Lost a wheel

[shamrock]

Friend has a 94 Wrangler. His damn wheel came off the other day while driving home from a little beach run...ground down a small portion of his rotor. Funny thing was that they heard some clicking up front but claims there was no steering shimmy. Even more interesing...at least to me...is that 3 of the missing lug nuts were found on the road very near the disabled Jeep. He got the vehicle home...studs were a bit messed up but they held for the few miles he had to go. I went over this evening and helped him disassemble...got the rotor off and the lugs tapped out. Mostly just curious if anyone has heard of this happening before? I've heard of people losing a tire in this manner but usually it's associated with some warning...front shimmy and such...and the fact that 3 lug nuts were found so close by. Doesn't make sense to me...3 lugs popped off at almost or exactly the same time....weird.

 

[mylittlecj5]

Had he recently had front end or tire work done? sounds like they used the impact to tighten the lug nuts down and stressed them out so 2 broke off. Then the stress busted the others off. I've seen it a bunch of times when I worked in a tire/wheel shop.

 

[chuck35f]

Was he running the tires at a low PSI, in the army on our hummers I have seen it happen and the soldiers have said the same thing, and when we checked the tires air pressure it was around 15 psi instead of the 35 it should have been. our motor SGT said that the low air pressure dampened the shimmy in the tire. That coulld account for your friend not noticing it.

 

[LongHorn]

I'd have to agree with Little CJ5 . Sounds like to much torque for the wheel studs.

 

[shamrock]

As a matter of fact, he had the thing checked out about 3 or 4 months ago when he and his wife bought the thing...they supposidly checked the brakes so it's a safe assumption they did have the wheels off. I'll have to ask about the tire pressure...I sort of assumed they were full since he didn't say anything about it plus they were traveling at about 50 mph when it happened (they got off damn lucky...lose a tire at that speed in a Jeep). Like I said, just seemed odd that at least 3 lugs let go at the same time (and were still usable). Thanks guys...I'm going to suggest he change all the studs and nuts at this point since there's little doubt that the same knucklehead tightened all the lugs on all 4 corners.

 

[coldwater]

Any chance it had aluminum rims? I'm going another route, I bet the lugs were never socked down in the first place. I have come out of tire shops after getting new tires, and checked the torque after a few days to be sure, only to find them completely loose. I have even found some missing alltogether. I don't know If I'ts just a matter of being in a hurry, or more than one person working on the vehicle and getting their wires crossed, but I check my wheels now after someone else has been working on my stuff, and every time I change the oil as well.

 

[shamrock]

Nope..factory steel wheels. Interesting thing too is that if the lugs were loose, there should have shown some wear ridges along the studs where the wheel was contacting them while loose...studs were pretty much unbleamished except on the ends where the threads start (two were actually pretty messed up on the ends...completely void of any threads on the last half inch). Just weird..I expect to see certain bits of evidence when something like this happens and what I'd expect to see is simply not there (nor did the driver notice anything other than the slight clicking sound).

 

[susie]

Going out on a limb here, but....

Some kids thought it would be funny and loosened the lugs while your friend was away from the vehicle...

 

[gert]

Dothe lug nuts have a closed end on them? Where the lugnuts jambed up on the end of the studs? I had a wheel come off once from a friend not tightening the lugnuts all the way and I had a decent shimmy and strange noise coming from the front end. Thankfully I figured it out before the wheel came off. Your buddies case sounds fishy, if nobody worked on the Jeep it should not have come off

 

[shamrock]

Closed end lug nuts. He's mobile again and the Jeep seems none the worse for wear....new studs and lug nuts all around plus some brake related parts.

 

[cmhoffroad]

I've seen that happen before. Luckily I've never experienced it personally. The lugnuts were probably already damaged for all three to break at the same time. I find it odd that there was no warning prior to the wheel coming off.