Anyone had a wheel fall off?

[LTDHO]

I have whee lnuts come loose on three separate occasions with two different cars. You not a moan sound from the offending wheel, I don't know how you didn't notice that!

So in both cases I just pulled over and tightened them.

Moral of the story, don't trust anyone else!

[bundybear75]

One of my work mates lost a wheel on his Prado the day after a service. They had taken his aftermarket wheels off for the usual checks and when they refitted them they (the apprentice??) never installed the clips for the center caps properly and the wheel worked loose. Slow speed at a busy roundabout in Canberra. No damage done when the wheel fell off but some done dragging the hub and shock mounts to get out of the way of traffic

They found two other wheels loose for the same reason and the dealer sent a tilt tray and carried out repairs free of charge.

He was lucky, minutes before he was doing 100kph on the highway.

Many years ago I lost two drive tyres off a heavy truck when entering a small town. Not sure where the first one came off (i never found the rim) but when the second came off I knew about it. Thought id done a clutch center as I lost drive. Turns out the steel hub doesn't get good drive on bitumen. This scared me, the thought of a 100kg plus full steel rim bouncing down the road towards on coming traffic at 100kph is terrifying.

[mik]

Originally Posted by duaned

I was with a friend in his worked old Holden and he dumped the clutch at a stop sign and snapped all 5 studs in one hit. I wasnt so funny at the time though.

i saw a funny like that too many years ago , i was working in a holden service department at the time , one of the young apprentices did a drop the clutch wheelie in an FC sedan out the back on the cement entrance to the pits in a customers car , he turned the right hand axle into a perfect carrot , he then had to go an apologize to customer and Put a another axle and fit it at his own expense .

[sprintman1]

Always use a torque wrench on wheel nuts as the well run tyre places like Bob Jane do.

[bundybear75]

Originally Posted by sprintman1

Always use a torque wrench on wheel nuts as the well run tyre places like Bob Jane do.

Yet to see any tyre centre get a torque wrench out.

[malazn mafia]

Yes, front wheel on my pushbike in high school. Some ***** thought it would be a good idea to undo the quick release on my GT bicycle while it was parked. Was gunning it down the street and and luckily the wheel somehow managed to barely hang onto the bike and luckily did not fly off and break my neck

[Vesper Martini]

I still remember the Day my Brother did a jump on his BMX & the front wheel came off
the look on his face

[sprintman1]

Originally Posted by bundybear75

Yet to see any tyre centre get a torque wrench out.

Originally Posted by Loud_Noises

In Victoria it is.

That is ludicrous. There are a lot of roads that are posted at 80km/h, as such, the speed limit up until the 100km/h sign is 80. If someone gets pinged in this manner for being x amount over 60km/h, they'd have more than a fighting chance in front of a magistrate.

Bob Jane do or it's a sacking offence.

[blackf6]

If the wheel studs are not damaged. Someone has taken off your wheel nuts.

[blackf6]

Originally Posted by bundybear75

Yet to see any tyre centre get a torque wrench out.

Bull crap. I don't leave the tyre shop in my fuel tanker unless the wheel nuts are torqued to 420nm.
I lost a wheel, after hitting the gutter hard. Breaking the tie rod end off. ( not in the tanker)

[Junkyard-Dog]

Originally Posted by blackf6

Bull crap. I don't leave the tyre shop in my fuel tanker unless the wheel nuts are torqued to 420nm.
I lost a wheel, after hitting the gutter hard. Breaking the tie rod end off. ( not in the tanker)

When I did my course in heavy vehicle maintenance, we used the torque wrench on every wheel nut.

Don't know if every shop does it but I've never worked for anyone that doesn't use one.

[Davehoos]

I have personally had wheels come loose, been lucky that ive only had trailer tyres come off. I recently had the inner wheel work loose on the workshop hino. some of the trucks at work have a tension every 50 Km warning notice from factory.

through work I had to repair loads of vehicles that had lost wheels-but most only come loose an start braking wheel studs. Its normally the left drive wheel on vehicles that are manual transmission in stop start work.
last one I saw was a patrol and had worn the studs half through without giving the driver and warning.

Lot on medium trucks use left hand thread to reduce the risk of working loose.

lot of the Japanese trucks use a single RH threaded nut on alloy rims. these depend on the hub being clean and true.

I spent a day in the 90's tensioning wheel nuts in a holding yard post assembly line. A ambulance vehicle had a wheel fall off in service. The fault was powder coating in rims.

[Davehoos]

tension wrench.
can buy a tension indicator for most wheel nut specs. normally a colour coded half inch drive item. most customers would know if it was used.

Most bigger organisations Ive worked for had calibrated air tools, Most desperate for your business companies in the Q&A days would have you hand check each nut after the vehicle after it had been driven a short distance.

These days they stick on the windscreen a indicator of repair and advise of a free retention. These days a tradesman doesn't have to be able to judge or calculate tension to be certified, that is considered to be a post trade certification called diagnostics.

[TheInterceptor]

Yes. Yes i have.

Wheel nut threads on the two nuts i found up the road when i was looking for my wheel were very ugly. Threads on studs were pretty average. Eventually somebody found my wheel in their front yard and brought it out for me.

Wobble wobble thud.

Thread needs more pics.




Turns out it damaged part of the lower ball joint and went goofy on the way to the mechanic.

[Mechan1k]

Originally Posted by sprintman1

Bob Jane do or it's a sacking offence.

Then all the one's at Mt Druitt should be sacked ... never seen a torque wrench used there at all.

[Intacoola]

Originally Posted by Davehoos

tension wrench.
can buy a tension indicator for most wheel nut specs. normally a colour coded half inch drive item. most customers would know if it was used.

Most bigger organisations Ive worked for had calibrated air tools, Most desperate for your business companies in the Q&A days would have you hand check each nut after the vehicle after it had been driven a short distance.

These days they stick on the windscreen a indicator of repair and advise of a free retention. These days a tradesman doesn't have to be able to judge or calculate tension to be certified, that is considered to be a post trade certification called diagnostics.

So do most tyre & wheel shops have calibrated air tools or attached torque indicators on their rattle guns?
When you say calibrated air tools, is the applied torque then judged by the time the rattle gun is activated ?
Just trying to get an idea of how it works.
I always check the wheel nut torque after work is done on my wheels, and I have found huge differences in torque (usually over tightened).

[sprintman1]

Originally Posted by Mechan1k

Then all the one's at Mt Druitt should be sacked ... never seen a torque wrench used there at all.

Mt Druitt I'm not surprised!

[Russ]

Originally Posted by TheInterceptor

Yes. Yes i have.

Wheel nut threads on the two nuts i found up the road when i was looking for my wheel were very ugly. Threads on studs were pretty average. Eventually somebody found my wheel in their front yard and brought it out for me.

Wobble wobble thud.

Turns out it damaged part of the lower ball joint and went goofy on the way to the mechanic.

I had exactly the same thing happen to me in the early 80's and ironically it was the same type of car too ('79 Subaru 4wd wagon) I had just had new tyres fitted a week or so earlier and the tyre shop obviously didn't tighten all the wheel nuts properly, it took about a week for the car to develop a wobble, I got out went around the car and looked for something obvious like a flat tyre but everything appeared OK I drove off slowly and within about 100 m it started to feel even worse, I started to slow down to a snails pace and suddenly the front end dropped wheel flew up in the air (again ironically passengers front wheel) and rolled off down the road ahead of me Luckily as I was only crawling the car pretty much stopped dead once the wheel came off so it didn't do any damage I walked down the road a bit grabbed the wheel managed to find a couple of the wheel nuts, jacked it up and put it back on, grabbed another couple of wheel nuts from a local tyre place and no more problems Scariest part for me was jacking it up and putting it back on again as I was stopped in the inside lane on the Princes Hwy at Bulli NSW just over the top of a hill They were the good old days, wouldn't even consider trying that nowadays in the same location :(

[Davehoos]

rattle gun normally are a hammer style and if serviced I would expect the only way to adjust the tension is with air pressure. so each bolt will be a different tension as most will have a small air capacity. I have a old IR 3/4 drive gun that will be within 10%.

an air ratchet often can be adjusted to a set max tourque. I come across very good electric units. few years ago tool sellers flogging tension calibration units because of contractors working on mine sites needing to prove that their tools met standards.

tension bolts with lubrication of the thread-this allows the retaining method to be over clamped as you are measure rotation friction. also allows the nuts that appear tight can work loosen. I recommend lubrication/never sieze on the thread as most issues I come across is the thread is often damaged removing the nut/bolts or from dirt /rust.

[roddy1960]

G'day ... Early in 2015 I decided to drive my newly aquired BA Fairmont to a neighbouring town to put my Tattslotto tickets in.All was fine then I hit St Marys Pass , a 5.5 km stretch of windy road with steep banks and drop offs..I was about halfway down when....clunk , thump clank thump etc...I got to a place called the "quarry" , about the only place on the Pass to pull up and turn safely..I got out and couldn't see anything out of order so I decided to try and do the 10 kms or so back home..I never got above 20-25 kmh all the way and every so often the clunk noise returned. I got back eventually to our servo and the mechanic had a look around , and drove the car along the street , quickly hearing the noise..i left it there all afternoon and nervously went back up just before closing time to see what I was up for..Walked in to the office .."All good , all ready to go " he said..Turns out three of the five wheel nuts had come loose enough to cause the clunk noise on the offside rear wheel on the twisty road and the car was supposedly serviced about 10 days before when I picked it up..Luckily no damage to the studs or wheel/hub and a proper tighten fixed it all ..Could have been expensive and really dangerous..Cheers Rod..

[ronwest]

I lost a set of duals of a tri-axle trailer in the late 70's.

Hoofing down from Nebo along a development road, get to Dingo, kick the tyres....oops.

I'm glad it happened out in the middle of nowhere.

At 100kms an hour they'd demolish a house.

[Junkyard-Dog]

Anyone had a wheel fall off?

Only in a metaphorical sense.