Customer Just About Lost It. A Wheel That Is
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Date: 2023-01-23
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Comments and reviews: 14
DoBe
I had a 1980 Olds Cutlass Supreme that I had replaced the gutless 231 V-6 with a built 1972 Chevy 350 4 bolt. Before replacing the motor I had upgraded the rims & tires to 15 with 235/60/15's all the way around. 1 day I ran over something & it blew my front right tire. Thankfully I was only going the speed limit of 30 & pulled into a hotel parking lot to change the tire. That spindle only. had 4 of the 5 studs on it & trying to remove the tire I broke another 2 leaving 2 studs next to each other to hold the rim on. After putting on my full size spare I limped it about 1000 feet to a friend's house & stayed the night there (it was Friday 13th & the only weird Friday 13th I've ever had. so far. I replaced all 5 studs the next day & went & bought another set of tires for the front.
A different time I knew a woman that drove a BADASP AMC Javelin. That car would ship & get I tell ya! Well 1 day she had new rims & tires installed. on it at a shop that's long been closed, but it was a performance shop. They told her to drive it 25 miles & come back to get the rims re-torqued. She made it about 20 miles before the back left flew off while she was driving. It flattened the rear left quarter panel & did minor damage to the suspension system. She had it towed to their shop. The shop didn't want to warranty it! I never knew how she knew him, but she knew the top lawyer in town & called him on the spot. He actually left his office & drove there. After he talked to the manager for about 15 minutes they replaced the rim, sent the car to a body shop, & had the damage fixed plus repainted the whole car. That Javelin was later totalled by a friend of hers she sold it to. The guy was driving her home & it spun out in the light rain when a deer jumped out in front of the 4th car ahead while in a curve. Everybody else stopped but he lost control, the car went off road, rolled 1 3/4 times leaving her hanging out the passenger side. Her kid was safely strapped in the car seat in the back seat. She finished unbuckling the seat belt, fell out of the car, & passed out in an ant bed of fire ants. She was of course taken to the hospital, after the people ahead heard the accident & called 911, where she figured out she had broken her pelvic bone in 4 places, broken ribs, had a concussion, & minor cuts/scrapes/bruises plus unknown total of ant bites. Her kid was ok! The guy driving. I never asked or found out about but she had told him she knew what the car could do, he didn't, & he better drive slow which ended up saving her life.
Edit: that's as close as I remember the above events. The time frame was between 1991-1996.
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I had a 1980 Olds Cutlass Supreme that I had replaced the gutless 231 V-6 with a built 1972 Chevy 350 4 bolt. Before replacing the motor I had upgraded the rims & tires to 15 with 235/60/15's all the way around. 1 day I ran over something & it blew my front right tire. Thankfully I was only going the speed limit of 30 & pulled into a hotel parking lot to change the tire. That spindle only. had 4 of the 5 studs on it & trying to remove the tire I broke another 2 leaving 2 studs next to each other to hold the rim on. After putting on my full size spare I limped it about 1000 feet to a friend's house & stayed the night there (it was Friday 13th & the only weird Friday 13th I've ever had. so far. I replaced all 5 studs the next day & went & bought another set of tires for the front.
A different time I knew a woman that drove a BADASP AMC Javelin. That car would ship & get I tell ya! Well 1 day she had new rims & tires installed. on it at a shop that's long been closed, but it was a performance shop. They told her to drive it 25 miles & come back to get the rims re-torqued. She made it about 20 miles before the back left flew off while she was driving. It flattened the rear left quarter panel & did minor damage to the suspension system. She had it towed to their shop. The shop didn't want to warranty it! I never knew how she knew him, but she knew the top lawyer in town & called him on the spot. He actually left his office & drove there. After he talked to the manager for about 15 minutes they replaced the rim, sent the car to a body shop, & had the damage fixed plus repainted the whole car. That Javelin was later totalled by a friend of hers she sold it to. The guy was driving her home & it spun out in the light rain when a deer jumped out in front of the 4th car ahead while in a curve. Everybody else stopped but he lost control, the car went off road, rolled 1 3/4 times leaving her hanging out the passenger side. Her kid was safely strapped in the car seat in the back seat. She finished unbuckling the seat belt, fell out of the car, & passed out in an ant bed of fire ants. She was of course taken to the hospital, after the people ahead heard the accident & called 911, where she figured out she had broken her pelvic bone in 4 places, broken ribs, had a concussion, & minor cuts/scrapes/bruises plus unknown total of ant bites. Her kid was ok! The guy driving. I never asked or found out about but she had told him she knew what the car could do, he didn't, & he better drive slow which ended up saving her life.
Edit: that's as close as I remember the above events. The time frame was between 1991-1996.
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James
I'm a slow learner, so here are my experiences; I failed to torque the bolts on my 76 VW Rabbit with steel wheels and noticed a noise. By the time I got to it one of the bolts had broken off. So what happened in this case was the wheel bent the bolt back and forth til it broke off. Similar situation with an old pickup truck; one of the studs broke off. Next, I had a 1970 VW Beetle; I adjusted the clutch, which requires removing the left rear wheel, and forgot to torque it when I got it on the ground. A week later I heard a rumbling noise but I was in heavy traffic so it took about a mile for me to get where I could get off the road, but it was too late. Old VW's have bolts rather than studs, so if you drive with them loose the wheel will rotate the bolts out. Yes, I lost a wheel on a busy road. I was going 45 or so, and it passed me on a 6-lane highway, somehow missed hitting any cars on my side, hit the median, bouncing at least 10 feet in the air, somehow missing oncoming traffic, and bounced into the parking lot of a bowling alley, still bouncing. It missed a red Porsche Turbo 911 but a few feet and jammed itself under the bumper of a rusty old Buick. I have never missed tightening the lugs since then.
One more thing; I have found that alloy wheels can be slightly slightly cocked while you're torquing them which causes the lug nuts to jam against the sides of the wheel hole. This has happened on several cars. So now I am careful to make sure the wheel is seated firmly before I tighten the lugs. I haven't lost a wheel since that VW incident in 1985!
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I'm a slow learner, so here are my experiences; I failed to torque the bolts on my 76 VW Rabbit with steel wheels and noticed a noise. By the time I got to it one of the bolts had broken off. So what happened in this case was the wheel bent the bolt back and forth til it broke off. Similar situation with an old pickup truck; one of the studs broke off. Next, I had a 1970 VW Beetle; I adjusted the clutch, which requires removing the left rear wheel, and forgot to torque it when I got it on the ground. A week later I heard a rumbling noise but I was in heavy traffic so it took about a mile for me to get where I could get off the road, but it was too late. Old VW's have bolts rather than studs, so if you drive with them loose the wheel will rotate the bolts out. Yes, I lost a wheel on a busy road. I was going 45 or so, and it passed me on a 6-lane highway, somehow missed hitting any cars on my side, hit the median, bouncing at least 10 feet in the air, somehow missing oncoming traffic, and bounced into the parking lot of a bowling alley, still bouncing. It missed a red Porsche Turbo 911 but a few feet and jammed itself under the bumper of a rusty old Buick. I have never missed tightening the lugs since then.
One more thing; I have found that alloy wheels can be slightly slightly cocked while you're torquing them which causes the lug nuts to jam against the sides of the wheel hole. This has happened on several cars. So now I am careful to make sure the wheel is seated firmly before I tighten the lugs. I haven't lost a wheel since that VW incident in 1985!
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Vance
Back in 1971 I was a teenager and we had a 1968 VW Campmobile, and we also had a fold up camper that my Dad towed with it. We went on vacation in Southwest Virginia to Breaks Interstate Park and we were going up and down small mountains on a twisty 2 lane road. The curves were so tight that you could almost see your own behind going around them. I started hearing this KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK sound and mentioned it to my Dad. He was a great father but as to vehicle maintenance he got oil changes but everything else he basically depended on the semi annual state inspection. Before this trip, however, he did have new tires put on the vehicle.
He dismissed the noise as me hearing things, then in a bit my Mother heard it and you could tell it was getting louder and in a bit my brother chimed in too and we convinced him to stop. As he slowed down I also heard a bing bing bing sound from the front driver's wheel. He pulled the hubcap and two of the lug bolts were in the hubcap and the remaining three were loose.
We tightened those and replaced the ones that had come out, surprisingly they just had a few marks on them and the wheel didn't show much signs of wear. We checked the other wheels but this was the only one with loose bolts. We snugged up all of them to be sure.
We were quiet for a while, as many of these winding roads had some good sized cliffs on the side, and in that bus with a trailer I'm pretty sure we would have gone over had the wheel detached.
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Back in 1971 I was a teenager and we had a 1968 VW Campmobile, and we also had a fold up camper that my Dad towed with it. We went on vacation in Southwest Virginia to Breaks Interstate Park and we were going up and down small mountains on a twisty 2 lane road. The curves were so tight that you could almost see your own behind going around them. I started hearing this KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK sound and mentioned it to my Dad. He was a great father but as to vehicle maintenance he got oil changes but everything else he basically depended on the semi annual state inspection. Before this trip, however, he did have new tires put on the vehicle.
He dismissed the noise as me hearing things, then in a bit my Mother heard it and you could tell it was getting louder and in a bit my brother chimed in too and we convinced him to stop. As he slowed down I also heard a bing bing bing sound from the front driver's wheel. He pulled the hubcap and two of the lug bolts were in the hubcap and the remaining three were loose.
We tightened those and replaced the ones that had come out, surprisingly they just had a few marks on them and the wheel didn't show much signs of wear. We checked the other wheels but this was the only one with loose bolts. We snugged up all of them to be sure.
We were quiet for a while, as many of these winding roads had some good sized cliffs on the side, and in that bus with a trailer I'm pretty sure we would have gone over had the wheel detached.
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Moose
Thanks for putting this video out Eric, this one gave me a flashback on one vehicle I worked on long time ago. I always and I mean always torque wheels to the specifications each and every time. I remember a shop I used to work for this gentleman had a 2010 or 2011 I'm not sure, but it was a Dodge Ram 1500.
I remember torquing all of the wheels properly every time when we had the wheels off for service when doing brake inspection or whatever. This customer would somehow be back a few weeks later or so saying his lug nuts were loose, but no noise like in the video, but noticed a couple of the lug nuts were loose. So we ended up just using the proper socket and proper torque spec once again and just retighten everything (Those lug nuts like to swell up after some time. I think we used a 7/8 socket or 22 mm socket can't remember anymore. Somehow there were common problems with those alloy wheels not sure why. Once we did that I think everything was all right in the end. Those wheels are super finicky they must be torqued precisely after service or else you're faced with this problem.
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Thanks for putting this video out Eric, this one gave me a flashback on one vehicle I worked on long time ago. I always and I mean always torque wheels to the specifications each and every time. I remember a shop I used to work for this gentleman had a 2010 or 2011 I'm not sure, but it was a Dodge Ram 1500.
I remember torquing all of the wheels properly every time when we had the wheels off for service when doing brake inspection or whatever. This customer would somehow be back a few weeks later or so saying his lug nuts were loose, but no noise like in the video, but noticed a couple of the lug nuts were loose. So we ended up just using the proper socket and proper torque spec once again and just retighten everything (Those lug nuts like to swell up after some time. I think we used a 7/8 socket or 22 mm socket can't remember anymore. Somehow there were common problems with those alloy wheels not sure why. Once we did that I think everything was all right in the end. Those wheels are super finicky they must be torqued precisely after service or else you're faced with this problem.
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krtwood
Was driving down the road one day behind a guy pulling a double axle trailer and with a semi behind us. I start hearing this sound that sounds like a sprinkler. There's a big empty field off to the left so I'm looking at the field to try to figure out what the heck is making this noise. The noise is getting louder and the truck in front is slowing down and I check the rearview and the semi has basically come to a full stop in the middle of road way behind us and what the heck is making that noise? And then a wheel comes bouncing off the trailer and the noise stops. And I watch the wheel go bouncing across the road into the ditch on the other side and thankfully it stays there. I learned two things that day. One: If you hear a sprinkler while driving you don't want any part of what is going on. Two: If the semi driver behind you wants no part of what is going on you should probably trust their judgement. And just to wrap up the story, the pickup driver just kept right on going after the wheel came off.
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Was driving down the road one day behind a guy pulling a double axle trailer and with a semi behind us. I start hearing this sound that sounds like a sprinkler. There's a big empty field off to the left so I'm looking at the field to try to figure out what the heck is making this noise. The noise is getting louder and the truck in front is slowing down and I check the rearview and the semi has basically come to a full stop in the middle of road way behind us and what the heck is making that noise? And then a wheel comes bouncing off the trailer and the noise stops. And I watch the wheel go bouncing across the road into the ditch on the other side and thankfully it stays there. I learned two things that day. One: If you hear a sprinkler while driving you don't want any part of what is going on. Two: If the semi driver behind you wants no part of what is going on you should probably trust their judgement. And just to wrap up the story, the pickup driver just kept right on going after the wheel came off.
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Leigh
I noticed some years ago that the left wheels on the heavy trucks I drive tend to come loose more often than the right ones, been driving hcv for over 40 years now so I've had a bit of practice with them.
Some of the smaller Japanese trucks had left hand thread on the left side lug nuts, didn't seem to have the same problem.
I had an older Chrysler in my shed for a brake job, the owner told me to carefully torque the wheels because they kept coming loose, it would appear that the man who rebuilt the car had put the wheel studs back in on the opposite side of the car, left-hand thread on the right side and right hand thread on the left side, possibly could've come from the factory like that, dunno. The car was a 1962 vintage.
I drive or repair heavy commercial vehicles for a job, cars especially older ones are just a hobby.
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I noticed some years ago that the left wheels on the heavy trucks I drive tend to come loose more often than the right ones, been driving hcv for over 40 years now so I've had a bit of practice with them.
Some of the smaller Japanese trucks had left hand thread on the left side lug nuts, didn't seem to have the same problem.
I had an older Chrysler in my shed for a brake job, the owner told me to carefully torque the wheels because they kept coming loose, it would appear that the man who rebuilt the car had put the wheel studs back in on the opposite side of the car, left-hand thread on the right side and right hand thread on the left side, possibly could've come from the factory like that, dunno. The car was a 1962 vintage.
I drive or repair heavy commercial vehicles for a job, cars especially older ones are just a hobby.
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krASHExxx
2005 rx8. Loved that car. I hit some ice once and damaged the rear driver side. I took a bunch of stuff off and put it back together. It took a few months. Well my dumbass took the wheel of and barley put it back on before that few months happened. I drove it and there was a horrible nose from the left rear, I checked everything and it all looked ok. but it still made the noise so I just assumed it was some body damage.
One day I was driving it to work on the highway, going about 80 and I get this huge BANG, my whole car shifted and it was horrifying. I stopped and 3 wheel studs broke off. I tightened the other 2 down and the car never had an issue again.
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2005 rx8. Loved that car. I hit some ice once and damaged the rear driver side. I took a bunch of stuff off and put it back together. It took a few months. Well my dumbass took the wheel of and barley put it back on before that few months happened. I drove it and there was a horrible nose from the left rear, I checked everything and it all looked ok. but it still made the noise so I just assumed it was some body damage.
One day I was driving it to work on the highway, going about 80 and I get this huge BANG, my whole car shifted and it was horrifying. I stopped and 3 wheel studs broke off. I tightened the other 2 down and the car never had an issue again.
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Richard
Many years ago I had a Chevy 4x4 pickup with just a standard 15 inch steel wheel on it. I was driving to work one day, stopped at a traffic sign and turned right to continue. All of a sudden the left rear of the truck dropped and my wheel rolled on past me. Drum brakes, so of course the brake drum came off too. The really strange thing is that there never was any noise. All six lug nuts came off, the wheel came off and yet zero damage to the wheel studs and zero damage to the wheel or anything else. I could never figure out how the hell all of that happened yet there was not even a sign that anything had been loose. Very strange.
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Many years ago I had a Chevy 4x4 pickup with just a standard 15 inch steel wheel on it. I was driving to work one day, stopped at a traffic sign and turned right to continue. All of a sudden the left rear of the truck dropped and my wheel rolled on past me. Drum brakes, so of course the brake drum came off too. The really strange thing is that there never was any noise. All six lug nuts came off, the wheel came off and yet zero damage to the wheel studs and zero damage to the wheel or anything else. I could never figure out how the hell all of that happened yet there was not even a sign that anything had been loose. Very strange.
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st_us
Bought a used car once from a Lady, the Lady said she installed Winter tires herself, I was like, fine no problem. I gave the car to my accompanying driver, he drove off and called me 30 kms after we started and said he thinks the Front axle joint is shot. I told him I test drive it and it was fine. 50kms later down the road, he called me screaming on the phone, the Front left wheel flew off on the highway. We found it later 500meters on the side shoulder. I got So stressed that day. We had to change wheel, fender and brakes.
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Bought a used car once from a Lady, the Lady said she installed Winter tires herself, I was like, fine no problem. I gave the car to my accompanying driver, he drove off and called me 30 kms after we started and said he thinks the Front axle joint is shot. I told him I test drive it and it was fine. 50kms later down the road, he called me screaming on the phone, the Front left wheel flew off on the highway. We found it later 500meters on the side shoulder. I got So stressed that day. We had to change wheel, fender and brakes.
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El
I currently own 4 Chryslers since new, all with alloy wheels: 1998 Ram, 2012 Liberty, 2015 Wrangler, 2019 Grand Cherokee. No one touches the wheels but me and I always torque to factory spec with a Snap On Techangle, just like Eric's. I've never found a loose lug nut on any of them. So if this is a problem, it might be related to out of calibration torque instruments or worse, the ugga dugga gun with/without torque sticks. Because my luck simply isn't that good.
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I currently own 4 Chryslers since new, all with alloy wheels: 1998 Ram, 2012 Liberty, 2015 Wrangler, 2019 Grand Cherokee. No one touches the wheels but me and I always torque to factory spec with a Snap On Techangle, just like Eric's. I've never found a loose lug nut on any of them. So if this is a problem, it might be related to out of calibration torque instruments or worse, the ugga dugga gun with/without torque sticks. Because my luck simply isn't that good.
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Its
I always assumed the wheels on chrysler products come loose because of the excessive corrosion they build up around the centering hub. Figured people tighten them down and their torque wrench clicks but then you drive down the road, some of that corrosion inevitably breaks up, bam wheel is loose. I get the hub and wheel (including the centering hole of the wheel) clean, put grease on it and torque it down. Haven't had one come loose (knock on wood)
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I always assumed the wheels on chrysler products come loose because of the excessive corrosion they build up around the centering hub. Figured people tighten them down and their torque wrench clicks but then you drive down the road, some of that corrosion inevitably breaks up, bam wheel is loose. I get the hub and wheel (including the centering hole of the wheel) clean, put grease on it and torque it down. Haven't had one come loose (knock on wood)
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Tim
Went to a quick lube place with a 2013 grand Cherokee. This was a work vehicle that the company owned so they told me where to go. Next day I drove about 300 miles and felt a vibration for about the last 100. About 3 miles from the house the front left tire came flying off and I'm going down the road on 3 wheels! I pulled into a gas station, but it didn't drop onto the rotor until I hit the brakes. That was an interesting experience.
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Went to a quick lube place with a 2013 grand Cherokee. This was a work vehicle that the company owned so they told me where to go. Next day I drove about 300 miles and felt a vibration for about the last 100. About 3 miles from the house the front left tire came flying off and I'm going down the road on 3 wheels! I pulled into a gas station, but it didn't drop onto the rotor until I hit the brakes. That was an interesting experience.
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griff
Bought a used boat that had the trailer tires replaced that same week. Picked it up and brought it home without issue during a two hour drive. I took it to the lake for the first time and on the way back I noticed a bit of tire wobble in my mirror so I got out and checked. It appeared they never torqued the lug nuts and I almost lost both tires on the highway. I narrowly avoided that embarrassment.
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Bought a used boat that had the trailer tires replaced that same week. Picked it up and brought it home without issue during a two hour drive. I took it to the lake for the first time and on the way back I noticed a bit of tire wobble in my mirror so I got out and checked. It appeared they never torqued the lug nuts and I almost lost both tires on the highway. I narrowly avoided that embarrassment.
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ert870
Replaced clutch on my Audi. Few weeks later had a weird feeling in the seat while driving, which then turned into a noise that got worse and worse. I already saw myself pulling the trans again and hoping that the flywheel or pressure plate wouldn't blow up before that. Got back home and discovered that the LF wheel had only 2 loose bolts left out of 5. Was happy and frightened at the same time.
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Replaced clutch on my Audi. Few weeks later had a weird feeling in the seat while driving, which then turned into a noise that got worse and worse. I already saw myself pulling the trans again and hoping that the flywheel or pressure plate wouldn't blow up before that. Got back home and discovered that the LF wheel had only 2 loose bolts left out of 5. Was happy and frightened at the same time.
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