My 2000 Subaru Outback keeps shearing the lugs of the rear passenger wheel! After the first incident and having to replace a warped rotor (go figure), my mechanic swears they are hand torquing the lugs and hasn't a clue as all else appears normal with the wheel, tire, bearings, etc. This is the 4th time this has happened in 8 months or so, all on the same wheel. Last year I lost all lugs on the rear driver side and ended up losing the tire completely while driving down the road. $1500 later for repairs and now I'm paranoid it's going to happen again! Has anyone had a similar problem?
The correct wheel lug torque value is 67 foot pounds Is the incorrect torque being applied? Could you have a bent rim which is putting a bending force on the studs. Are you using any wheel spacers?
Something is arguing with something else in torque alignment. Is it automatic? The rear is becoming a focus, for reasons that shouldn't be happening....
Well, I lost my front wheel completely on my 2002 Outback while driving
50mph this July and could have been killed, but wasn't due to sheer luck and very sparse traffic on the highway at midnight. Seems in my case someone forgot to torque my lug nuts after a tire rotation the week before. Subaru Dealer admitted nothing so I brought the state DMV safety inspector in on the case. Unfortunately, even with my photos of the broken lug bolt and otherwise perfect remaining bolts he could not "prove" anything without the wheel in hand. It was lost somewhere in the woods on the highway after it fell off.
Total damage was only $900 for mechanical and $1300 for body work and no one was even remotely injured (I continued driving the car in a straight line without a wheel on the driver side to safety for around
1/2 mile after it happened). DMV inspector convinced the Subaru dealer to give me back $500 but that's all he could get out of them. They said it could not have been a faulty tire rotation but refused to offer up any other explanation.
Anyway, since then I have had trouble driving, psychologically, and had to drive with anti-anxiety drugs for a full 2 weeks after the incident. And now I cannot stop myself from obsessively checking and tightening all my lug nuts every single week.
This does not really relate to your case but I just wanted to say that I feel your pa> My 2000 Subaru Outback keeps shearing the lugs of the rear passenger
Just heard back from the mechanic. Lugs are breaking off in a pattern, always to the right of the one that broke off the last time. They went ahead and replaced all remaining old lug studs with new ones as they still have no idea why this is happening. Said the only time they see this type of breakage is when someone either intentionally tampers with them or unknowingly overtightens them. Both are totally impossible in my case. I am now obessive complusive about my tires, as I commute 85 miles each day. I used to love this car - I'm now growing to loathe it.
Thanks for you inputs. Here are some answers - rim not bent, had this checked numerous times now. Car is manual, not automatic. Deb, I feel your pain too. I lost my tire on a windy country road in a massive rain storm. I'm still cleaning wheat fronds out of my car after having to treck thru the field to retreive my tire. I don't know if more body damage was caused by the tow truck driver dragging my car onto the flat bed or my car dragging 100 yards without a wheel?
Here's a wild-assed guess from an engineer.. If the rim/wheel happened to have the stud hole pattern offset from the wheel center, the resulting sideways stress might cause the studs to break over time.
A good machinist could measure it for you or you could swap wheels and see if the problem follows the wheel.
Could the dealership (if new) or a previous owner have used 'cast off' or junkyard or otherwise gottne some off-center wheels as referenced in this recall?;
*****September 2002 2003 Outback 6cylinders Alloy Wheels off center Some 6cylinder Outbacks might have improperly manufactured, off -center alloy wheels. They will be replaced*****
Perhaps the dealership can look for a number or other ID on the wheel itself.
Two years ago I hit a deer at a pretty high speed on the passenger front. After extensive body work, car seemed ok, but every couple thousand miles or so I find the alignment pulling to the front right. The following year the rear driver wheel fell off, destroying everything down to the axel and for the last eight months or so I"ve had all the problems with the rear passenger lugs. I'm sure they are all playing off each other somehow. I questioned shop about the frame possibly being bent, but they reassured me if that was the case, I would have many more problems, car wouldn't steer properly, etc and this is not the case. I have also questioned the differentials but again was assured that if that were the case I'd also have other problems. The same shop has done all the work, and they are the best in my area, so it's not some shady garage feeding me a line. I'm due for a set of new tires so maybe in the process I will have the rim checked out to see if it's off center. My next move is a new mechanic. I'll let you know how I make out!
Since there's a collision damage history, I'd be for getting the alignment checked, all four wheels, by another shop for a "second opinion." The way most of today's cars are designed to "crush" in a major collision to absorb energy, it's not unusual to find "after effects" showing up in places one might not expect even from "minor" incidents.
Can you correlate any odd tire wear to the wheel in question?
No odd tire wear at all. Both major and minor accidents happened well over a year ago. But at this point, for safety sake, anything/everything is worth rechecking. I personally have a sneaky suspicion that during one of my accidents, I may have received one of the recalled off-center alloy wheels as referenced by Carl 1 Lucky Texan. Now at this point, all I have to do is figure out how to prove/disprove this.
It is no doubt gaining something incorrect for alignment be it the internal parts or torque dispersal on the body. to say it is aligned while static is not the same as applying the motions of torque. I bet it is the accident at the source, compensation for anything bent has to be overcompensated to return to normal, or stay straight under stress unless the original shapes integrity never challenged. I learned this silently on an old subaru that I did unibody work myself on. Could measure til no tomorrow, but over compensation was a must - to be normal while driving.Not to mention what takes awhile to catch up. It is like steel has a memory and relapses.
hmmm, I do not think that the alignment has anything to do with it. I have driven cars after an accident for hundreds of miles with the tires squealing against the pavement for hundreds of miles, (i had to get to my destination). After the car was repaired,without replacing hubs or bearings, it ran for thousands of miles without a problem. Just my grain of salt
that is an obvious injury... never hurt transaxles heh? squealing for hundreds of miles? Do you do drugs and drive? something is snapping torque around, wheels are always final output. I broke a unibody after a stressful 4x4 trip. tires never squealed. And furthermore with subaru being independent all the way around. these problems can stay elusively precise. I don't know how traction control works or if the vehicle has it, maybe that could be a possible target. obvious stuff is ruled out already... an accident can be tricky.
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