Broken Wheel Studs!

[tomseeley]

Last week, while driving at city street speed on a city street, I heard what sounded like a flat tire on my 2002 GMC Sierra 2500HD. When I pulled into a parking lot to check, I found, to my amazement and horror, the right rear tire was being held on the wheel with one--I said 1!--of the 8 lug nuts! 7 nuts had come completely off, and if that wasn't bad enough 5 of the wheel studs had completely sheared off and were simply gone! And one lug nut on the right front was missing as well!

 

After an emergency tow job and 6 hours at the local GMC dealer, I had new studs and lug nuts as required.

 

But they also checked all 32 lug nuts, and found that not a single one was more than finger tight!

 

I plan to have a serious talk with my local mechanic, who I trusted up till now! His people were the last to touch those tires, when they rotated them a week before we embarked on our trip!

 

My question now is: What ELSE besides forgetting to use a torque wrench on all the lug nuts, might have contributed to that failure? I can't prove the mechanic's people caused the problem, but given the timing and so forth it sure seems the most likely cause I can think of!

 

Needless to say, we were scared ----less when we found it. We were on an extended trip with our RV, and had it happened at highway speeds while towing, it very likely could have killed us!

[tobias]

Holy crap. Glad you are alive and well. Time for a new mechanic, no doubt. Aside from not torquing down the lug nuts, I have never heard of anything to cause this condition, especially on all 4 tires simultaneously. I'd be making your mechanic pick up the bill, personally.

[minibike132]

1

[masterp2]

My question now is: What ELSE besides forgetting to use a torque wrench on all the lug nuts, might have contributed to that failure? I can't prove the mechanic's people caused the problem,

 

If quite sure that it was human error, then you have one recourse IMO. Praise whatever God you love, and be thankful that your family is safe and your wheel didn't fly into an oncoming mini-van full of kids. Be thankful that you had some good sense also.

 

 

 

I had something similar happen to me. Scares the piss out of ya. There is no replacement for looking after your own heartbeat. Let the anger go, be thankful...thankful you don't have to deal with lawyers, judges, witness, and 8 years worth of nightmares.

[Kodiak450]

Definately is the mechanics fault. It's obvious that only one nut was tighten and that one stud was hard at work. Or unless you have some enemies that might of delibertly loosened your nuts at night where they could've been hidden in the darkness? You would think also if the bolts were only hand tightened and not fully tightened, soon as you got in the truck and drove off it wouldn't take long before you would feel something wrong. I kinda find it hard to believe that you could drive a certain distance before the tire would start to shake and stuff, then again I could be wrong.

 

What was the bill for all the damage?

[Zembonez]

WOW!

 

You are seriously lucky that all you ended up with was a tow to the shop. Thank goodness the wheel didn't come off at speed. Somebody was looking out for you that day.

[95Sierra2500]

I know you trust your mechanic, but did you bother to get a torque wrench out yourself and go over them after 25-30 miles and make sure they were tight? Lug nuts WILL loosen within 25 miles if they are almost, but not quite, at the torque spec.

[robertbick]

I know you trust your mechanic, but did you bother to get a torque wrench out yourself and go over them after 25-30 miles and make sure they were tight? Lug nuts WILL loosen within 25 miles if they are almost, but not quite, at the torque spec.

 

I used to check mine on my truck & trailer once in a while but they never loosen up. It's not his fault! It's the mechanics fault! We should not have to pay a professional mechanic to work on our vehicles and then have to double check their work.

 

Not to get off subject but... that's why I would rather do the things I can myself then pay some lazy ass schmuk to do a half-ass job. Just about every business these days does not give a rats ass about service and/or quality... it's all about how much money they can get out of your pocket. Sorry about the rant.

[minibike132]

Well I sure am happy for you that you are so perfect and never make a mistake so you are not labeled a lazy ass schmuk. I guess you could lump me into that category, in about eighteen years in the buisness I had one wheel that I forgot about, lucky for me I caught it before it went out the door. It's a scary situation and it sucks but for real why do people hold us to this outrageous standard that we never ever make a mistake. That ends my rant.

 

I also have to ammend my +1 from earlier too. The op didn't mention how long ago his mechanic last had the wheels off.

[Zembonez]

Well I sure am happy for you that you are so perfect and never make a mistake so you are not labeled a lazy ass schmuk.

I can understand your taking that personally but I really don't think Bob was referring to ALL techs... just the particular one that did this. His point that all businesses are crap is a little overzealous! There are lazy ass schmucks in all businesses that make the rest of us look bad with their bad habits. We all make mistakes, but some make it a habit of being sloppy.

 

EDIT: I still know of quite a few shops that have great pride in their work and employ high end techs. Too bad the crummy ones make many people think they are all bad.

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My wife got new tires on her 2004 Impala. Picked her car up and about 20 miles later she turned a left hand corner and had the right rear tire come completely off while still turning. Scared the Bezeesus out of her, voice was still quivering when she called me on her cell. Broke off some of her studs also.

 

Tire shop towed car in fixed wheel and paid a body shop to fix fender.

 

We feel very lucky as she had just gotten off I-80.

 

Now I know people make mistakes but expecting a 100 lb 5ft women to check that new tires were put on right is expecting a little much to me. She did not even make it home.