I really hate being overtaken........

[sheerluck]

......by bits of the car I'm driving. :(

Last week, I was heading to work in SWMBO's Merc ML, when I started to get a faint vibration on the highway at 100km/h, followed a short time later by the car starting to shimmy.

Fearing a flat tyre, I went to get off the highway onto a local road so that I could park up somewhere safe and check. Just as I pulled into the filter lane to turn right, there was a BANG, and I looked in the passenger mirror to see the rear wheel bounce off streak past me and land in a thicket of trees and undergrowth a little way up the road.

The driver behind me saw what happened and stopped, giving me a chance to throw the car back over to the left on it's three wheels, and dump it on the grass verge.

Time to check underpants, and try to slow the heartrate down........

I get out, and can see two wheel bolts that have clearly snapped, and three that are missing (one was later found with the wheel).

So what happened?

The wheels haven't been off for months, so I know it's not something I'd done. But I had parked in a couple of dark parking areas in less salubrious parts of the world over the previous couple of days. For 3 bolts to be missing, they must have been loosened, putting enough stress on the remaining 2, that they snapped. All the bolts on the other wheels were still set at the required 120nm when checked with the torque wrench.

So come on, who have I upset?

[pop058]

Happened to my old Disco last year. No wheel changes or other (logical) explanation. Walked back a couple of hundred metres to recover the wheel and found 2 of the wheel nuts along the way. Stole a couple more off the spare to get home.

It shot me left down through the roadside drain and onto someone's nature strip. No "wardrobe malfunction", but close :D

[p38arover]

This is what happened to a friend's (Terry Boyce for those that know him from the LROC) RRC when an errant wheel from a trailer hit them.

It passed between him and his wife.

[sheerluck]

So who have we both upset then? :D

You ended up with more damage than I did. The final damage tally was:

A mudflap
A scrape on the rear bumper
a suspicious stain on the driver's seat


:angel:

[sheerluck]

This is what happened to a friend's (Terry Boyce for those that know him from the LROC) RRC when an errant wheel from a trailer hit them.

It passed between him and his wife.

In many ways it was fortuitous that it was a left hand wheel that came off, as 50kg of wheel and tyre heading into traffic with a closing speed of ~150km/h could have done some serious damage. People have been killed in such a fashion.

Sounds like Terry and his wife were very lucky that day too.

[Bytemrk]

So who have we both upset then?




Maybe you have upset no one....... possibly some scumbag trying to help himself to wheels he doesn't own? :mad:

[Mick_Marsh]

Did you know, the moment of inertia will cause wheel nuts to rotate.
What this means is one side tightens whilst the other side loosens.
There were one or two models of Italian cars (Alfa of Fiat or both I think) that had left hand threaded wheel nuts on one side and right hand threaded wheel nuts on the other.
Yes, I've been overtaken by a rear wheel too. Lost a front one as well.

So, it might not have been someone you have upset. They're still waiting to exact their revenge.

[JDNSW]

Left hand wheel nuts will loosen, and right hand ones tighten if they are a bit loose. (I have never actually lost a wheel, but have had them come loose, and detected it before anything serious happened.)

LH thread studs on the LH side have been used quite commonly, usually on larger vehicles, occasionally on light vehicles. The studs and nuts will be marked in some way, studs usually with an "L" stamped into the end, nuts usually with a notch on the angles between the flats.

John

[scarry]

The BIL was slowing down at the lights and saw his trailer overtake him:o

Luckily only ended up with one written off trailer.

Many years ago i saw a wheel come off the front of a coach which was travelling on the old Pacific Hwy at Springwood.It disappeared after bouncing onto the roof of a car in one of the many car yards that fronted the Hwy in those days..
By the time the coach stopped the brake fluid coming from the front brakes was well alight.

[superquag]

Left hand wheel nuts will loosen, and right hand ones tighten if they are a bit loose. (I have never actually lost a wheel, but have had them come loose, and detected it before anything serious happened.)

LH thread studs on the LH side have been used quite commonly, usually on larger vehicles, occasionally on light vehicles. The studs and nuts will be marked in some way, studs usually with an "L" stamped into the end, nuts usually with a notch on the angles between the flats.

John

Me too !
A week or so after buying Sarah, noticed a rapidly increasing vibration and roughness at speed. By the time I stopped the steering wheel had started wiggling. Yep, both Left side wheels had loose nuts... Several took more than a full turn to seat. :o

RH side wheels were fine, but I drove off very carefully, after having a little Meditation Time. .:angel:

A previous Mazda 4WD van (import, identical body to Ford econovan) had 6-stud wheels, with LH threads on the Left side. Never had a problem from using a wheel-brace only.

[BMKal]

Did you know, the moment of inertia will cause wheel nuts to rotate.
What this means is one side tightens whilst the other side loosens.
There were one or two models of Italian cars (Alfa of Fiat or both I think) that had left hand threaded wheel nuts on one side and right hand threaded wheel nuts on the other.
Yes, I've been overtaken by a rear wheel too. Lost a front one as well.

So, it might not have been someone you have upset. They're still waiting to exact their revenge.

Valiants had this feature for many years. Don't know if it was on all of their models, but suspect that it may have been.

Lost count of the number of times that I've seen people struggling with a wheel brace trying to loosen the wheel nuts on the left side of a Valiant when they were really tightening them. :)

I've seen more than one person snap studs off using a "cheater" bar. :eek:

[crash]

Valiants had this feature for many years. Don't know if it was on all of their models, but suspect that it may have been.

Lost count of the number of times that I've seen people struggling with a wheel brace trying to loosen the wheel nuts on the left side of a Valiant when they were really tightening them. :)

I've seen more than one person snap studs off using a "cheater" bar. :eek:
I had a 50's Fargo Ute that had Lt hand studs on the one side. I think it use to be a fairly common practice in the 50's to have left handed threads on the one side.

I have had a trailer tire explode in front of me while riding the motorcycle once - had to dodge flying bits of rubber, that was bad enough. Would hate to see a high speed tyre and rim coming my way.

[Graeme]

Valiants had this feature for many years....
I've seen more than one person snap studs off using a "cheater" bar. :eek:Maybe you spotted my brother's AP6 stud snapping incident prior to him realising the reason. 1...2...3 ???

[zulu Delta 534]

Trucks and buses had left hand and right handed wheel nuts if on an American or Japanese chassis and drive line, whereas European vehicles were generally right handed all round.
Usually the wheels were supported by the "handed' wheel nuts whereas with the European pattern wheel, the wheel was supported by the hub.
Early Mitsubishi mid size trucks had a habit of self over tightening the wheel nuts whilst moving along and sometimes doing so to the extent that the studs would snap.
In your case the first question I would ask is, have the wheels been changed/ rotated recently?
The second question would be, when were the wheel nuts checked last?
We once lost a set of drive wheels (duals) off the rear of a Mercedes Benz tourist coach at 100kph on a trip up near Rocky.
The left hand drive wheels came off, climbed a siding cutaway, cleared the coach and one of these wheels ran along the road (1125-20s) and collided with an oncoming car crashing into the driver's side passengers door, completely wrecking one side of the back seat before coming to rest out in the paddock against a mangled wire fence.
There were two little tackers in the back seat of this car, and as luck would have it, both were out of their seat belts and leaning over the back of the left hand front seat pestering Mum for something as Kids are wont to do and this act saved their lives that day. Anyway, back to the gist of the story; after months of investigations by insurance Companies, Police and Transport Department investigators, it was put down to mis adventure - which left a highly suspicious and nasty taste in our mouths until eventually we discovered that the bloke driving that day (who happened to own his own coach) at lunch time was conscientious enough to get the wheel spanner out and "crack" each wheel nut to ensure their tightness. (A daily occurrence in the trade.) The unfortunate side to the story was that he owned a coach with an American drive-line and as a result, cracked the right side nuts the correct way and unknowingly actually loosened the left hand nuts.
The whole story has a bright side if you can call it that, in that no one person at all was injured in the whole episode, the car involved was written off and replaced by the insurance company, the damage the wheel did after it had come off was covered by my Insurance but I was left with the bill for the damage caused to my vehicle as it came off (roughly $12000). An interesting sideline to this whole sorry (and frightening) affair was that none of the 42 passengers nor the driver knew that the wheels had come off straight away as the air bag suspension compensated for the drop and the coach was still riding straight and level, but after a second or two the driver realised why he had suddenly lost drive and was informed of what had actually happened on the radio by the driver following him.
I suppose the moral of the story is to investigate every single possibility before pointing a finger, and I commiserate with you having had it happen to me.
Regards
Glen

[chopper]

These things don't look so silly now


Checkpoint Wheel NUT Indicator 38mm 50 Piece | eBay

[101RRS]

......by bits of the car I'm driving. :(

I looked in the passenger mirror to see the rear wheel bounce off streak past me and land in a thicket of trees and undergrowth a little way up the road.



Been there - done that :(

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e334/gazzz21/Forum%20Posts%20Album/P4250054_zpsc9f32775.jpg (http://s42.photobucket.com/user/gazzz21/media/Forum%20Posts%20Album/P4250054_zpsc9f32775.jpg.html)

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e334/gazzz21/Forum%20Posts%20Album/P4250051_zps57e5bcc4.jpg (http://s42.photobucket.com/user/gazzz21/media/Forum%20Posts%20Album/P4250051_zps57e5bcc4.jpg.html)

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I found two of the nuts 100m back up the road and the little wheel spacer that my little truck has (OEM fit not aftermarket).

Was able to drive home.

Garry

[TheTree]

Hi

Now I don't feel so anal about pulling out the torque wrench every time I do anything to the wheels :D

Steve

[bee utey]

I gotta admit, the tin hub caps on my old Fiat 850 Sport made good indicators for loose wheel bolts. The rattly noise was a dead giveaway AND the bolt was still there ready for refitment!

[JDNSW]

Many years ago my older son, first car, VW Beetle, had one rear wheel come off - not wheel studs, but, the brakes having just been done, the nut holding the hub/brake_drum on came off, leaving him with no brakes (single circuit brakes, one panicked pump blew the wheel cylinder, equalising mechanism ensured the handbrake did not work. He was very lucky, and, in fact the only damage was to the brake and backing plate.

There was no way that nut had a split pin in it! Garage was not very cooperative, I can't remember (about 25 years ago) what eventually happened, but I think we eventually gave up and paid for repairs.

John

[copba]

My father lost the front LHS wheel on his troopy last year on his way home from dealership after a service, drove along on brake disc till he could stop. No damage to other vehicles thankfully and dealership were quite apologetic, but the troopy didn't look the best afterwards.

[stallie]

Lost the front left on my old FJ40 on the Tanami Road near the crater back in the 90's. The handbrake light came on then the wheel separated.