Anyone had a wheel fall off?

[DoreSlamR]

Last night driving home from work, the rear left wheel fell off my Prado.

All 6 wheel nuts unscrewed and disappeared, as did the wheel.

Fortunately a few good samaritan's stopped and helped.

But I've never heard of such a thing happen, sure I've seen and heard of studs being sheared off when a few nuts come loose, but not all.

Was rather scary, and was a little shook up when it happened, I was in the middle of a roundabout when it happened too. Not much forewarning either, just a wobble maybe 100m before the roundabout, I thought I had a flat and was stuck in the right lane to turn right in the roundabout somImhad slowed right down already luckily.

Lesson learnt...check wheel nuts regularly!

[XR6Runner]

That crazy, im so glad nothing bad happened! Only thing that I could think of is somebody doesn't like you...

[gossy]

A fellow worker living in a not so desirable suburb found the wheel nuts all loosened off their wheels (as several nuts had been laying on the ground), when they were about to head off to work. Several cars in the same street had the same issue, must have been kids having a laugh, but oh the consequences of such actions are horrendous.

Glad you are ok, buy a lotto ticket.

[Vesper Martini]

Very strange thing to happen
If wheel nuts are loose you would get a fair bit of clunking as a warning.
if you had 5 come off the 6th one would probably break the stud anyway.

I suspect sabotage.

are all the other wheel nuts tight?

Glad your ok, probably better it was a rear too

[Express]

I had a rear come of my HX Ute doing 100km/h about 20ks from Bathurst at 10pm at night back in 1979.

I was heading home after having picked the Ute up late that afternoon from a smash repair shop in Paddington, Sydney and they had forgotten to tighten the wheel nuts.

The wheel bounced over the Ute and headed down the road and off into a paddock.

The next day I went out to collect it and searched for about an hour but never found it.

The only damage it did was to the brake drum, I had to stay over the next night while I waited for the parts to arrive.

With all the sparks it frighten the ….. out of the fellow in the 120Y that was following me.

He gave me a lift into Bathurst and I went back out with the NRMA to pickup the Ute.

To this day I’m a fanatical checker of wheel nuts.


.

[Boza]

Did you have your car serviced recently they may not have not tightened the wheel properly.

[Pepscobra]

sorry to hear mate, glad you're ok.
But sounds to me someone has tampered with your vehicle.

[grey_esp]

When I was in my teens a family friend of ours had a landcruiser with the hurricane style alloys on it. He had them come loose on a number of occasions, so ended up changing the wheels over, fixed the problem. My dad bought them to put on his hilux and never had a problem. A few years later we had a similar cruiser with similar wheels and one came off that car too. We reckon it had something to do with heat, maybe the wheels were cold when put on and as they heat up the nuts came loose. It was the older style mag nuts with the long shanks.

[sexyxe]

Once in an old Mirage. Rear left. Was due to the spare I was using not being the correct PCD, so my own fault.

On my Discovery the wheels aren't hub centric so if the rims aren't placed on just right they slightly loosen over a few kms, then require a retighten. Not ideal.

[Tassie f100]

Have seen the odd vehicle where the nuts were loose and came undone.BUT have seen more where the studs sheared off through overtightening.Wheel nuts have a torque of max 100ft lbs.An 18" long wheel spanner with 100kg standing on it to tighten nuts is really looking for trouble but we see it happening still on the side of the road

[XR6Runner]

Originally Posted by Tassie f100

Wheel nuts have a torque of max 100ft lbs

Just an interesting note, we had a brand new Volkswagen Crafter come through our shop, and before letting it go to the customer, checked the torque of all wheel nuts. The book said to tighten each nut to 220ft lbs!!! I thought it must have been a typo but nope!

[aussiblue]

See this twice:

a) Once when a mate with zero mechanical aptitude had changed a wheel and put the nuts back on the wrong way - dome side out.
b) When the nuts had been lubricated; they are meant to be tightened with clean dry threads - see http://www.fordforums.com.au/showthread.php?t=11420995

[aussiblue]

Someone may also have been trying to steal a wheel from you and been interrupted by someone before they had finished.

[aussiblue]

Were the nuts and wheels original to your Prado? There were apparently two different stud pitches (1.5 and 1.25) available on the Prado depending on the model year and wheels used and if the wrong combination is used they may appear to fit but as the nut pitch doesn't match the studs pitch the nuts will eventually come off (there should be some evidence of thread damage on the studs). Some alloy wheels used domed washer behind the nut that if inadvertently left off will cause the nuts to come off. In any event, I would be checking the other wheels and making sure that all is correct.

[marcosanga]

Had it happen on a work hilux years ago
Had a bit of a wobble at high speeds that we had put down to the build up of mud inside the wheels.
One of the young guys was slowly entering our yard and the lhf wheel just fell off.
There was a trail of nuts from the carpark to the broken car.
Never seen it before or since.
Had a service from local small town mechanic the week prior, never went there again.

[DoreSlamR]

Sabotage came to mind, but I drove it over 10kms before it happened.

And the only place it could have happened is at the car park at work, it's not really a place where someone could or would do such a thing.

It could have been a lot worse for sure! I've learnt a couple of valuable lessons from this though....check wheel nuts regularly. And stop immediately when something seems off. I may have prevented it if I stopped straight away.

[mik]

Never had one fall off , did have a wheel bearing crap it self on one of the company tri axle trailers out in the woop woop many years ago, pulled up and saw red hot tapered roller bearings pushing themselves out through the centre of the hub cover,
was going to disassemble the wheel assembly and chain the axle up , upon trying to remove one wheel the whole assembly ... both wheels the brake drum and hub assembly came of the axle and fell on the ground , just missed me , the joys of trucking .

You where very lucky it did not happen at speed .

[mechanic]

Once had to pick up a Cruiser in the Kimberleys where all 6 studs had broken off but it was a mob of uni students doing some research and had not tightened the wheel after a flat tyre.
Personally have had a wheel come off a box trailer and a boat trailer, ****ed myself laughing when the wheel came off the boat trailer, that thing went about 300 meters straight into the bush and continued down a drain graded by the side of the road, took me hours to find it.
Wheel nuts don't come off for no reason, they were never tight or someone loosened them.

[wackyv8]

twice! once on a XC i bought , the previous owner wanted to keep the mags as part of sale condition and got his brother to fit some stockies to it so i could drive away a week later. i never thought to check them on pickup..got about 120k's away and on a right hand turn doing 60km/h the back of the car dropped with a bang and the wheel went roosting off past me at 60 into some blackberrys , then the shower of sparks in the rearview . retrieveed the wheel and pinched 3 nuts off the other wheels to get home .
- 2nd time , on a HQ ute , had the tyres replaced the day earlier , drove about 50k's before getting bad wobble/vibration. pulled over to discover 1 wheelnut holding, about to depart. again pinched some other nuts and got home . apparently the apprentice fitted the tyres and wheels but never retensioned with a wheelbrace.

[Dezza]

I had it happen on my EA. I'd had it serviced and while driving home going slowly around a corner, I suddenly felt the front right drop down and saw a turboblade crossing the road. There was surprisingly little damage, and the reason I didn't feel anything wrong is because the turboblade wheels have such deep bolt holes, it actually stayed on straight until it slid off the studs. The mechanic sorted it all out, and didn't charge me for the service because it was his mistake.

[STEALTHY]

I've had a wheel off once, and another time i preempted it.


Had someone work on the car (a mate) and one of his mates was on tyre duty. Apparantly he's not so good because he overtightened them (he worked at a tyre shop...). I heard 2 snap turning right at some traffic lights, and pulled into the servo on the corner straight away. Another was sheared, and the last 2 were very loose. This happened about 20 or so k's from where the car was worked on.
Every time since, i check the nuts myself, especially after tyre shops work on it.


Another time i had a wheel come off at 80 in the Hills. Self inflicted. Using wheels spacers without longer studs. Coming around a slight right bend (behind the below link). The wheel rolled up the below driveway, and back down the hill and landed in the middle of the lane if i had continued. Luckily no disc damaged, but it did rip the plastic valance off (VP Calais). It did snap 3 of the studs (all wheel nuts were long gone. Took a nut of the remaining wheels, but didn't want to risk it on 2 studs so i got the car towed, and longer studs fitted straight away)


https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-34....2!8i6656?hl=en

[Windsor220]

Its pretty hard for wheel nuts to screw all the way off. It definitely doesn't happen quickly. I suspect someone has done it on purpose or were trying to take the wheel. The only time I've seen them come off with out shearing is when someone has put a wheel on and not done the nuts up so they were only 1 turn on each stud.

[chizzy86]

Never, but I did have a scary experience in the Patrol one night. I had recently put a two inch lift on but when I put it all back together I forgot to place a large washer on behind the nut for the front panhard rod.

End result - about 3 weeks later driving back from the shops the nut continued to hold the rubber bush in, but the rod separated from the bush and came off and the car was shaking MASSIVELY. I mean, I was was absolutely you know whatting my self. Couldn't go faster than 30 km/h without the massive shakes, so I was stuck on the side of the road. Got the hammer out and bashed the bush back in enough to get home. Bought new bushes and washer and put it all back together properly.

Lesson well and truly learnt.

BTW - Two guys stopped to ask me if I was ok and whether I needed help. One in an XR6 and the other in a Fairlane

[CyberWasp]

Recall all Prado's now.

[GO FURTHER]

When was the last time you had the wheel off, or a service where your brakes were done?
Maybe the wheel nuts where not on tight and over a period of time have worked their way loose, and fell off one at a time over a period of time?

If you suspect possible sabotage or someone trying to steal your wheel, then I'd recommend a set of wheel lock nuts.
Not absolutely foolproof, but does help to slow down or deter would be thieves.

I never took tightening the wheel nuts on my cars seriously to the proper torque settings, thinking "fly by the seat" tightness was good enough, till I realised how much it can make a difference to rotor wrapping, etc.

So I bought myself a decent heavy duty torque wrench and make sure I torque each wheel nut to 130 Nm every time I remove a wheel and work on my car. Never had any rotor issues or shuddering since... Best tool investment I ever made for the car.

[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.

[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 .

[DoreSlamR]

Nope no service or wheels off since I bought it in Feb.

They must have just worked loose over time

[castellan]

On a truck if you change a wheel over you should always make sure to go back over them again when you next time you pull up or within a 100KM or so.

People who don't tighten them up in the correct sequence are just looking for trouble, I go over them 3 times just to be sure to be sure.
Some people may be just screwing them up once due too stupidity or just bone lazy.

[XB GS 351 Coupe]

Time to buy some of these:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/32mm-Yell...-/111733874226