*ADVICE NEEDED* Tire and rim completely blew off my car today?!?!

Okay so i just came from internation autobody to setup a time to get my rear bumper pulled and frame patched due to minor collision which happened about a month ago. Have been driving it ever since and well today after leaving im on my way home doing no more than 40 as i was about 20 meters away from where im turning and my passengers side tire and rim completely fly off and my car dragged a good 10 meters as it was on an incline. The whole rear quater panel behind the tire is completely pushes and all smoosed up. ill take pics asap… The reason why the tire broke is because one of the lug nut bolts totally snapped in half but i dont understand why other 3 lug nuts didnt keep it on!!! or why the fuck it broke in the first place… i donno im pretty upset as this is my only vehicle and well i dont know if its worth fixing or not… i literally just got it saftied and e tested 2 months ago so i dont no if it would be cheaper to buy a new 240 or? if anyone does cheap good body work please let me know ill get pics up asap.

did you put the lug nuts on the right way?>

my guess would be either the lug nuts were way to tight or to loose.

Need pics, to properly understand what exactly happened.

Had a shop put the rims on so they should of torqued them properly. but i called them asking for advice and what the fuck happened as its definately not my fault. i only have basic coverage on my insurance and supposively they wouldnt be able to do anything anyways as it was a mechanical failure. but when i called he said rims could have been crooked… im pretty pissed as its not my fault at all and just took pictures of it just waiting for them to load

Do you have PROOF, ie a recent receipt detailing that they put your wheels on?

If all studs snapped, I’d guess they were improperly torqued.

Their fault.

http://i43.tinypic.com/4h8d2r.jpg

---------- Post added at 05:36 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:34 PM ----------

Only one stud snapped :S i really dont understand, I just bought new studs, dent puller and other body work stuff, im going to see what i can do with it and well hopefully it will be driveable, ugh its my only vehicle and i cant not have a source of transportation

Goddamn… Re-size pictures much?

Something is fishy here. ONE Stud snapping shouldn’t make your whole FUCKING WHEEL FALL off. Jesus.

I don’t see how thats even possible. Are you telling me that ALL the lug nuts CAME OFF as well? If one stud snaps, three correctly torqued lug nuts should hold the wheel fine.

My theory is THE SHOP DIDN’T TORQUE THAT WHEEL AT ALL!!! Call them and ask them what they torqued the lugs to. They should know off the top of their head. Seriously…impossible with three correctly torqued lugs.

Your wheel was prolly shaking around back and forth and up and down like a motherfucker until one stud snapped. If the lugs were torqued you wouldn’t even have noticed.

Check your other studs ASAP!

Really makes no sense. Unless your other lugs stripped the threads right off the studs, i don’t’ see how three lug nuts can’t hold a wheel.

Hell, once a shop didn’t put my forth lug nut on properly, on the account that the lug was 17mm, and not 19mm like the other three. I drove 5km’s before noticing that it wasn’t seized brakes, but my actual rim was flopping around.

Never took my car to a mechanic after that, except for e test and alignment.

im five lug and went a long way with a steelie that didnt fit over the hub bolt so like a half inch gap and one sheered lugnut on the highway so u can definately drive without one bolt

Ya i really dont understand how this managed to happen, really upsetting as i was going to get a suspension for it yesterday… but ive changed lug nut bolts all way around and tried to pull the body damage out aas much as possible but wouldnt come much… and im currently driving it as is… Hopei dont get a fine or whatnot

Wait so most of us are confused as to what exactly happened, 1 of the lug nut bolts (studs) completely broke you said.
The other 3 lug nuts came loose then? causing the wheel to come completely off the car?

If so that answers your question of why the other 3 lugs didn’t keep it on, all 4 of them obviously were not torqued properly.

The way fastened load parts work is the mating surfaces (wheel and hub in your case) takes majority of the load of the wheel and all the weight not the bolts(studs) once those mating surfaces are no longer touching the bolts(studs) now take the load and weight completely. Weakest part then snaps.

If it was the shop who last touched your wheels/lugs I would be taking those fuckers to court… you luckily were only going 20… if this was highway speeds it not only could have been real ugly for you, a free wheel rolling at that speed is death for anything it touches.

Seriously. That’s what I’m saying. The shop didn’t tighten the lugs AT ALL. Even if there was 40 ft lbs on four studs that shit wouldn’t happen at those speeds. WHEN did the shop do this? And most importantly, do you have receipts? If the answer is yes, they are liable.

Did you notice a thumping or knocking noise at all while you were driving? Kinda sounds like a bad ball joint but all the time? That would’ve been a telltale sign that something was up… Even when I broke a stud on 4-lug I continued to drive to work with no problems (didn’t know it broke) going around 70 km/h. 3 lugs are more than enough for 40km/h IF the other 3 were torqued properly. I’m with you ronnie… I don’t know how the hell this happened. There should’ve at least been some sign, but weirded shit has happened I guess. Go back to the “shop” immediately and swear up and down that you never touched the wheels after they did. GL

-bill

A squeaky wheel gets the oil.

I drove over 300 KM on 3 nuts before so yeah i think what happened is you had one over torqued nut and 3 just finger tight. wheel spun the others off. When the tire only had one nut holding it on it might have cocked over to one side snapping the last bolt in two with the force.

Just a tip i believe all cars are 90 foot pounds of torque.

Give me a few weeks as I am in the middle of moving and pulling my car out for the summer. Bring your car to Toronto and ill get that bad boy fixed for you. It might be a few colors but ill get a basic repair done so that no one will pull you over. I two know what its like to be screwed by someone.

Right before it happend it felt like a tire poped so i slowed down and bamb didnt even have enough time to stop before i see the tire flying past my passengers side window. I am so thankful the tire didnt hit anyone or anything as yes it would have been absolutely fatal as agent240 Stated, and thankful i wasnt on a high way or a busy street and it would have been much much worse. And okay clutchfire sounds good because i really dont want to get rid of it yet, although im going to have to get a beater for now

---------- Post added at 01:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:50 PM ----------

and i guess im going to try and take this to court and whatnot but they didnt give me a recipt no as they were nice enough to put my rims on for free… Go figures. Fuck me ive learnt my leason and will now pay full price for proper work… although you never know when some jackass is working on ur vehicle

You need someone that knows what they’re doing to help you handle this. Get your facts and timelines straight and have someone write a letter to the shop explaining what happened. This shouldn’t have happened.

hah i remember some stupid guy with a toyota starlet or old mazda 3 hatch or something like that, it was a small lil hatch that was on a track day with 3 lugs… fucking retarded and sure enough the wheel came off, stupid guy endangered others who were racing and wasted our time having to stop the race/clean up until his ass was moved.