TheSamba.com :: View topic

Mon Mar 08, 2010 10:38 pm

while driving home on the interstate i heard a strange noise from my drivers side rear wheel. before i knew it i wind up swerving into a crazy spin ending up teetering on the shoulder and the on ramp.

i got out and looked. lo and behold my wheel was gone, lug nuts and all.

my wheel, went much further and was unharmed.

upon closer inspection the holes in the hub were not stripped. the thread was still good.

however some how my headers and rear bumpercage were bent.

so I'm out 4 lug nuts, exhaust system.

other than that the car runs fine... still losing first gear, but fine.

Tue Mar 09, 2010 6:54 am

"Drive it till the wheels come off"....good thing your not dead or else we would not be enlightened by your experience. Do you tinker on your car once in a while?kinda look stuff over when it feels funny or runs like shit?

Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:14 am

Yup. I can usually tell if something was a bit off. And I heard it seconds before the wheel came off. My beat guess is that the lug nuts themselves fail, as in were stripped.
Can't really pin it on one thing.
I think I'm gonna replace all 16 just to be safe in addition to the new exhaust system.

Tue Mar 09, 2010 12:03 pm

are your wheels powdercoated or freshly painted? Lind has a similar story

if yes, scrape the powdercoat/paint off of the lug nut seat of the rims

Tue Mar 09, 2010 12:12 pm

VW had problems with wheels coming lose on 68 bugs when they first went to 4 bolt.
Too much paint that can soften, and that lets the lug bolts come lose.
We mechanics at the dealers then, had to grind a lot of paint off the backsides of the the wheels, and out of the lug bolt holes.
A few customers that had it happen finally admitted that they had accidentally driven with the ebrake on getting the drums and wheels hot.

Wed Mar 10, 2010 8:23 pm

upon closer inspection, i've now noticed that one of the pushrod tubes is bent.

is that a major job?
do i have to drop the engine?