State Targets Winston Tire Over Unneeded Repair Work : Consumers: Settlement announcement Monday is expected to include $1-million fine and restitution.

The state Department of Consumer Affairs is preparing to charge Winston Tire Co., one of the largest independent tire dealers in California, with selling customers throughout the state unneeded service and repairs, The Times has learned.

The charges stem from an undercover investigation by the department’s Bureau of Automotive Repair. The bureau alleges that Winston Tire sold bureau employees unnecessary service and shocks, brakes, springs and other parts, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The average overcharge was about $120, the sources said.

The department said it has turned the results of its investigation over to the state attorney general’s office, which has reached a tentative settlement agreement with Winston. The charges and the settlement--expected to include a fine of about $1 million and restitution for customers--are scheduled to be announced Monday.

In addition, it was learned that the district attorneys in Ventura and Sacramento counties have been conducting concurrent investigations of Winston. A spokesman for the Sacramento district attorney’s office said the probe has been under way for about a year, but declined to provide other details.

Sources said Winston management cooperated with the probe and that the company has already taken steps to eliminate overcharging by mechanics.

“The company has really stepped up to the plate and put programs in place that we think are going to address the problem,” a spokesman for the Consumer Affairs Department said.

A spokesman for Winston Tire said he could not comment specifically on the charges or the expected settlement. He reiterated that the company cooperated with investigators “as soon as they learned about the charges.”

With 163 dealerships statewide and revenue in excess of $100 million, Burbank-based Winston is a leading seller of tires in California. The company’s chairman and co-founder, Sam Winston, is familiar to thousands of Californians from his appearances in TV commercials. His name is on most of the tires the dealerships sell.

The charges against Winston Tire are similar to those filed against Sears, Roebuck & Co. in June, 1992. Sears paid $8 million in cash and distributed merchandise coupons to customers to settle charges that it systematically overcharged for auto repairs at its stores statewide.

The Department of Consumer Affairs at the time linked the Sears overcharges to the retailer’s incentive system, in which employees received compensation for the number of parts sold and were required to meet certain quotas.

Sears has since eliminated the incentive system for repair employees, saying that it created an atmosphere in which abuses may have occurred.

However, the spokesman for Winston said Friday that the company has never had a quota system in place for mechanics.

Rumors that privately held Winston was under investigation has already shaken investor confidence in some of Winston’s suppliers.

CS First Boston analyst Nicholas Cato on Friday lowered his recommendation on Cooper Tire & Rubber to “sell” from “hold,” based on concerns about the impact of the investigation on Winston. Cooper supplies Winston with private-label tires.

Cato said he based his recommendation on the impact of the Sears investigation on automotive sales at that retailer. In the months following the charges, Sears lost $700,000 a day in sales of automotive parts and service, with sales in California down 20%.