wheel falls off :/

Me and my wife are in our beater 73 Super (not the good 73 that isn't completed yet) just got on the highway after filling up the tank. Not even a half mile up the road the steering fall starts to shake, then got worse quickly. Instinct says let off on the gas and pull over. Right then the drivers side front drops six inches to the ground and our tire passes us. No problem with control, I steered off the highway into the shoulder. I probably scraped 100 feet. The tire kept going about another 1000 feet across the highway and rested in the left shoulder.

So I get out and see, yup, no wheel. How the hell did that happen? Over the road I did find the four lug nuts. Lower control arm and the bottom of the spindle are worn flat. Repairable..

My wife was freaked out and I was just laughing at the whole thing.

I was the last to take the wheel off when I was working on the front brakes, but I know I torqued the lugs down... I don't know why this happened.

Reply to
David Gravereaux
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Man, I hate to say this, but it looks like sabotage. I mean, you would _know_ if you tightened the nuts. Seems real unlikely that all four would spin off in such synchronicity.

Reply to
jjs

Hubcap fingerprints?

Reply to
Michael Cecil

famous quote....just like "i *know* the firing order is correct", or "no that's not the problem" etc...

------------------- Chris Perdue "I'm ever so thankful for the Internet; it has allowed me to keep a finger in the pie and to make some small contribution to those younger who will carry the air-cooled legend forward" Jim Mais Feb. 2004

Reply to
Chris Perdue

Geez! I'm glad you and your wife are ok. If you are going to quadruple check ANYTHING, check your lugnuts. I almost forgot to tighten mine once.....thank goodness I remembered.

Yes. I'm *sure* you tightened them too.

haha....If you really did tighten them, SOMEBODY loosened them. There are no other explanations. What happened to the whole brake assembly? Are you sure the wheel didn't pull off with the drum, IE the spindle nut was loose? How did you stop if the whole brake assembly was gone? If this happened, you would have lost brake pressure. Maybe I'm not understanding what came off, exactly.

Anyway, again, glad you're ok, and glad the damamge is fixable.

~Anthony

Reply to
Anthony

This really does cry out for some innuendo.

If just the tire came off, the brake drum would have still been mounted and could roll and prevent the brake shoes from getting lost.

That is the important thing. :)

Reply to
Michael Cecil

did that one time also. put the nifty 8 spoke mags on my junker bug "just to see how neat they will look on my next bug ". well....... forgot to tighten the lug nuts after lowering the jack and later watched one front wheel fly across the road into oncoming traffic seemingly dodging every car to land beside a fir tree.

so that is something i double check everytime, now.

Reply to
bob

For real, was tight. 2 months ago after the brake job.

Reply to
David Gravereaux

No hubcaps were on the fronts.. was lazy.. This makes the most sense.. had to have been sabotage. From the looks of the 4 lug nuts I found on the road, the beginnings of the threads took all the chew damage when the wheel started shaking. So they must have been turned out by someone. And I do park this car on the street.

Reply to
David Gravereaux

No damage.. The drum didn't touch the ground. Under the strut is where the spindle attaches and under that is where the lower control arm bolts to. All the damage was to the lower control arm and its pivot.

I'll take a pic of it today.

Reply to
David Gravereaux

Kids probably pissed-off because they couldn't steal your hubcaps. Glad you are okay.

Reply to
jjs

D'OH! Spaced that it was a Super Beetle. I was thinking standard Beetle suspension compenents. Makes more sense now.

~Anthony

Reply to
Anthony

Drive it till the wheels fall off, I say! Serioulsly, glad nobody was hurt and the car is repairable. I'm really paranoid about the wheels coming loose. Ive got Empi 8-spokes, and the last time I had tires installed, 2 days later the rear end felt wobbly. "What the hell?" I'm thinking, I stopped and all 8 rear lug nuts were loose. I've seen too many wheels come off, whenever I take 'em off, I double check, then check 'em again in a day or two. And whenever I get my Tires changed, I'm gonna go around the block and check them...

Reply to
Zarana-X

On Sat, 13 Nov 2004 10:46:59 -0800, David Gravereaux scribbled this interesting note:

I was listening to CarTalk one time, years ago, and they suggested that hubcaps are indeed safety equipment since if the lug nuts or bolts fall off you will hear them rolling around inside the cap!

-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

Reply to
John Willis

Glad you are ok.

As a warning sign, you will hear a clicking sound coming from the wheel well a short while (the last 15-30 seconds on stock wheels) before the wheel comes off. If the lug bolts of aluminum aftermarket wheels are left loose, they will completelly untighten themselves in no time, cause the friction of the bolt in the wheel, is much higher.

Also notice that only left side wheels fall off when the nuts are left loose, cause the rotation of the wheel tends to untighten them, while on the right side it tends to tighten them. So check if the lugs of the right side wheels are torqued. In case you got sabotaged the other wheels might need tightenning too.

Bill, '67 Bug.

Reply to
Bill Spiliotopoulos

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