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A scary reminder to always check your lug nuts.

cdoggwsu

cdoggwsu

1/2 ton status
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A couple of weeks ago I did a brake job on my Jeep. All the wheels were properly torqued when I finished, checked again after 100 miles and double checked once more before I took off for a trip across the state this past week. Everything was fine up until I was heading back last night. Made it about 40 miles from home and my rear driver's side tire let loose at 60mph on the highway. From the aftermath it looks like two lugs spun completely off at some point and a weak/cracked stud failed taking the remaining two with it. My best guess is at some point a PO or tire shop put the lugs on with an impact or something and over torqued the crap out of them.

No one got hurt but it sure made a mess of the wheel well. I'll tell you that was a wild ride for a couple hundred feet skating on nothing but the rotor and shock hanger!

We found the tire this morning out in a wheat field over 100 yards away.

The carnage:

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Damm. Glad you are ok. I did the brakes on my DD last weekend. Gonna. Go check them now. Sorry and thanks for the heads up!
 
another thought to throw out there is that you might have done it by unnecesarilly re torquing them multiple times, properly torquing them once should be enough imo
 
MJB774X said:
another thought to throw out there is that you might have done it by unnecesarilly re torquing them multiple times, properly torquing them once should be enough imo
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I didn't re-torque, just checked them at the same setting (90 ft-lb) to make sure they hadn't loosened. Pretty standard procedure, especially for aluminum wheels.:dunno:
 
cdoggwsu said:
I didn't re-torque, just checked them at the same setting (90 ft-lb) to make sure they hadn't loosened. Pretty standard procedure, especially for aluminum wheels.:dunno:
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oh...glad no one got hurt man... another thought is maybe if the rim has been taken on and off alot in its lifetime the hole or taper could have gotten enlarged creating a not so snug fit...I just look at what could have caused this, my old boss knew a lady that got killed from a loose wheel on the freeway
 
that sucks.... happened to my coworkers kid last week in a Furd pickup, thankfully slow speed..

never forget when I was 18, had a 71 Challenger with Cragars all around... well, i didn't know the back rims had wallowed out lug holes... doing about 80 up in the mountains, heard a squeeking noise...

so i stopped at the next store parking lot, and the tire would shake back and forth a couple inches... absolutemiracle the wheel didn't snap off.... ever since then, I'm EXCEPTIONALLY careful and paranoid about shank style lugnuts..


says the guy running shank style Weld's..... :doah: :haha:
 
Yeah I'm glad the wheel just went off in the field and didn't hit anyone. I wondered the same thing about the taper. I already don't like aluminum rims cause they wallow out easier and don't hold the lugs as well as steel IMO so this just reaffirmed it for me. These POS wheels came with the rig and I figured I'd just make it through the winter and replace them but evidently that wasn't in the cards. I'll be sticking with steel in the future.:thumb:
 
ryoken said:
that sucks.... happened to my coworkers kid last week in a Furd pickup, thankfully slow speed..

never forget when I was 18, had a 71 Challenger with Cragars all around... well, i didn't know the back rims had wallowed out lug holes... doing about 80 up in the mountains, heard a squeeking noise...

so i stopped at the next store parking lot, and the tire would shake back and forth a couple inches... absolutemiracle the wheel didn't snap off.... ever since then, I'm EXCEPTIONALLY careful and paranoid about shank style lugnuts..


says the guy running shank style Weld's..... :doah: :haha:
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I hear ya, Paul! I'll definitely be paranoid about lug nuts for a good long while after this experience.:D I wish I could've seen myself from the view of the guy behind me. That must have been a sh!t show for a few seconds as I skated my ass end over to the shoulder.:haha:
 
Ouch! Dang dude, glad that was all that happened.

I try to remember to recheck mine after a while. That said I'm about a week overdue to check mine after the brake job a few weekends ago.

Torque when you reinstall the wheels and then check torque once after 50 miles/a day/a short time/a while/I dunno. I've always believed something like that and heard variations of it.

Then again with as many people, including "car guy" friends that I know don't even own a torque wrench and put everything on to "two grunts and a fart", that just tighten them to "good enough" and drive around just fine forever...ignorance is bliss?:dunno:
 
from years of doing ths i have found mopar products suffer from what i call dry stud / nut . the threads are way to dry or rusty and you get bound up and get a incorect reading of tight/seated. also the aluminum rims get heavy corrosion in the hub center hole and dont seat 100% some times.

every mopar i get if the studs / nuts were dry got lubed with oil then put together. what a diffrence this made and it was noticable .
 
Good advice. I have a dewalt 18v cordless impact wrench, about once a month or so, ill run it around the lug nuts just checking to make sure non loosened up on me. Especially before and after a long trip.
 
badmix said:
Good advice. I have a dewalt 18v cordless impact wrench, about once a month or so, ill run it around the lug nuts just checking to make sure non loosened up on me. Especially before and after a long trip.
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I put wheels on with this same gun at work all the time. I would get that real world it probably puts about about 150 ftlbs which is perfect for a 1/2in stud wheel.

Ive also gotten into the habit of anti seizing every cars wheel studs that I take off. As said it goes a long way to actually putting the torque against the wheel and not using it to fight the threads.
 
Just a thought, and correct me if I'm wrong, but that wheel, and most modern aluminum rims that I've seen have the steel inserts around the wheel stud holes. I was told that was because in the past aluminum wheels without them had loosening and ovaling issues.
Do the steel inserts not fix it well?
 
If you want to have some fun, lube the studs and wheel on an old timey tapered steel wheel with WD40 and torque them down good.
Run it for a few minutes and then try to get them off..

All I can figure is the WD40 lets the nut seat down way tighter than normal with regular amount of torque.
Then the pressure finally cuts through the lube and it sorta microwelds.

I did that on my old Jeep one time when I was rotating tires, and almost never got them back off.

Later, I did that to someone else. Just loosened the lugs one at a time, sprayed them, and tightened them back up.
A couple of days later, I let the air out of that tire.
He was a pretty big guy, and he twisted his tire tool halfway around without getting them off.....
 
Any time you lube a nut or bolt you have to derate the torque setting for it. It would be hard to say how much on a wheel stud but there are charts for regular bolts n nuts. They take the dry threads into account when coming up with the torque value for it. Maybe not rust and grime, but just plain steel on steel.

We have a torque and thread locker class every couple years at work. sucks to sit through but kinda helpfull
 
Same thing happened to my 94 grand cherokee. I changed the front d30 to an xj HP d30. I had 2" spacers that I ran and guess I didn't tighten down the front drivers side spacer lugs. Damn wheel came right off and went coasting into the night. Luckily it had the nuts trapped in between the spacer and the wheel. Thankfully I was only doing 35mph and managed to coast to a stop on the shoulder. Found the tire across 6 lanes and 50ft in the tree line once the sun came up.
 
Avery4jc said:
8>5 that is all.



Oh, and glad you're safe man. :)
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Hell I'd take 6 at this point.:doah:

I do have a set of 3/4 tons waiting to go on the K5 but perhaps they should be repurposed...:thinking:

Oh and about the lubing threads thing. I hand cleaned the threads and all mating surfaces with a wire brush so I'm pretty sure everything was seated properly.
 
AJMBLAZER said:
Just a thought, and correct me if I'm wrong, but that wheel, and most modern aluminum rims that I've seen have the steel inserts around the wheel stud holes. I was told that was because in the past aluminum wheels without them had loosening and ovaling issues.
Do the steel inserts not fix it well?
Click to expand...

It's hard to say...on these rims it looks like the lug holes are all part of the same wheel casting but they could be inserts.
 
If i made that mistake on a customer car i'd be lookin for a new job right now and i shoot on and sign off for at least 20 wheels a day normally :eek:.
 
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