Wheel fell off?!??!

[Eric Wettschreck]

My sons 96 cutlass.

He left my house and was heading home to Sioux Falls when he called. He said the passenger side front wheel just fell off!!!! He managed to get it off to the side of the interstate, and then did some ditch jumping to get his tire and wheel. No one got hurt and no other cars were involved.

I'm heading to S Falls tomorrow to survey the damage and see if things are worth fixing. He told me over the phone all the lug studs are broken but the rotor still spins and he can't see anything "Noticeable" broken.

My question is, what in the heck, besides hitting something, would make all the lug studs snap?????

[Macgyver55]

They were either too loose or were over torqued. In either case it would be rare to see them all snap without some prior warning like rumbling or shaking before they let loose.

Glad he is ok!

[Scott K]

Same thing happened to my car a few years ago, really no notice what so ever, all 5 studs snapped off. I agree, it is more then likely from over torqing the lug nuts. I have seen it happen a few other times as well, ussually on steel wheels, that tend to flex in when torqued with a torque wrench. The past few tire rotates I did prior to this, i fely that the spec was just to high, and it felt as though the studs would snap off while I was torquing them, but they waited a month while I was slowing down to stop at a stop sign.

[Scott K]

Depending on the car, I would just inspect the wheel, make sure the holes arent ovaled, then replace the studs and nuts, you should be good to go. Bend the dust shield out of the way of the rotor too.

[Gordie]

Had that happen to my 1989 suburban twice same wheel and it was from aluminum rims I bought steel wheels for it and never had another problem and I put close to 150,000 on those steel wheels.

[BoxMN]

Happened to my parents' 86 Taurus years ago. Not from teen driving or anything, probably loose lug nuts. New studs and no probs after that. Glad everyone is safe.

[reinhard1]

happened to me only once. i had a chevy suburban and my front drivers side went flying accross the medium [fortunatly no traffic on the otherside at the time] and bounced accross the pavement and flew into the woods. good luck.

[Eric Wettschreck]

Just got back from S Falls helping the young man fix his car. I gotta tell yous guys, this was weird.

All 5 lugs were snapped off at the rotor. Took the caliper off, took the rotor off, sprayed in some lube and banged them out. Nothing else really was damaged, and that's a big surprise to me. There's a small ding in the rotor but I didn't replace it right there in his driveway. Pulled 5 new lugs through the hub, rotor back on, caliper back on, tire back on, and she's rolling again.

He said aboot 2 seconds before it fell off he heard a rumble and that's the only warning he got.

That was different.

[harvey lee]

Had that happen to my 1989 suburban twice same wheel and it was from aluminum rims I bought steel wheels for it and never had another problem and I put close to 150,000 on those steel wheels.

THis hapened to me also Gordie pulling home the race trailer at 75mph on the interstate going through Dallas Texas. $2,500 later we were back on the road and it took 2 days to get all the needed parts. Pep boys did the repairs.

Whe I got home, I had the truck gone over in regards to what they sasid they replaced and alot of what they charged me for was not done. I called Pep Boys national office I believe in Pensyl and they did refund over half of my money for the repairs that were not done.

What they said happened was, I had aftermarket alum wheels on the truck and the person that put the alum racing wheels on did not use the longer studs that were required with these racing wheels. Therefore they would snap off. I had it happen a couple of times with 1 stud and when I asked why it happened, the dealer told me, bad stud when it was really the wrong length studs.

Great to hear minor damage and that noone was hurt. Was it Nick?

[hitthebricks]

I have not had the problem of loosing a tire but have had lug nuts cross threaded when installed with a impact wrench and weakened the studs to the point where they broke easily when I tried to remove them. I think sooner than later the studs would have broke while driving if I had not fixed this problem.

HTB

[Eric Wettschreck]

Was it Nick?

Matthew.