Ok everyone looking for thoughts and opinions. So about a week ago me and another person installed upper control arms and lower ball joints, on my pickup. We put the tires on and torqued them in the proper pattern to 140 ft/lbs.
The following weekend and 500 miles later I take the truck to a shop for alignment and to have a complete vehicle inspection done. Brakes, suspension, fluids all that and to check for a steering binding noise I had prior to my original work. I picked the truck up, drove about 8 miles and parked it till the next day. The following day I made it about 21 miles and my front tire falls off… what do you think about this situation?
Do you mean" the wheel fell off"?
Since you and a friend installed suspension pieces, you should be able to give us a better description. Did the tire come off the rim? Did the rim come off the hub? What sort of damage was done?
I think you mean the wheel fell off. The tire would stay on the wheel. Did the entire wheel/tire completely separate from the hub?
It needs to be diagnosed. Did some lugs nuts come out? Did the studs stay in the hub? What broken parts do you see? You don’t give us much info, and your name suggests you don’t respect others or take responsibility for your own actions. Have someone competent look over the situation.
The wheel fell off, yes apologies. All lug nuts backed off, hit a truck behind me, nothing broke the wheel literally walked off, I rode in the rim for a bit before the wheel came completely off and down the exit I was able to get off on.
Yes I do. Apologies. The wheel came off, front driver side, all lug nuts were gone no studs broke.
The lug nuts were all gone, backed off the studs, no studs were sheared off.
I apologize. The wheel and tire as one came off, lug nuts were backed off just gone, hit a guys truck behind me, no studs broke off.
First, call the alignment shop. They may or may not have taken the wheel off. If they did, they may take some responsibility, or may not. You need to realize that just because you tightened lug nuts to spec, doesn’t mean your wheel will not fall off. If the wheel has been off and on several times the tread on the studs are stressed. There comes a time to replace worn studs even if they seem fine. This is one reason it is recommended to recheck torque on lugnuts after a few miles of driving.
I can’t imagine a brake inspection being performed without removing the wheel…
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I understand that completely. The reason I have an issue is because I had them do a complete vehicle inspection, that would of needed them to remove the wheels… so that’s where my issue comes in really.
Yeah, would be hard to check brakes without removing wheel. My son had a wheel fall of as a result of a tire shop. He called the tire place and at their expense, towed it to a shop and paid for repairs. There was a leaking brake line so the shop wouldn’t release the vehicle until they fixed the brake line (illegal). The tire company again paid for towing the vehicle home where brakes where fixed. I hope you get as fortunate.
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you might think wheel would wobble a bit as the nuts got to 1 thread left on studs? as in how do they all loosen equally and than the wheel flies off hub? sounds like someone does not like you
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Stake Out…
Is it warm where you are? (It’s 88* here.)
Would that shop have their garage doors open while they’re working now?
I’d stake out that shop for a while, sitting in parked vehicle, observing and seeing what kind of procedures they have for checking and rechecking lugs on cars/trucks that have had wheels removed and replaced?
If they have lax standards, or no apparent procedure, to check for properly torqued lugs then you can go have a little talk with them about your recent “incident”. If you observe that they follow safe procedures for checking customer vehicles’ lugs then it will probably be a losing discussion, on your part.
CSA
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Yes indeed. Something would feel awry, in the hands and seat of the pants, when a wheel is becoming loose from its hub. It happened to me when I was in my 20s driving my Fiat 128. I pulled over and found some lug nuts were loose and I tightened them. It was probably my fault in the first place, or I would remember blaming someone else.
Depends. I’ve had hub centric wheels with such a tight fit, it took a pretty good kick to get them loose from the hub. I could see the nuts walking off and the tire being in place until that one or two corner maneuvers that broke it loose…
I had a Mag wheel almost come off back in the day. Was doing some serious hard acceleration take-offs and general hot rodding on the way to a friend’s house. Just as I got there, it seemed off and one of my friends points to the rear wheel with every lug nut almost off the studs. And that was a lug centric design to boot!
My experience is that all 5 lug nuts generally don’t come off in the same event unless all 5 were not tightened properly to begin with. Maybe one comes off spontaneously, but not all 5. Sloppy workers do one of two mistakes. Either they overtighten the lug nuts and stretch the studs, warp the rotors and make life miserable for everyone else or they start the nuts and forget to tighten them. It really seems like that’s what happened here.
Check your paperwork, some shops indicate which wheel they removed to check the brakes. I thinkyou have a case for reimbursement.