not back then.
I’ll guess , continuing to drive the truck with the wheel loose is why the lug holes are oval shaped & probably what broke the other lugs off . It would be my guess that wheel was never tightened properly . That being said , I find it amazing that the truck was driven that long with the wheel flopping around .
That rim is toast . . . I’d say the shop needs to pony up money for a replacement
Not sure where they’re going to get it, but that’s their problem
You should get as new set of wheels out of this.
I think that the guy doing the tires…put the wheels on, started the lugnuts and maybe even getting a couple hand tight. Then his buddy whispered, “lets go out back and smoke a bowl”.
Then upon returning, he totally forgot to tighten down the lug nuts.
I’d advise you check the other two wheels too!!!
Yosemite
They are towing it over Monday so I’m going wait to hear what they said. I talked three mechanics and they all said the same thing. Over tightening of the lug nuts so it’s on them. So will keep y’all updated. And let you know what happens with the tire shop.
Obviously the lug nuts weren’t tightened properly. But that doesn’t necessarily imply malice or incompetent. I’m not trying to be arrogant, but I’m a quite competent mechanic, and I left a wheel loose once. Came off on my test drive. Sometimes things go wrong, we get interrupted, we get asked a question, get called to the phone, or just flat out forget. We’re just people. I don’t care who you are or what you do for a living, at some point in your career you’re going to make a mistake.
Let’s see what the shop does to take care of it.
I 100% agree with you.
I’m not mad at this shop, cuss we are all inperfect. I just wanted other people feed back. Cuss I honestly feel like a dick for doing this to the tire place. I have had a lot of good experience with them. And I don’t want them to think I’m pulling one over on them. That’s why I asked for yall opinion. And other mechanics advise as well. I’m just glad no one got hurt.
You are correct @asemaster. We all make mistakes/ I guess I shouldn’t have implied what I did.
It sounds like the tire shop is doing right by you…having it towed at their expense.
Lets see what happens!!!
Yosemite
@ok4450
"That wheel does not look to be in safe condition and maybe it’s just me, but are those the right lugs for those wheels? Something about them comes across as a bit odd.
Granted, I did not go digging into the internet for comparison purpose so maybe I’m wrong."
@OK, I agree with your keen observation. I wonder if these were the correct lug nuts to begin with or whether the correct ones are still sitting on a tool box?
CSA
Went in and to talk to them. It was causes by the lug nuts. And they are replacing the wheel. We are just waiting for the new wheel to come in.
It was causes by the lug nuts.How so ?
I have a Ford truck w/locking hubs too. But never had that problem occur. Yet anyway, knock on wood. Sorry you are having this difficulty, very frustrating. Me, I’d be upset for sure. But it sounds like you have things under control OP, good for you for keeping on top of the situation.
For future wheel work, suggest you check the wheel nuts for proper torque immediately after any wheel work is done. Whenever I have any wheel work done, before leaving the shop I inspect to make sure all the lug nuts are installed & appear to be secure, then I drive home and in my driveway loosen, the jack up each wheel and hand torque all the lug nut, in the proper tightening sequence. It takes, what, 15-20 minutes is all.
There’s one more thing to be on the watch for after this incident if you have disc brakes, which I presume is the case, warped rotors. See if you notice any difference in the braking characteristics, especially any vibration or pulsing sensation.
@commonsenseanswer, the reason I wondered about the lugs is that my current Ford and past Fords with alloy wheels have lugs with a much wider flared seat.
They’ve all looked similar to this and the ones in the pics show to be the lugs with the narrower seats. Aftermarket or wrong lugs installed by the shop as you mentioned? Steel wheel lugs?
That much wider flare on the lug nut taper would certainly go a long way towards clamping those wheels a little better. Odds are they left the lugs loose so I’m just saying that improper lugs could be an issue.
@ok4450
"commonsenseanswer, the reason I wondered about the lugs is that my current Ford and past Fords with alloy wheels have lugs with a much wider flared seat."
That’s what I saw and why I was agreeing with you. I didn’t notice that until you drew my attention to it. Although people were indicating the cause was leaving the lug nuts loose or over-torqueing them, you looked beyond that for other culprits.
I hope the wheels/lug nuts are checked for being compatible. They may be lug nuts that fit the original style rims and not the custom ones, not just in flared seat size (not sure of the nomenclature), but the angle of the seat bevel as well.
OK… Good eye and great diagnosis.
CSA
Assuming the same lug nuts were put back on that were removed , why would having new tires installed suddenly cause a incompatibility problem between the wheels & the lug nuts ? Excessive wallowing around on the stud bolts as that wheel obviously did would definitely cause distorted & oval shaped lug nut holes & it all seems very logical that the wheel was just left loose . JMO
I agree that the lug nuts were most likely left loose . . . perhaps in part because the mechanic was planning on tightening them, but was told to take a break and change a bulb, or top off somebody’s oil. Then when he got back to the other job, he had lost track of if he had tightened them or not
Been known to happen
or maybe somebody got them cross-threaded, and couldn’t get them tight, and also didn’t say anything
Or maybe they cross-threaded them and didn’t even realize their mistake