
    • $2.50
  11. My local Firestone tire store
    • $3.50 per tire
  12. My local Wheel Works tire store
    • $3.50 per tire
  13. My local Kragen/O-Reilly Auto Parts
    • They don't take tires
  14. My local Costco tire shop
    • $1 per tire
  15. My local Big-O tire store
    • They don't take tires
  16. My local Autozone Auto Parts
    • They don't take tires
Note that there were LOTs of tire-recycling places, with phone numbers, found at the suggested recyclestuff.org web site; so, in hindsight, that's the way to go as there are more places listed there than even I can reasonably call, but notice that some shops such as Wheel Works, only take in old tires if they sold you new tires).

 

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#8 · (Edited)
In hindsight, while most bimmer owners are intelligent, the 'average' mom-and-pop consumer, if they have an old tire to get rid of, is NEVER gonna go to this much effort just to find the best way to dispose of a set of tires.

In fact, given that waste disposal is always a price-sensitive affair (you have to always compare costs against zero for the easy way out), after reading that 182-page document on what the average Californian knows about recycling tires, and finding out from my own disposal company that it would cost almost three hundred dollars to have them dispose of my tires, I wouldn't put it past some consumers to do something like the following:

  1. They may google for "proper way to dispose of old used tires"
  2. That will take them to the EPA (as it did me)
  3. Which takes them to the California site (as it did me)
  4. Which goes nowhere, no matter how much you click (although it waxed eloquently about turning them into fuel, art, and playgrounds)
  5. Frustrated ... they may call their trash recycler
  6. Who, in my case, said it was $90.25 for two tires (so my six tires would cost a whopping $270.75).
  7. They may call a second recycler, as I did (who was my old trash company) who said they never take tires, period.
  8. They may call a local landfill (which isn't allowed to take tires).
  9. They may even take a drive into town, with four or five black smelly dirty tires in their back seat, to stop off at every tire store and auto parts store - which will be a hit or miss affair (see above) especially since some only accept the old tires if they sold you the new tires or if they replaced them (otherwise, they go back into your back seat)
  10. In the end, if it's anywhere near nightfall, they may just stop on the side of the road, and be rid of the stinky things, once and for all (and save a thousand bucks, in the process, over a lifetime)
Me? I'm going to Costco; but it took HOURS of phone calls and googling before I learned that this was the cheapest avenue, and I'm probably a wee bit more persistent than your average California tire consumer, who might just leave them by the wayside instead.

BTW, I asked Allen at Tire Rack, who said that they electronically register the DOT numbers on the tires you purchase, but, from the tire working back, that the number stamped on the tire doesn't get down to the "person" who bought them, as it just gets down to the lot number and manufacture date. So if, in frustration, you ARE gonna throw them by the wayside, do it far from YOUR wayside, or, at least far enough away that you're not the closest purchaser of five beautifully worn tires of that lot number! :)
(jk)

EDIT: This 182-page document is a must read, as it purports to be the ONLY non-commercial study of its kind:
- Consumers' Tire-Buying Habits and Their Knowledge of Tire Maintenance, Recycling, and Disposal
 

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#9 ·
So I'm confused. Are we suggesting some DIYers have their own pneumatic machine to break the bead of a tire, get it off the rim, install the new tire, and balance it? If so, I've got a lot more tools to buy. If not, then you need someone with these tools, like Pep Boys, Tire Rack, Discount Tire, or even a Mom & Pop shop, to do this for you. So you pull your wheels off your car at home, take them to the shop, then drive home and install your new purchased tires. Since you bought the tires from the shop that mounted and balanced them, won't they keep your old set?
 
#11 · (Edited)
Are we suggesting some DIYers have their own pneumatic machine to break the bead of a tire, get it off the rim, install the new tire and balance it?
This thread is only about how to properly dispose of the tires.

Since DIY takes more intelligence and knowledge than simply paying someone else do your work, as Tutti57 noted, there's a separate specific thread to learn more about each of the necessary related topics:

  1. Algorithms for choosing tires (1)
  2. Methods for purchasing tires (1)
  3. DIY dismounting of the old tires (1)
  4. DIY match mounting of wheels & tires (1)
  5. Proper air pressure (1)
  6. DIY balancing of wheel assemblies (1)
  7. Proper disposal of the old tires (1)
  8. Diagnosing tire wear (1)
  9. DIY alignment (1)
If so, I've got a lot more tools to buy.
You should have most of the tire-mounting tools already.
About the only thing you won't have for tire mounting is the $50 manual mounting tool that I bought this week from Harbor Freight, and that wooden pallet you see propped against the wall.

you need someone with these tools, like Pep Boys, Tire Rack, Discount Tire, or even a Mom & Pop shop, to do this for you.
I had a 12-year old boy remove and replace one of my tires, so, you don't "need" anyone but yourself, and your brain.

So you pull your wheels off your car at home, take them to the shop, then drive home and install your new purchased tires.
If you take your tires to the shop, how do you know if they didn't pry off your twist-off BBS hubcaps with a screwdriver?
How do you know whether they bothered to match mount your tires to your wheels?
How do you know whether they bothered to remove the old weights before mounting new weights?
How do you know whether they cleaned the rims so that you don't develop a slow leak?
How do you know they didn't damage the rims?
How do you know they mounted our hub-centric wheels on the tire machine properly?
How do you know that they didn't torque every passenger wheel that ever came in their shop to 100 foot pounds?
etc.

In my last three tire mounting experiences at pro shops, two ended up being free (after I complained about their mistakes), and all three were done wrongly.
I mentioned today to Allen, who has been the Recommended Installer Program Coordinator at Tire Rack since 1992, that I doubt a single tire is actually mounted by the book ever.

It's not that the pros don't know how to mount a tire properly; they just don't care - and - the consumer (as you can tell from the report I noted), certainly doesn't know any better.
Allen didn't disagree with me, but, what he did do was recommend the best tire installer he knew of for the Silicon Valley.

I spoke to them for about a half hour, and, if I end up getting my wheels professionally balanced, they will be the ones I go to (but they are in a different county).

Luckily, it turns out that our low profile tires are easy to dismount and mount properly by ourselves; it's that frustratingly stiff SUV tire you see below which was difficult (as Tutti57 well knows!). :)

Since you bought the tires from the shop that mounted and balanced them, won't they keep your old set?
Huh?
Who buys tires at the "shop that mounted them?".
Selecting and purchasing tires is a wholly separate task than mounting and balancing them.
There is a recent thread dedicated to removing and mounting your tires at home for less than $50.
Thanks for noting that.

I had not put a link to the thread because mounting is unrelated, per se, to disposal; but here's the link for others to benefit (I know you knew about this link):
> E39 (1997 - 2003) > What home tire changing equipment do you recommend for those who have changed a tire?
Most places charge you for tire disposal as part of your mounting fees. $4/Tire last time I had it done.
This is very true.
Out here, in California, as can be seen above, that charge varies from $1 (rare), to $3.50 (very common) to $5 (rare).

However, please note, some shops I called do NOT accept used tires unless THEY mounted the new tires (or you need to be a member of their "club").

So, as always when you DIY, you have to know more than you need to know to just have someone do the work for you.
My village tax has a garbage removal service and they will pick up a max of 4 tires a week, so check with your local disposal service. In the city here, they would haul away dead bodies as long as they were out by the curb Monday morning.
As noted in an earlier post, I called two of the local disposal companies.

  1. One charges $90.25 to haul away two tires, so it would be $270.75 to have the company that picks up my trash haul away the six tires I just mounted this week
  2. Another local hauler I called does NOT pick up tires, period.
  3. No landfill (by law) in California is allowed to accept tires.
  4. So, your ONLY valid choice for proper disposal is a local tire installer
    • However, note, some installers will NOT accept old tires if they didn't mount the new tires!
    • And, all charge that fee (none I called were free!)
I suspect, given what I learned by reading the 182-page document on Californians knowledge of tire disposal, some people get rid of them for free, simply by leaving them at the side of the road at night.

Me? I'm going to drop the old tires off at Costco later this week, on my way to Harbor Freight to buy that static balancer tool.
 
#10 ·
1. There is a recent thread dedicated to removing and mounting your tires at home for less than $50.

2. Most places charge you for tire disposal as part of your mounting fees. $4/Tire last time I had it done.

3. My village tax has a garbage removal service and they will pick up a max of 4 tires a week, so check with your local disposal service. In the city here, they would haul away dead bodies as long as they were out by the curb Monday morning.
 
#12 · (Edited)
You created the run-around by starting too far up the government food chain. Your local municipal or county recycling program is the first place to ask questions about recycling or household hazardous waste disposal. While I would not expect curbside pickup for tires, residents almost always have access to a drop-off program of some sort at a local landfill, recycling center or transfer station.

For example, here in NJ, as a resident of my county I can drop off up to eight tires per month, either unmounted or on wheels, free of charge at the county recycling center. I checked a couple of California counties at random and found similar services offered, albeit with a nominal fee per tire.

I would have said you overthought the whole process had you not eventually landed on the Costco option, which at $1/tire is probably less expensive than the fees charged by most cash-strapped CA municipalities or counties. :thumbup:
 
#13 · (Edited)
You created the run-around by starting too far up the government food chain.
I took the first google hit, and followed the chain from there... :)

Admittedly, DIY always takes more knowledge than having someone else do everything for you, even down to having someone else figure out for you how to get rid of your old tires.

Plus, I've exchanged phone calls and emails with the government employees who run the California web site, and I'm confident they are professionals who will strive to IMPROVE the official site, so that, as always, the NEXT person with the same issue stands on our shoulders and benefits from all we've learned.
Your local municipal or county recycling program is the first place to ask questions about recycling or household hazardous waste disposal.
It would cost $270.75 to have the six tires I replaced this week removed by my local trash company.

I didn't check with the town itself though, to see if they have a government-funded tire-disposal "amnesty" program (which I read about for other parts of California).

While I would not expect curbside pickup for tires, residents almost always have access to a drop-off program of some sort at a local landfill, recycling center or transfer station.
It has been illegal, since the early 1990s, to put a whole tire in any landfill in the state of California.
For example, here in NJ, as a resident of my county I can drop off up to eight tires per month, either unmounted or on wheels, free of charge at the county recycling center. I checked a couple of California counties at random and found similar services offered, albeit with a nominal fee per tire.
I'm in "Santa Clara County".
When I checked for known places to dispose of tires, some of the hits I saw were for "recycling centers"; but none were as close as the tire shops.

Here's the URL:


I would have said you overthought the whole process had you not eventually landed on the Costco option, which at $1/tire is probably less expensive than the fees charged by most cash-strapped CA municipalities or counties.
While I almost always figure out the best option for anything, it took an effort that I think most mom-and-pop folks wouldn't do if they had a few spare tires in their back yard.

I'm convinced, especially after having read that document showing what people know about tires and their disposal, what some people do is save the $3 to $5 bucks per tire, and leave them by the side of the road at night.

By the way, I calculated for the government people that it costs a typical two-car family about $1,250 just in those "small fees" that they charge for tire disposal and recycling, over a typical 50-year driving time assuming all your tires are replaced every two years (which is how long mine last).

I reminded the government officials that "small fees" is a euphemism that is only used when someone is trying to convince someone ELSE to pay!

If they were a banker, they'd be showing me the "total amount over time", which, at over a thousand dollars per two-car family, is almost enough to BUY a used Hunter dynamic balance machine!

See also:
- One users quest to diagnose uneven tire wear on the inside edge due to excessive and uneven alignment camber & toe (1) (2) & how one user selects a tire (1) & what are the most common bimmerfest tire recommendations (1) & where to buy your tires in the USA (1) & recommended tire pressures (1) & the claimed benefits of nitrogen gas (1) what tire changing tools do you need to break the bead on the rim and set the bead back on the wheel when changing a tire at home (1) (2) (3) & where are the marks on the wheel and on the tire for proper tire match mounting and wheel balancing to eliminate vibration (1) & what tools do you need to balance a tire and rim at home to eliminate shimmy or vibration at speed (1) & how do you properly dispose of your old car tires (1) & where to get bent or damaged wheel rims repaired (1) (2).
 

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#14 · (Edited)
Today, I finally felt well enough to drag myself out of the house and head down to Costco to drop off the old tires.

Filling my trunk and back seat with the smelly dirty things, I can see why people don't bother transporting them:

Taking the highway for the first time since mounting the tires, the ride seemed smooth up to at least 80mph:

At Costco, I found out you need to be a member to drop them off (but I'm a member, so that's OK):

However, I was a bit perturbed that you pay a TAX of 8.75% upon the TAX of having to dispose of them:

All in all, the tax is yet another reason why I am beginning to understand why I see tires at the side of the road all the time at that tax alone adds yet another $100 to the lifetime cost of disposing of used tires to an average 2-car household in California.
 
#15 ·
Bluebee

Thanks for all the info on DIY once again. I had to reseat my lawn tractor tire recently, using a load strap and compressor, following YouTube video. Don't think I'll do my own car tires anytime soon.

I live in NJ, in return for astronomical taxes, they will pick up two tires every two weeks from my curb. Unlimited disposal at my town recycle center, a few miles from my house.

Note to your 12 year old friend - wear shoes when doing any work on a car. A minor injury could turn into an amputation.

Dave
03 540i6
 
#16 · (Edited)
Thanks for all the info on DIY once again.
You are welcome. I learned a lot of things that I had never even thought about before.
Knowing what I know now, what I'd recommend in the future is simply the following algorithm, when your tires are worn:

  1. Buy new tires online, having them shipped to your door
  2. Meanwhile, run a dynamic balance test, on the old tires, at 40 to 80mph on a straight level highway
  3. When the new tires arrive from UPS, unmount your old tires
  4. Wash the rims but keep the old wheel weights on
  5. Match mount the new tires (note that the red radial force variation spot on the serial size has preference over the yellow heavy spot)
  6. Fill with the desired air pressure
  7. TEST STATIC BALANCE
    • If perfect - leave it alone
    • If heavy - DEFLATE NEW TIRE - rotate the red spot toward the yellow spot (as needed) - RE-INFLATE NEW TIRE!
      • If perfect, leave it alone
      • If heavy, remove old weights, as needed, until balanced
    • When all old weights are removed, add new weights as needed, until balanced
  8. Mount the best 4 wheel rims on the car, leaving the worst for your spare
  9. Run a dynamic balance test, at 40 to 80mph on a straight level highway
  10. Dispose of your old tires at Costco (or any other local tire retailer who accepts used tires
NOTE: In the future, I will set up a test jig with dial gauges for measuring wheel runout and eccentricity.

Rough cost analysis (all numbers rounded to even figures):

  1. New tires (approximately $75 each plus $15 each shipped to your home)
  2. HF manual tire mounting tool (I paid $40 plus about $5 tax)
  3. HF static bubble balancer (I paid $80 plus about $10 tax)
  4. HF wheel weights (I paid $9 plus about $1 tax)
  5. Tire disposal fee (I paid $1 each plus 8.75% tax)
  6. Comparison to the recommended tire installer program (run by Allen, at Tire Rack, since 1992):
I had to reseat my lawn tractor tire recently, using a load strap and compressor, following YouTube video. Don't think I'll do my own car tires anytime soon.
You'll note I mounted both my bimmer's low-profile tires and an SUV tire, and I found the light-truck tire to be TREMENDOUSLY more difficult than mine; so it depends on the type of tires you have:

I live in NJ, in return for astronomical taxes, they will pick up two tires every two weeks from my curb. Unlimited disposal at my town recycle center, a few miles from my house.
You're lucky. You have some of the lowest gas tax in the nation, whereas California is second only to Pennsylvania in total gas tax per gallon (which, in California, is due to a complex system of excise tax and sales tax).
- Explanation of the California gasoline excise tax

Note to your 12 year old friend - wear shoes when doing any work on a car. A minor injury could turn into an amputation.
At least I made him wear gloves because my parents and a sibling died of cancer, and I'm suspicious of chemicals leaching through the skin.

Neither one of us had steel-toed shoes though.
See also:
- Which of the dozen alignment specs are adjustable on the BMW E39 (1) (pdf) & cn90's front alignment DIY (1) (2) and cn90's rear wheel alignment DIY (1) & what tools measure rear camber at home (1) (2) and what tools measure front/rear toe at home (1) & what tools lock the steering wheel & brake pedal at home (1) & why does BMW recommend weights to set the normal ride height (aka nominal suspension position) prior to any alignment (1) & how to diagnose uneven tire wear on the inside edge due to camber and toe alignment issues (1) (2) & how to select a replacement tire strictly by the numbers (1) & what are the most common bimmerfest user's tire recommendations (1) & where do people buy their tyres anyway (1) & how many miles do you get for every 100 UTQG points (1) & what are the recommended tire pressures for front and rear (1) & what are the claimed benefits of nitrogen gas (1) what tire mounting tools do you need to change your own tyres at home (1) (2) (3) & where are the match mounting marks on the wheel and on the tire for precise tire mounting based on radial runout and heavy spot considerations (1) & what tools do you need to balance a wheel at home to eliminate shimmy or vibration at speed (1) & how do you properly dispose of your old worn out car tires (1) & how to measure bent wheel dimensions such as rim runout and wheel eccentricity at home (1) & where to get bent or damaged wheel rims repaired (1) (2) & what winter driving ice and snow tire chains to use (1) & what are the most recommended products for cleaning BMW BBS wheels (1) & where to buy E39 wheels online (1) & what are the main causes of vibration while highway driving (1) & vibration while highway braking (1) & how to diagnose a violent shudder while slow speed braking on bumps (1)
 
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