Popo Here

I've been driving on the interstate on a cross country trip. 500 miles in, I feel a very funny vibration. I pull over and inspect everything that I could think of. Things look ok so I get back in the car and resume driving. Get up to about 75 mph and all hell breaks lose. Vibration gets really bad and before I could pull over, the car almost fish tails and I hear a loud boom. I get out and all the lug bolts from the rear left wheel have come off, the car has collapsed and the rear wheel broken off. How is this even possible? I'm in the middle of nowhere.

Nuru

Popo; very glad you and your passengers were not hurt and the car did not impact anything. Hopefully you have an insurance package for the wheels and tires. When you get it fixed, have them inspect all the wheels including the broken on to see if it had been repaired before. I had a wheel on a car that stopped being able to hold its air and the symptom was a slow leak, turned out the wheel had been repaired before and the repair did not hold together.

WHPH28

Have you recently done any tire service? rotation?

If the lugs were not tightened properly, they will be come loose when driving and one by one they will fall out. People do not realize the danger of not properly tightening lug nuts.

Nuru

Definitely true, with regards to improper tightening of the lug nuts. That is another more common cause. I was thinking that the lug nuts were checked at the time Popo stopped to check everything before the wheel came off.

KNBS550

Wow...Thankfully no one got hurt. The second photo really shows the separation/failure of the wheel. Hope you can get some help where you are and have this sorted out. Take care.

Popo Here

Just made it back home 500 plus miles on a doughnut wheel. Sucks but luckily the wheel is the only damage from what I can see

Mike5215

That's bizarre. It would be hard to tell visually that the bolts were loose unless you actually put a wrench on them. On that style wheel they're deeply recessed. Whoever touched that wheel last ****ed up and didn't torque them down to spec.

jfz219

Wheel fly offs are not uncommon. One national tire chain experiences about 6 occurrences per month inspite of correct torque settings. The best practice is to retorque all lug nuts after 50-100 miles.

mrbobby

I'm assuming the rims were OEM and that the studs were the proper length for the wheel? Really glad you weren't hurt, but if it were me I'd have to claim new underwear from insurance also.

steponthegas

The wheel bolts may have been already worn out causing your tires to fly off.

triniexr

Either someone didn't tighten the wheels properly or you have an enemy that came and loosened the lugs.

marthyh

I concur ; used to be good practice back in the day,but yeah just recheck after having changed wheel(s) only takes couple of minutes !
Happy Popo et al. Are safe!!

marthyh

I concur ; used to be good practice back in the day,but yeah just recheck after having changed wheel(s) only takes couple of minutes !
Happy Popo still here et al. Are safe!!

Atcpup

You just purchased this car, right? Did you purchase from a dealer or private party? With just 9,000 miles on ODO I'm curious if any tire maintenance had been done, I would think not. So that would mean this was done at the factory? Just thinking out loud....

BenzV12

Glad, no one was hurt this could have been a much worse than it did .My first thoughts too is either overtightening or under tightening the bolts . Proper values must be 130 NM .I do have torque wrench to tighten the bolts to the factory specs and never neglect checking the values if you drop the car to the tire shop

Mike5215

Yeah, um not really. Unless the name of that national tire chain is "Sloppy Al's Retarded Discount Tire Service." Properly mounted wheels tend to stay on the car until you want to take them off.

I was an auto claims adjuster for ten years and had exactly one fly-off claim, where they hand tightened a wheel but forgot to go back to it with the impact wrench.

So we're the lug bolts still with the damaged wheel? I'm guessing so since he mounted the spare using them.

Nickthegreek

holy crap!!!! Good thing nobody got hurt. Did the bolts strip out of hub or did they break through the tire?????

jfz219

Mike,

In addition to Al's Retarded Discount Tire Service, the partial list includes Ford, Costco, Discount Tire, Tire Barn, and my local Lexus and Merecedes dealers. All recommend a recheck of the torque of alloy wheels. There is a difference in the coefficient of expansion of steel and wheel alloys. The recheck is after a few heat cycles.
When rechecking, torque to spec without loosening. Do not over torque to prevent wheel and/or rotor warping. Never use an impact wrench. I am OCD when I rotate my snow tires. They are mounted on Original equipment wheels. I hand torque to spec, recheck in a few days, and usually find 2-3 of the 20 lugs that need tightening. This is a Lexus setup that has a lower torque setting than Mercedes.

Mike5215

There's a huge difference between a lug bolt that "feels tight" but needs another quarter turn or so to get to spec, and five bolts on one wheel not being threaded enough to hold the wheel onto the car at all. Torque settings are to ensure the wheel mounts evenly and firmly against the hub, not to keep wheels from randomly flying off of cars, which doesn't happen often, and would be a fairly serious public safety issue if it did. Not so much for the car it came off of, but because of the velocity and mass, for anything unfortunate enough to be in its way.

Google it and link back if you find evidence of a chronic problem with properly torqued lugs coming loose and wheels flying off. Or link back to the article you referenced where a major tire retailer had frequent episodes of properly torqued wheels flying off the cars they serviced. I couldn't find anything on it (other than Google, which returned a link back to this thread.)

wilassasin

I really hope this isn't true as I drive 100 miles round trip every day for my work commute.

On another note, Popo glad no one was injured.

jfz219

This is the Tire Rack entry on this website:

Wheel Lug Torquing

IMPORTANT!

Proper installation requires that the wheel lug torque be set to the recommended specification for your vehicle. Sometimes these torque specifications can be found in your vehicle's owner's manual, however more often than not you will need to refer to your vehicle's shop manual or obtain them from your vehicle dealer/service provider.

Unless specifically stated otherwise, wheel lug torque specifications are for clean and dry threads (no lubricant) that are free of dirt, grit, etc. Applying oil, grease or anti-seize lubricants to the threads will result in inaccurate torque values that over tighten the wheels.

A thread chaser or tap should be used to remove any burrs or obstructions of the threads allowing the lug hardware to be turned by hand until it meets the wheel's lug seat. Once lugs are snugged down, finish tightening them with an accurate torque wrench. Use the appropriate crisscross sequence (shown below) for the number of wheel lugs on your vehicle until all have reached their proper torque value. Be careful because if you over torque a wheel, you can strip a lug nut or hub, stretch or break a stud or bolt, and cause the wheel, brake rotor and/or brake drum to distort.

Use the dry wheel lug torque values specified in the vehicle's owner's manual, shop manual or obtained from the vehicle dealer/service provider. The chart below lists typical torque values that should only be used temporarily until the vehicle's exact torque values can be confirmed.

Since the thickness of an alloy wheel can differ from Original Equipment wheels, also verify that the lug nuts or bolts will engage the threads. Refer to the chart below to determine the number of turns or the depth of engagement typical for your stud or bolt size.

Size / Typical Torque Range

12 x 1.5 mm 80 - 85
12 x 1.25 mm 70 - 80
14 x 1.5 mm 85 - 90
14 x 1.25 mm 85 - 90
7/16 in. 70 - 80
1/2 in. 75 - 85
9/16 in. 135 - 145

When installing new wheels you should re-torque the wheel lugs after driving the first 50 to 100 miles in case the clamping loads have changed following the initial installation. This is necessary due to the possibility of metal compression/elongation or thermal stresses affecting the wheels as they are breaking in, as well as to verify the accuracy of the original installation. When rechecking torque value, wait for the wheels to cool to ambient temperature (never torque a hot wheel). Loosen and retighten to value, in sequence. Simply repeat the same torque procedure listed above.
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Nuru

Popo, if the lug nuts did back off, there is probably some damage to the lugs. Was there any damage to the lugs? Also did you get that wheel inspected or look at it yourselt to see if that wheel was previously repaired? This is just to cover all the bases mentioned here.

wilassasin

This says to re-torque the lug nuts after the 1st 50-100 miles on NEW wheels, not every 50-100mls to re-torque.

jfz219

Let me clarify. Anytime a wheel is mounted on your car, it should be rechecked. I did not mean every 50-100 miles of driving. Note that each manufacturer has their own torque spec for their OEM wheels. After market wheels, spacers, extended length lug bolts, and nuts may have different properties than OEM setups. I would be especially careful to do this follow up recheck. Be safe and enjoy. Thanks.

Mike5215

Yeah, I get that wheel lug bolts should be torqued evenly and to spec. What I can't find is any evidence to support your contention that a national tire chain regularly experiences six "fly offs a year". Where did that info come from?