respdoc

To make a long story short....Had an incident about a week back where after a 900 miles out of a 950 mile one-way trip the front passenger's wheel came off the the vehicle at highway speeds. Only thing I noticed was the car started to shake mildly around 15 miles prior but was not that suspect give the road conditions. Luckily no one was hurt but it looks to have done some damage to the car. I found the wheel a few days later and to my surprise the tire and rim were still intact with just scrape marks but the rim seems to not be bent and the tire is still holding air. It was 2:00 a.m. on a pretty deserted highway so I did not get a chance to look at the rotor in detail.

This happened in another state so this whole thing has been a nightmare but after much talk the dealership is now possibly blaming the wheel coming off to the lug bolts being overtightened by the tire shop.

Just in the fact that the car was able to travel over 900 miles since the shop installed the new tires and rims..I find that suspect...

Any ideas ?

E55AMG99

Either the lugs were hand tightened or the rim was not seated correctly when they used the torque wrench. They used a torque wrench, didn't they?

respdoc

Yes, the shop did use a torque wrench. I was not, of course, watching the guy closely but he seemed to be watching the dial on the tool while he was tightening the bolts. But again that was over 900 miles prior to the incident.

Luke@tirerack

they were not installed correctly or at the very least torqued correctly ....

unless the lughardware actually broke which is highly doubtful .... when you started feeling the vibration the wheel was coming loose .....

another possibility, however remote, is that at some point somebody was trying to steal your wheels but, was interupted somehow

respdoc

Luke,

If by lug hardware you are talking about the lug bolts...yes, the dealership did say at least two had broken off and they were in the process of removing the remaining pieces from the bolt holes.

Benz-E-r

Not sure I buy the overtightening then. Only two shafts remaining would imply they broke from the load after the first three worked out (not torqued properly). Are these stock rims or afternarket (and maybe missing a spacer or wrong lugs)?

respdoc

I will have to check if they said two or three were broken off in there. The rims were aftermarket with stock lugs. I've heard some people saying to get different lugs for aftermarket rims but this was a question I brought up to the wheel installer and he stated the stock lugs would work fine..