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Driving on the freeway yesterday I heard some scary noises from the left rear, but only with the window down. Thought maybe I picked up something in the tire. I didn't feel any weird vibration. I pulled off the freeway and then I really heard some grinding and popping. Come to find out the lug nuts on that left rear hanging by a couple of threads! I'm trying not to think too hard on what could have happened....All other wheels were tight, So I snugged the loose one as best I could and got home ok, but WTF? I really am pretty methodical when it comes to mounting wheels, but I guess I must have missed that one when I put new tires on about a year ago. Anyway, just a a public service announcement- check those lug nuts twice when mounting wheels!
Wow! No kidding you averted a disaster there. I can't think of what you may have missed torquing the wheels down, but there is the usual "check your lugs every so often" approach. The thing I hate about lug-centric wheels is if one backs off enough the wheel could shift a bit and then the rest are not longer "tight", then things snowball.
A few years ago I was passing another pickup when suddenly his drivers side front wheel came off. Luckily he was able to get off the road onto the shoulder but I’ll bet he needed to change his shorts after that.
I had a similar experience about ten years ago on my daily driver. I was driving it and when I came to a stop I felt the truck shift in the front. I got out to see what I could but couldn't see anything loose. I nursed it home but didn't have the problem on the way home but raised the truck and tried to move all of the front end parts to see if something was loose. Grabbed the front wheels and checked for any play, everything was good. Drove the truck up and down the road trying to simulate the situation that caused the problem, couldn't make it do it again so I thought maybe I stopped on some oil in the road. Drove a few more days and the same problem, again went through the front end, nothing. A couple of days later I was driving to work and felt the truck drop. I immediately stopped in street, luckily I was on a non busy street. I got out and my left rear wheel came off and the brake drum was sitting inside the rim, all of the nuts were laying in the gutter on the other side of the street. I changed brakes a week before and must not have tightened the nuts on that wheel. I was real lucky, could have been a lot worse. It was just weird how the effects transferred to the front. Taught me to make sure I go around a vehicle twice to check all of the lug nuts.
Right hand treads. I'm gonna try NAPA for the studs and nuts. I also need to find a 15 x 6 wheel because its now damaged too.
I had to do the same with my truck. I checked with the dealer, $700 for a new wheel, this was for a 6-7 year old truck. Went on eBay and found a few used one in the $200 range. I did a few other search words and came up with one for $50 out of Texas. I bought it and when I got it it looked better than the picture and the three other wheels on the truck.
i was on a parts run for a few machines.
65mph down the highway. pull off into the dealer and put the truck in reverse to back up to the loading dock and the truck would not steer.
got out and looked under it to see the steering linkage snapped off the pitman arm
I made some exploratory hammer blows on the studs, but they weren't gonna budge, so in the interest of preserving my axle bearing, I used a ball joint removal tool and that worked great. After cranking on the tool they would literally explode out of the flange. Wow. NAPA had the parts. Firstrider, I did PM you, but couldn't figure out a good way to post a photo of the rim, so I'll do that here. It's a later style 15 x 6 wheel- probably an 80's rim. I had to go to a later rim because when the truck carried the Alaskan camper, the rims would develop cracks and I'd have a flat in the morning, so I needed a later, stronger wheel.
One reason this happens is that when initially tightening the lug nuts, the tire/wheel needs to be off the ground so the tapered ends of the nuts can align with the holes in the wheels. Also, don’t tighten any of the nuts until all the nuts have been snugged up into the wheels.
In my early (much earlier) days, I’d help friends with car maintenance. Every now and then, I’d see where the lug nuts were tightened against the wheel but not seated in the hole.
Just an observation,
One reason this happens is that when initially tightening the lug nuts, the tire/wheel needs to be off the ground so the tapered ends of the nuts can align with the holes in the wheels. Also, don’t tighten any of the nuts until all the nuts have been snugged up into the wheels.
In my early (much earlier) days, I’d help friends with car maintenance. Every now and then, I’d see where the lug nuts were tightened against the wheel but not seated in the hole.
Just an observation,
^This!! We are so used to hub-centric rims on our modern vehicles that changing tires on these older styles has a learning curve (at least for me). The acorn style nuts on old steel wheels requires (in my opinion) more careful alignment of the wheel as you do a more "staged" snugging and tightening of the lugs to make sure they area all seated properly before really snugging them down...all while the car is in the air. Really old lug nuts (grooved surfaces) or really old wheels (with elongated or out of round lug nut openings) all play against getting the wheels seated perfectly. I'm sure all you guys know this...so this is more of a "talking to myself" situation, lol
One reason this happens is that when initially tightening the lug nuts, the tire/wheel needs to be off the ground so the tapered ends of the nuts can align with the holes in the wheels. Also, don’t tighten any of the nuts until all the nuts have been snugged up into the wheels.
In my early (much earlier) days, I’d help friends with car maintenance. Every now and then, I’d see where the lug nuts were tightened against the wheel but not seated in the hole.
Just an observation,
That happened to me once when I was maybe 17-18. After changing a flat I heard a very loud clicking coming from the wheel, so I jacked it up and checked. Yea, the lugs weren’t seated. Lesson learned, tighten and seat before lowering, then torque them down.
Recently I did a brake job on my daughters Mazda. She’d just gotten all new tires and the shop said she was in desperate need of brakes and quoted her $1200. They measured 6mm so literally thousands of miles to go.
But when I finally did the brake job the lugs were almost impossible to loosen. My 350ft/lb impact wrench wouldn’t loosen them, I bent my old lug wrench, I needed a breaker bar with a pipe extension. I’ll bet they were over 400ft/lbs. I’m no expert but that would seem to be getting close to stripping out the studs or lugs.
FYI, the parts for the brake job cost $350 and it took the 2 of us 2 hours to complete. $1200, such a rip off and she brakes were only about 50% worn.
All the above is sound advice and standard practice for me. In over 50 years of working on cars and trucks, this is a first. I'm quite sure I was the idiot who mounted that wheel, and am a loss for the explanation other than simple oversight. I got off lucky, and in fact I have had a run of good luck lately. I broke a chain on a mountain bike last week, and it was downhill back to the car. Two days later, I had a flat on a different bike, and was only a mile from home. Two days ago the wheel almost falls off the truck and I did not kill someone on the freeway. Then yesterday, I picked up a screw in the left rear tire of the old Subaru on the way back from NAPA to buy the lug studs and nuts, but I fixed it with a plug in the driveway. Talk about lucky!
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