Just wanted to post up am experience I had. Wednesday of last week my trophy grade fiancé called me crying around 8AM. She told me that as she was pulling up to work one of her tires fell off. I went to meet her and had her send me a few pictures so I would know what I was getting into. Here are the pictures she sent:



As I was backing out of the driveway I noticed two of her lug nuts laying in the street which I picked up and took with me. At this point I was thinking either they weren't put in tight enough by the tire shop, someone tried to steal the wheels, or someone had purposely loosened the nuts with malicious intent.

When I arrive I jacked the car up and decided that I would remove one lug nut from two other wheels and take the car to the dealership with three wheels being short one lug nut. When I pulled the lug nuts from my pocket I noticed that they were short; maybe only enough room to get 4-5 turns. I checked out the hub, and sure enough all five had snapped off inside the hub.

Of course we had to call a tow truck and have it taken to our Indy. Ended up costing about $700. The bill isn't itemized, but I'm sure it includes towing, new lug nuts, a new hub, an alignment, and of course labor. If anyone wants to weigh in on this I would appreciate it.

A few more pictures:



So I have been in Vegas the last week so this is my first chance to post. The mechanic told my fiancé that this was not her fault and is not out of the ordinary for this car.; I can't imagine that is true. He said that another girl was in the shop with the same issue a few weeks back.

My thoughts; the tires shop either over or under tightened the lug nuts when they put the tires on a few months back, or my fiancé does a little too much feeling with her wheels when she is parking (see second picture) and the added stress broke the lug nuts.

My questions:
1. Is this common?
2. Why do you think this happened?

As always I appreciate anyone who took the time to read this or offer a response.

 

Might want to check you nuts occasionally.

I've seen this one time and it was operator error.... my friend was just finished doing a brake job.... and he lost a wheel...... he did not tighten his nuts.

 

Did you have the nuts retorqued a hundred or so miles after installation?

 

post pics of said "trophy grade" fiance....

 

I now talk to the techs doing any work on my wheels to request/remind them that the torque value for the bolts is 95 ft lbs; and 190 ft lbs isn't twice as good. I used to change my wheels often (2-3 times a year) and a few times I have stood on the 4 socket lug wrench used and was still not able to break them loose. Had to used a floor jack and wooden blocks on several of the bolts once. If you have had work done on the wheels within the last 6 months, over-tightening could be the cause. If so, I would replace all the bolts on all the wheels.
If the bolts are sheared off, given that the hubs are wheel centering (hub centric), I would guess that your incident was due to over-tightening. Unless 3 or more of the bolts were loose, I doubt that your wheel would even wobble under normal driving. And, if they were loose, they would have to be loose by an amount equal to or greater than the depth of the hub ridge the wheels ride on.

I'm not sure of todays wheels but bolts used to be designed to thermally expand under use, thereby tightening them.

Very good that no one was hurt........ glad of that for you.

 

Holy crap!

 

Wow glad no one was hurt... That's a serious issue.... Especially if it happened on the highway!

" is not out of the ordinary for this car"

Um... yes it is lol.

 

Nonsense. A wheel going astray is not “ordinary for this car.”
No trophy awarded in this instance.

 

Actually, this is a common occurrence (i.e. broken lug bolts) when they are loose! They wiggle themselves partially out of the hub allowing the wheel to wobble and the lateral forces break the bolts. This can happen when they are over-torqued and one or two bolts break, then the others aren't strong enough to handle the force of cornering. I'd look to who last torqued those bolts. Chain tires stores (NTB) are notorious for doing it incorrectly. I swore off of NTB years ago when they couldn't get new tires on my ML properly balanced and broke two lugs bolts, and then refused to fix it.

 

 

Going out to the garage now to check the lugs with a torque wrench...

Glad no one was hurt!

.

 

LOL

 

Happened to me on two separate times, Lug nuts were not on tight enough and vibrations snapped them, Unless all 5 lugs snapped at once, no way driver could have missed the vibrations. Not to be mean, but you gotta be pretty simple to not notice the shaking when you are driving. Unless of course, all 5 lugs snapped at once. Glad your trophy was fine. TC

 

I'll give the trophy wife the benefit of the doubt - my cabriolet rides so rough (end-of-life tires and worn control arm bushings) and the roads I drive on are in such bad condition (hence the bad bushings), I have just learned to ignore the vibration and suspension noises.

 

I would check with a dealer to verify if your bolts are correct length as the thread engagement you state suggests wrong parts.good luck.

 

Actually, installing new studs is pretty easy. They only cost a couple bucks each, and could even be done on the side of the road. I would've fixed it myself for $20, but to each their own.

And no, this is not normal.

 

Thanks to everyone for the replies.

No I did not. I cant believe I forgot to do this after all the times I have changed the wheels on my 750. The tire store did not mention this to us, either.

Great advice, thank you.

The tires were installed at S&S Tire, so this is most likely what happened. I usually take my cars to S&S as the owners are a family friend, however the location we used this time was different as my trophy had a blowout several months back in almost the exact same location and this was the closest shop to have it towed to.

Two of the lug nut a were in the street in front of our house. Only one was actually on the scene where the wheel broke off. I'm sure she was too busy texting, putting on makeup, or fumbling around looking for her Britney Spears or Lady Gaga CDs to notice the vibrations.

 

Calm down, guys. I don't think my "Trophy Grade" fiancé would appreciate me posting her pictures on an online car forum full of randy men. You will just have to trust me on this one; she is absolutely stunning.

 

No studs on this car

 

Right - it was a soon to be "trophy wife" driving, not a "stud".

Seriously, yes, MBZ uses lug bolts instead of lug nuts, therefore there are no studs that have to be removed from the hub - just unscrew the remnants of the broken bolt from the hub, and use a new bolt to reattach the wheel.

 

shut the hell up!

 

Or what clown?

Relax buddy it was a joke.

 

+1