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Mon Feb 23, 2004 8:04 pm

A week and a day after my wreck I had another fender on the car and had it lined up to have the apron fixed on Sunday the wheel falls off the car ripping the fender 1/2 way off in the process. The fender is a bit mishapen and I may have to get another one. The threads in the drum are stripped. It happened not a 1/2 mile from my house going 30mph. If I had been going 50+ I probably would have lost control of the car and rolled it. Pretty scary.

Anyone else had a similar thing happen?

Mon Feb 23, 2004 9:02 pm

I've never had this happen personally. But, I have heard of a few people that had their rims powder coated and the lugs didn't seat correctly or something and they lost it. I'm keepin' my fingers crossed.

Mon Feb 23, 2004 9:23 pm

Last summer I had just finished a 30 mile highway trip at 65mph in my single cab when I stopped for a light at the edge of town. When I pulled away from the light the truck didn't want to go and therewas a really loud thunking sound from the rear. I had been ignoring my CV joints forever so I figured that was what it was after I couldn't spot anything else wrong.

I called the tow truck and they hauled it to the shop. Turns out I had lost 4 of 5 lug bolts and the 5th was only on by about 2 turns. The noise was the rim clanking around loose and the lug nuts rolling inside my hubcap. The tire shop that replaced a tire the week before hadn't tightened the nuts.

If that light had been green instead of red I would have lost the rear wheel at 60-65 mph for sure. Scared the living hell out of me.

Mon Feb 23, 2004 10:02 pm

Just got a set of bilet centerline stars for my 70 bug back in the day. Had tires mounted on em and had them put them on the car. Dumbass the tireboy had a very leaky line to his impact wrench. I was shoppin for parts and picked up my car after. Made it 20 miles on the freeway and felt a vibration gettin worse and pulled over to find all the lugs loose on the left rear. I was able to torque all them down again but I make sure they use a torque wrench in front of me now when ever I get tires.

Mon Feb 23, 2004 10:29 pm

I had a set of original 2 piece 5 spoke Empi's and had just put them on my bug and was tightening them down when the phone rang. I went to answer it and had forgot to tighten the lug nuts on the last wheel. I started driving down the road and out of the corner of my right eye I thought I saw something shiny go flying by...hmm, I thought and kept driving down the road, then I thought I saw another....hmm I thought that was strange, never catching a clue finally I saw a third and simultaneously my car drops down on the drum and I pull it over and watch my rim and tire going 60mph down the road. I chase after it and thank god I was a longdistance runner as it took nearly 1/2 mile before I caught up with it. Wheeled it back to the car, then proceeded to walk 1/2 mile back to pick up the lugs I lost. Best part was no body damage just a nasty flat spot on the drum from skidding to a stop!

Tue Feb 24, 2004 12:39 pm

A couple of months ago, I was riding around in a friends car when we started to feel a a vibration in the ass end. He starts to slow down and at that point the last lug nut comes off and the back end slams the rear rotor to the pavement. Once we were stopped the rear wheel went rolling by the drivers side and rolled on a good 100 feet. It was pretty damn funny to see the wheel roll past us. Luckily we weren't going over 30. Funny thing is it happened to him again a few weeks later.

Tue Feb 24, 2004 6:50 pm

Thats sucks, I came close while towing a Bus once but never had any fall off.

Tue Feb 24, 2004 7:44 pm

In high school I was driving my brother's '75 camaro and lost the left rear tire. Funny thing is, we found it on the RIGHT hand side of the road about 15 yards away. No idea how it got there.

That was fun explaining to my brother why his wheelwell was shaved down and his brakes were fucked.

Wed Feb 25, 2004 7:43 am

I was doin about 70 on the interstate one time when the car suddenly got very squirrelly (sp?). Pulled over to find out that all the lugs on my driver's rear wheel were gone :shock: . I had wide fenders and 8" wide Interceptors. Thank goodness my car was so low, because the wheel got wedged up in the fender and would'nt fall out. Used one lug out of each of the other three wheels on the fourth one and took it right home,.. slowly.

Wed Feb 25, 2004 9:24 pm

One time on my brothers 67 Firebird the left rear wheel fell off on the freeway. It rolled across the freeway and was waayyy down the road. Speaking of lugs I have always wondered what I should torque mine to. I have stock drums on the back and wide 5 discs in front. I am also running 5 spokes. Anyone have a torque spec?

Thu Feb 26, 2004 1:13 am

are you using mag style nuts and washers? If so did you use screw in or press in studs? Screw in studs imo cant take much more then 80 lbs, dunno bout press ins. I would think round 90, more of a better safe then sorry type of thing.

And when i get tire work done i either take all my wheels in loose or tell the person who is working on my car not to use an impact at all and i watch em the whole time.

Thu Feb 26, 2004 9:50 am

Billet_Bus wrote: are you using mag style nuts and washers? If so did you use screw in or press in studs? Screw in studs imo cant take much more then 80 lbs, dunno bout press ins. I would think round 90, more of a better safe then sorry type of thing.

And when i get tire work done i either take all my wheels in loose or tell the person who is working on my car not to use an impact at all and i watch em the whole time.
Yes they have washers and screw in studs. So 80 lbs you say? Thanks.

Thu Feb 26, 2004 9:59 am

I had just finished my car about 3 weeks before Copperstate. After a few days of driving, my left rear wheel came off. I think this happened because I used to much paint on the drums. It gets soft as the drums heat up, and lets the lugs come loose. It tore the front half of my fender loose. Luckily it was one of the OG fenders and just ripped loose from the bolts, and did'nt hurt the body. Steve BAP

Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:51 pm

After leaving my girlfriends house late one summer night about 6 years ago lost my wheel on the 101 freeway going about 75mph in my Ghia :shock: . There must of been an angel on my side that night, nobody else on the freeway, stayed in control, found the rim and tire in the middle divider about 300 yards away (long walk back and forth) :evil: . Had to replace the rear break drum the next day, no other problems. Kinda tramatic.

Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:58 pm

About 20 years ago i was driving on the interstate and felt the car wobble. I kept driving and it got worse. I decided to get off at the next exit and as i slowed down i could hear a banging from the rear. I pulled over and removed the rear left hub cap. 2 of the lug bolt were rattling loose in the hub cap and the other 2 were about to fall off. All 4 had the threads knocked off. I walked to the bottom of the exit ramp and 100 yards down the road was a VW dealer. I wlaked there and purchased 2 new lug bolts. A few minutes later i was back on the road.

It was luck... dumb luck.

Mon Mar 01, 2004 6:48 pm

I had one fall off on my 56 beetle. I had put the wheel on a few months before and never tightened it when I finally got it running. Luckily it didn't do any damage except scratch the drum a little.

Tue Mar 02, 2004 7:14 pm

I told this story in another post but I'll tell it again. My brother bought a 67 Beetle back in High School. The car had no brakes so since I was taking auto shop he begged me to fix the brakes for him. So I did. I did all the work while he sat around and watched and when I got done with the last wheel, (Left Rear), I told him to tighten up the lugs while I went in the house to clean up. I came back out to test drive the car. Got up to about 40 when WHAM, car drops onto the drum, I look out the window and see the tire flying into a field. It peeled the fender almost all the way off the car/ I kicked the back of the fender with my boots till I got it under the bumper. Scared him so much he got rid of it that same week.

Tue Mar 02, 2004 8:11 pm

In high scholl I watched a wheel go by (fast)in the other direction and thought WTF? a couple of blocks later I saw a bug listing to one side in the middle of the road.

about 10 years back lost the passengers side rear off of my wife's Festiva doing about 40 going cross town in NYC work. Front wheel drive dragged the car into an illegal parking spot, and some Aussie guy walks up the street rolling the wheel "Looking for this mate?"

All the lug nuts were still in the center cap.

jacked up the car,pounded the dented backing plate off of the drum, put the wheel back on and away I went, thinking of the guy in the bug i'd seen yaers before.

Sat Mar 06, 2004 6:42 pm

When I was driving on the freeway a few years ago a car in the on coming lane lost his left tire and the tire bounced over the median and missed my dodge by about a foot and smashed the person behind me in the windshield. Nobody was hurt but it was pretty scary to see happen.

Mon Mar 08, 2004 1:54 pm

Happened to me, yesterday.
The story is here:

http://www.dune-buggy.com/buggytalk/index.cgi?read=200729