Wheel Fell Off...Crap

[thegray1]

Well on Friday I got some new tires. Nankang Mudstar. Cheapo Taiwanese brand but had heard really good things about them. (Will post a review once I actually get them off road). Had someone mount and balance on some rims. Then put them on the truck myself. Tightened all 4 wheels down equally. Front driver's side has locking nuts, the rest are regular style. Well after driving about 20 miles at about 55mph on Saturday, I was going to take a short drive to test them out. After driving about 2 miles, at no more than 40 mph, I thought I saw my front driver's side tire throw some rocks...it was my lug nuts. Shortly after, wheel came off. Skidded about 40 yards while trying to stop. Found 4 lugs, jacked it up, tire back on. Drove it home (slowly).

Here is the damage:
Shield/shroud thing got ground down on the bottom. Rotor ground down as well.
There is a bolt and a castle nut that was shaved off completely as well. I don't know what this goes to. Help please. This I know will need to be replaced.

Today I took the wheel off and inspected everything. All seems good. I had to bend part of the shroud back to keep it from scraping the rotor, but other than that it doesn't seem like there is a problem. Took it for a test drive and everything drove great. I know there was a lot of force when the rotor came down on the pavement, so is there anything else I should check on? I may take it to a mechanic friend, just to have him look at everything to double check it is safe to drive.

Pictures!!!!!!!
<a href="http://s735.photobucket.com/user/fishinfrenzi15/media/IMG_3644.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww351/fishinfrenzi15/IMG_3644.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_3644.jpg"/></a>
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Also, any idea what could have caused the lug nuts to come off? I know they were plenty tight enough. It's just weird they all came off at the same time, for the most part.

 

[ChildrenOfBodom]

You really shouldn't be driving it like that. The castle nut was part of your ball joint, you could really lose the wheel with the hub, control arm, and spindle still attached.

You need a new lower ball joint and rotor at the very minimum

 

[Robmills72]

Once you replace everything, as long as suspension and steering seems fine you should be good to go. I hope your hubs were unlocked because the kind of stopping force going from 40mph to 0 could EASILY destroy a cv, even though you were probably not in 4wd or anything it would not hurt to check. Also I would replace both side's LBJ's and rotors just to be on the safe side.

 

[541joseph]

Well on Friday I got some new tires. Nankang Mudstar. Cheapo Taiwanese brand but had heard really good things about them. (Will post a review once I actually get them off road). Had someone mount and balance on some rims. Then put them on the truck myself. Tightened all 4 wheels down equally. Front driver's side has locking nuts, the rest are regular style. Well after driving about 20 miles at about 55mph on Saturday, I was going to take a short drive to test them out. After driving about 2 miles, at no more than 40 mph, I thought I saw my front driver's side tire throw some rocks...it was my lug nuts. Shortly after, wheel came off. Skidded about 40 yards while trying to stop. Found 4 lugs, jacked it up, tire back on. Drove it home (slowly).

Here is the damage:
Shield/shroud thing got ground down on the bottom. Rotor ground down as well.
There is a bolt and a castle nut that was shaved off completely as well. I don't know what this goes to. Help please. This I know will need to be replaced.

Today I took the wheel off and inspected everything. All seems good. I had to bend part of the shroud back to keep it from scraping the rotor, but other than that it doesn't seem like there is a problem. Took it for a test drive and everything drove great. I know there was a lot of force when the rotor came down on the pavement, so is there anything else I should check on? I may take it to a mechanic friend, just to have him look at everything to double check it is safe to drive.

Pictures!!!!!!!
<a href="http://s735.photobucket.com/user/fishinfrenzi15/media/IMG_3644.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww351/fishinfrenzi15/IMG_3644.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_3644.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s735.photobucket.com/user/fishinfrenzi15/media/IMG_0001_2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww351/fishinfrenzi15/IMG_0001_2.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0001_2.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s735.photobucket.com/user/fishinfrenzi15/media/IMG_0005_2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww351/fishinfrenzi15/IMG_0005_2.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0005_2.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s735.photobucket.com/user/fishinfrenzi15/media/IMG_0004_2.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i735.photobucket.com/albums/ww351/fishinfrenzi15/IMG_0004_2.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_0004_2.jpg"/></a>

Also, any idea what could have caused the lug nuts to come off? I know they were plenty tight enough. It's just weird they all came off at the same time, for the most part.

You should really get a torque wrench. At least a harbor freight one. The only real reason for it to fall off is it not being tight.

 

[thegray1]

You really shouldn't be driving it like that. The castle nut was part of your ball joint, you could really lose the wheel with the hub, control arm, and spindle still attached.

You need a new lower ball joint and rotor at the very minimum

Lower ball joint! I should have known that. I definitely won't be driving it any more until I get it all fixed. I actually didn't even notice the bolt had been ground down until I got home.

I hope your hubs were unlocked because the kind of stopping force going from 40mph to 0 could EASILY destroy a cv, even though you were probably not in 4wd or anything it would not hurt to check.

I was not in 4x4 and the hubs were not locked, thankfully. Also this could have happened earlier in the day when I was doing 55-60 mph with my wife in the truck. Blessed it happened when it did.

You should really get a torque wrench. At least a harbor freight one. The only real reason for it to fall off is it not being tight.

I have one. They were tight. Tight as all the others. Checked the rest when it fell off and none could be tightened any further by hand. I just find it strange that the ones that came off were all locking, and the rest weren't.

Thanks for guidance fellas. I will order a new lower ball joint and rotor. Get those replaced and then go from there. Appreciate the help.

 

[Hyde802]

Had this happen to me once. But on dirt at about 10 mph, so nothing was damaged.

That being said, DAM! Ground that rotor right down! Glad your ok!

 

[gshadow325]

You should really get a torque wrench. At least a harbor freight one. The only real reason for it to fall off is it not being tight.

Sears sell a better quality one for about $50, every vehicle that leaves my shop and it needed to have the wheels taken off get torqued down to 125 ft pounds. Never trust a airgun or your hands/body weight on the lugs. 95% of the so called mechanics never ever use their torque wrenches to tighten wheels. I'm too scared of this happening to me, god forbid a customer!

 

[Swimmerboy2112]

Sears sell a better quality one for about $50, every vehicle that leaves my shop and it needed to have the wheels taken off get torqued down to 125 ft pounds. Never trust a airgun or your hands/body weight on the lugs. 95% of the so called mechanics never ever use their torque wrenches to tighten wheels. I'm too scared of this happening to me, god forbid a customer!

I believe Toyota recommends 83ft/lbs, any more and they say it could snap the lug studs.

 

[02SE]

every vehicle that leaves my shop and it needed to have the wheels taken off get torqued down to 125 ft pounds.

125 ft-lbs is too much for some, actually, a lot of vehicles. Tightening the lug nuts too much, can stretch the studs past their elastic point, which means they are now a good candidate for shearing off at the point where they emerge from the hub. If they were to all shear at once, it would be a bad day for the vehicle owner. There would be a bad day for you later on, when their blood-sucking Lawyer comes after you.

My advice would be to get yourself a torque table, which lists the proper torque specs for the various makes and models of cars you work on.



As for you OP, something is wrong for all of the wheel locking nuts to loosen up. Did you use the Torque wrench? you only said they were tight, not that you used the Torque Wrench to tighten the nuts. Are they the correct thread? I've seen some people ham-fist the wrong thread lug nuts onto wheel studs before.

 

[541joseph]

Sears sell a better quality one for about $50, every vehicle that leaves my shop and it needed to have the wheels taken off get torqued down to 125 ft pounds. Never trust a airgun or your hands/body weight on the lugs. 95% of the so called mechanics never ever use their torque wrenches to tighten wheels. I'm too scared of this happening to me, god forbid a customer!

We torque all the wheels that we take off to factory spec. Normally no more than 110. And I agree our air gun gets some really tight and some barely tight. No matter what you do.

 

[gshadow325]

125 ft-lbs is too much for some, actually, a lot of vehicles. Tightening the lug nuts too much, can stretch the studs past their elastic point, which means they are now a good candidate for shearing off at the point where they emerge from the hub. If they were to all shear at once, it would be a bad day for the vehicle owner. There would be a bad day for you later on, when their blood-sucking Lawyer comes after you.

My advice would be to get yourself a torque table, which lists the proper torque specs for the various makes and models of cars you work on.

.

Advice taken, and noted. Over tightened by a little is much better than not tight at all. I have yet to experience a stud ever stretching though.

 

[nor_cal51501]

I'm betting you have the wrong locking lugs. Our toyotas require the ET lugs instead of the acorn style lugs. The ET thread on further "ET"(Extra Thread) and thread through the lug holes instead of pinning against the holes and sandwiching them. The acorn style ones done get as much of a bite, whereas the ET lugs get more thread bite. Also, why do you have all your locking lugs on one wheel?

 

[02SE]

Advice taken, and noted. Over tightened by a little is much better than not tight at all. I have yet to experience a stud ever stretching though.

Back in the day when I worked on consumer cars for a living, I saw broken wheel studs fairly frequently. Almost invariably the customer had been to a tire store, where less-than-skilled workers had seriously over-tightened the lug nuts, and stretched the stud(s) to the breaking point.

Anyway, here's a decent lug nut torque table. They sometimes list a torque range, the reason is because there might be some slight changes year-to-year, or depending on the particular type of wheel (steel or aluminum, etc.) might require a different torque setting.

The owner's manual should be the final say as to what applies to that particular vehicle.

http://www.dormanproducts.com/documents4rb/WheelNutTorqueSpecsMASTER.pdf

 

[KidVermicious]

Could have been debris between the wheel and WMS too, I had that bite me once. The nuts appear tight, then the debris vibrates out while driving and every lugnut on that wheel is instantly rattling loose.

 

[thegray1]

As for you OP, something is wrong for all of the wheel locking nuts to loosen up. Did you use the Torque wrench? you only said they were tight, not that you used the Torque Wrench to tighten the nuts. Are they the correct thread? I've seen some people ham-fist the wrong thread lug nuts onto wheel studs before.

I did not torque them to spec. Just hand tightened. I have never bothered to torque my lugs when removing the wheels. I am going to start doing it, for sure.

I'm betting you have the wrong locking lugs.

They came on the truck when I bought it. Some of the POs seem to have been idiots, so I would not put it past them. However, I have driven it that way for over a year, never had a problem before. I will be replacing them.

Also, why do you have all your locking lugs on one wheel?

Aesthetics...no one around here is going to steal my tires, so I don't care about having one or 2 on each wheel.

Could have been debris between the wheel and WMS too, I had that bite me once. The nuts appear tight, then the debris vibrates out while driving and every lugnut on that wheel is instantly rattling loose.

Interesting. I will be sure to clean everything when I replace the rotor.

Thanks again yall.

 

[MacGyver1979]

I agree to always use a torque wrench. It sounds like your lug nuts unscrewed themselfs, if you were able to put them back on and drive home? so they didnt srtip the threads or break the studs. the spinning of a wheel in theory can unscrew lug nuts but on the passenger side ( going forward).( if you ever worked on a 60's dodge you will know the passanger side lug threads are backwards.) Even tightening by hand or impact they should not have came off so quickly, someone may have decided to loosen them for you, or is it possible that you just forgot to tighten down that one wheel?