Ever had a wheel fall off?

vwsteve · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 6:37 pm Post subject:

About 20 years ago, I was driving along and suddenly the left front drops down and I see the wheel going across the road. I hit the brakes and the pedal goes to the floor. I get stopped with the hand brake. The outer wheel bearing had seized up and broke the end of the spindle off where the threads start. I was about three miles from home and luckily a couple buddies come by. We picked the front up and slid the wheel and hub back on. They held it on while I got the car off the road. We went to my house and got a long 1/4" bolt, big washer, and pair of vise grips. I jerked the speedometer cable out, shoved the bolt through from the back side, put the washer on and clamped the vise grips on the bolt to hold everything together. I drove it home at about 5 mph. Those vise grips were a hell of site going down the road.

Joel · Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2008 9:31 pm Post subject:

this thread made me think of this video

Link

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HerrrKafer · Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 11:28 pm Post subject:

piemat · Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 3:11 am Post subject:

HA! It looks like he set the parking brake.

I bet its a PITA to get a car off the ground like that.
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Joel · Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:04 am Post subject:

HerrrKafer i did pretty much the same thing LOL
thinking how the hell do all 4 wheels fall off at once??

turns out he the shop sold him subaru wheel nuts which had the wrong thread pitch
they did up but as soon as a load was put on them the threads just sheard clean off

wouldnt be a cheap fix either
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Kelley · Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:07 am Post subject:

When I lived in GA about 12-13 years ago, my uncle in Acworth had helped me on a brake job one night, and drinking beer. The next morning going to work my right rear tire/wheel passed me on I-75 south near I-285 in Marietta. So I pull over and jog the 1/2 mile to where the wheel stopped and brought it back. I also had to rob 1 lug from each of the other wheels to mount it.

Needless to say, I quit drinking while working on my car and dont let him help me anymore.
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Da TOW'D · Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 8:28 pm Post subject:

67 Shane · Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 11:55 am Post subject:

When I was 16 I was putting along at about 25 in my '70 Bug through the neighborhood on the way home and I started to hear this loud wabble from the front drivers side. Before I could even stop BAM my left front dropped and Im rolling on the drums. I look up and my fender is damn near the height of the windshield and my running board is blocking me from getting out of the door. So I hop to the pass. seat and out the door chasing my rim down the road. I get back to the car and realize hmmmm the ass that just put my new tires on didnt put the lugs on tight. Took some pics and went back to the shop and got a check from the owner to fix my ride after threats of involving lawyers and immigration. This is Florida and he employed all illegals. I had just painted the car about a week before and these were brand new rims and tires. I was six shades of pissed. But with the owner of the shops check in hand I repainted the car myself again and came out with some coin in my pocket. I look back on it now and laugh but it wasnt too funny then.
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dirtkeeper · Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 7:33 am Post subject:

when i was about 17 (more than 25 yearse ago) I had just set my car down after putting the wheels on and i planned to torque the wheels with the car on the ground as usual... at that moment my friend showed up and i cant remember if we puffed or something but was distracted and evidently i never torqued one of the wheels
a day later as i was getting on an on ramp to the freeway my wheel fell off and i watched as it rolled down the freeway and over the center divide never to be seen again
well it took me a little time to get the spare on because i kinda needed to get the car up ,reset the jack and jack it up further
just as i got the spare on....onto the on ramp comes a car with a skid mark over the top....it was rather evident that the skid mark matched my missing wheel

well lets just say my insurance went up after that and i remember several years of trying to pay something off

wasnt till i was older that thought "boy somebody could have gotten hurt"

birddog1148 · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 7:08 pm Post subject:

I had a right rear fall off a FWD dirt track car, happened coming out of 2 on the back stretch, spun into the wall in turn 3 and then my wheel hit me!
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green73 · Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 11:12 pm Post subject:

my dad was driving a 90 dodge van pulling a car when the drive shaft just snaped. he pulled over got the tow truck from work and hooked it up. van to tow truck, tralier to van and car on trailer! as they get back on the highway at about 75 mph suddenly both back wheels fell of the van along with the axel! no one was hurt but the van wasn't gona see the road again!
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hank1968 · Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:09 am Post subject:

Well now that you ask the ? yes I did. Was going to the spring car show in OC maryland this year with my newly acquired 63 bug and I was going 60 mph on Rt. 97 before the Bay Bridge and it felt like I was running over the rumble strips and before I knew it my back drivers wheel comes off in the hwy. My friend was driving his 07 Vette behind me and it missed his car ...don't know how but it did. Walked back to get the wheel and all of the lugnuts were sitting next to the wheel and the hubcap never got a scratch. Put the wheel on with 4 out of the 5 lugnuts and went on my way to the beach 2.5 hr. drive.

fred69vert · Posted: Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:49 am Post subject:

Not as an adult and not on a car, but everyone should get a laugh out of this.

I was 13 or so, riding my banana bike (it was the 70's) and decided to show off for a couple of girls. So I pulled a wheelie (on the highway, no less). Cool, huh?

Not cool!!! The front wheel fell off and rolled on down the highway without me. You can't ride a wheelie forever, and when I came down on the asphalt, I was highly embarased.
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lawn ninja · Posted: Fri Aug 15, 2008 6:41 pm Post subject:

My first VW ever I did this crap in, it has to be 20 years ago now. I had a pristine 63 squareback and being dumbass kid that I was I had it tucking rim all the way around. Well I had just got my 5 spokes in the mail and was getting ready to go pick up my friend Rich and head out to Pomona Swap Meet for the night. Like the other guy's story the phone rings so I ask my buddy to tighten the rest of the lugs down... It's this hot little number that I totally want to bang, so I spend the next 15 minutes trying to get her to go to Pomona with me. When that doesn't work out I walk back out where my buddy Scott is checking the lugs like I asked him to and he is all done and throwing stuff in the car. We take off and head on down the road. About 20 miles into it I hear something, just as I hear this weird vibrating noise the back end of the car drops and the car starts dragging the wheel. just as I get the car off to the side of the road the tire pops. Crying or Very sad

The car was so low that the wheel didn't fall off the car. When it came off the drum it shoved itself up inside the wheelwell and jammed there. To top it off we had to walk the last 5 miles to my friend's house because these were the days before cell phones. When we get back... We see that the tire managed to knock one of the valve covers out of alignment and now there is a huge puddle of oil under the car too.

BDSBSS23 · Posted: Sat Aug 16, 2008 10:23 pm Post subject:

Drove my car and i forgot to torque one of my wheels..... Lucky me i was only goin 15 mph and i stopped right before the tire was halfway out..
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patrickkryan · Samba Member Joined: January 27, 2008 Posts: 343

I was towing my bug and it started tracking wired. So I pulled over looked it over and nothing was wrong. Got back in my car and started driving still it felt wired so I pulled over again. I got out and looked around my car and nothing seemed wrong. Then I saw that one of the cars hubcaps was missing. I looked at the wheel and the center of the wheel was separated from the rest of the wheel. I am not talking about the tire coming loose from the wheel. The wheel actually broke.
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jwd722 · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 8:14 pm Post subject:

It's never happened to me but now that I've read all this I'm going to retorque my wheels in the a.m.!! Shocked

**orangecrush** · Posted: Tue Sep 16, 2008 10:10 pm Post subject:

Oh man is it a RUSH! driving my slammed 64 bug down the road for a test drive. Noticed a weird shaking in the car, was doin about 30mph when all of a sudden booom! driver side front wheel fell off, car slammed to the ground and was veering me towards a nice 5 foot ditch. luckily my car was spared due to great brakes. the cause one loose lug nut which caused the other to vibrate out. i defiantly need to change my shorts after that! Laughing

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BugMan114 · Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 6:41 pm Post subject:


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