Concept · Axava
Three generations of Petraks in the tire trade, and two bays on Kenmore Boulevard since 1979. We read the date on every tire, finish every wheel by hand, and check our own work at fifty miles.
Mon to Fri 7:30 to 5:30 · Sat 8 to 1 · 1418 Kenmore Blvd, Akron
It's molded into the sidewall of every tire: four digits, the week and then the year the tire was built. This one reads 3826, the thirty-eighth week of 2026. Rubber ages on a shelf whether it's driven or not, so if a new tire sat more than two years before it reached us, it goes back.
Read your own sidewall
A new tire has a small yellow dot near the rim. It marks the tire's lightest spot. The valve stem adds a little weight to one spot on the wheel, so we line the two up before it goes on the balancer, and it needs less weight to run smooth. Half a minute, every tire.
An impact gun spins the nuts down fast, and we stop it at snug. Run a nut all the way with the gun and you can stretch a stud or warp the rotor behind it. The last turn is a click-type torque wrench, set to the number your car's maker specifies.
Go around in a circle and the wheel can pull down crooked. Across the wheel it draws down flat against the hub: top, lower right, upper left, upper right, lower left. Once a nut is at torque it gets a yellow stripe. If it ever moves, the stripe breaks, and you can see it from the curb.
Wheels settle in the first few miles. Bring it back after your first fifty and we put the wrench on every nut again. No appointment, no charge, about five minutes.
All of it is in the $96 mount and balanceI'm Jo. The phone rings in the shop, not a call center, and most days I'm the one who picks it up.
Mon to Fri 7:30 to 5:30, Sat 8 to 1. Winter swaps fill up the first week it snows. Or call (330) 555-0179. It rings in the shop.