Wheel fell off! - CEG Archives

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Was making a right turn from E. River Road onto Kendrick Road near U of R (Rochester, NY), left front drops and I have this sickening feeling pass through me as I watch my left, front wheel continue on through the intersection without me attached to it.

I think the most surprised person in the whole drama was the poor woman in a Civic who was stopped for the light and watches as the thing heads straight for her. It bounced off her car - no damage.

I was at speed on 490/390 just moments prior - lucky that it didn't let go at 65.

A quick survey revealed that all four wheel studs snapped off almost flush with the rotor, when the wheel parted company, it did an interesting job of custom rolling the left, front fender. The sill extension molding is toast. The rotor is a door stop. The lower A-frame looks like it took a beating, but there does not appear to be any other suspension, transaxle, or engine damage. No leaking fluids. Had it flat-bedded to Cortese Ford - we'll see what the say.

Check your lug nuts, everybody!

Stock E0 wheel?

My guess is custom non-hubcentric wheels or custom wheels with non-hubcentric spacers. If true, recipe for disaster.

Glad you're OK. This could have been much worse.

Stock E0 wheel.
Not a mark on it

Originally posted by goldsmi:
Stock E0 wheel.
Not a mark on it

That is crazy! A similar thing happened to me last year. I was in a parking lot and it came off at 2 mph which was lucky. My son and I were 3 minutes from the highway.

Have you had or done any work on that wheel recently? Was it making a lot of noise prior to coming off?

When this happend to me I had just had a wheel bearing done. I had after market wheels. My guess is that they just handtightened it.

I was lucky to be going so slow, the rotor etc. never even hit the ground. The wheel kind of got stuck between the rotor and fender. They came and put it on a flatbed and had it fixed in a couple days.

Like you say, ESPECIALLY with alloy wheels, CHECK YOUR LUG NUTS ! ! ! ! Glad you are OK!

No work was done recently.
A bit of noise just prior to the 'event, but no real indications of a problem.

I guess stuff just happens. I'm guesstimating about $1500 in repairs. Adjuster to check it out at the dealer on Monday.

AL

that scary... but do you think its easier for the wheel to come off if the car go slower ?

Originally posted by goldsmi:
Stock E0 wheel.
Not a mark on it

Wow!...That is really scary. makes me want to go check the torque on my wheel lugs - garage removed the right side for a safety inspection recently...

Originally posted by SVT3Rivieres:
that scary... but do you think its easier for the wheel to come off if the car go slower ?

I am guessing so, same thing happend to my freinds 'stang. Going highways speed then when he slowed down to take a 90 degree corner it fell off.

Originally posted by JEDsContour:

Originally posted by goldsmi:
Stock E0 wheel.
Not a mark on it

Wow!...That is really scary. makes me want to go check the torque on my wheel lugs

X 2

I Think I'll Go Check My Lugnuts Right About Now.

Same thing happend to Kevdogg on the boards. He was on the highway doing 70mph, getting off the highway he feels a shake, and the wheel flies off! Stock E1 wheel.

Mark

I think with alloy wheels, you are supposed to re-torque them after every few thousand miles.

Sears also puts a note on the receipt that "All lug nuts on custom and alloy wheels must be re-torqued after 25 miles and checked periodically."

They snapped off?! [censored] man.

I remember when I started hearing a grinding noise go on under braking and turning.. eventually turned into constant rubbing I got out and checked and my lug nuts were ready to come off. They unscrewed themselves

Originally posted by European:
I Think I'll Go Check My Lugnuts Right About Now.

.. another All Caps Person? Oh no!!

Over torqued lug nuts = broken studs.

ALWAYS use a torque wrench.

Did your damage look anything like this?

Click for pics of snapped studs

BTW - $1500 was the estimate the dealer gave me too.

Screw that - to get it driveable was only $165. Another $500 to replace/repaint the fender though.

akrump - yeah that's about it, but my fender took much more of a beating and I pretty much toasted the rocker molding.

Insurance adjuster going to check it out on Monday.

AL

Update-
Bottom line is $1200+ to fix.
New fender, rocker molding, rotor, repair scuffed up corner of bumper cover. Paint and blend to hood.
Interesting that insurance co. says that they don't pay for the 'cause', only for the results - so they are not paying $8 to replace the loose lug nuts that were judged to be the cause

So it'll be $500 out of pocket for the deductible - could have been worse.

AL

Possibly another reason wheels were switched from E0's to E1's?

I havent heard of this happening with anything but E0's

Two of my wheel studs sheared off while driving my SVT (with "E1's") when I was going 100km/h. Fortuantly when the first came off it started making a really loud noise kinda like a bearing, and I pulled over. Found the second lugnut and stud sitting by the drivers door when I got out to check what was wrong.

Originally posted by goldsmi:
Update-
Bottom line is $1200+ to fix.
New fender, rocker molding, rotor, repair scuffed up corner of bumper cover. Paint and blend to hood.
Interesting that insurance co. says that they don't pay for the 'cause', only for the results - so they are not paying $8 to replace the loose lug nuts that were judged to be the cause

So it'll be $500 out of pocket for the deductible - could have been worse.

AL

Actually it would be $508 right? haha

Glad you are OK!

Originally posted by Ex-Mean'Tour:

I was lucky to be going so slow, the rotor etc. never even hit the ground. The wheel kind of got stuck between the rotor and fender.

This happened to my friend while I was a passenger in his Accord. The only difference was we were in rush hour traffic going 65mph in the fast lane

Thank God it caught the fender!