I just got some new tires, balanced & mounted, from Town Fair Tire in Natick, MA. I took a 350 mile trip 3 days after that, & did some local driving once I got there. Then a few days later, I went to wipe down the break dust off the rims, & I noticed that 3 of the lug nuts on the front passenger wheel were gone, including the locking one. Needless to say, I'm not too pleased. I got some cheap ones from Napa to get me home, & I'm wondering if this has ever happened to anyone else, & what you guys think I should do.

 

no, because I torque mine properly.

That tire shop is negligent and if someone was hurt, they'd be paying out $$$

 

You should re-torque the nuts after about 200 miles when you change wheels.

It is good that you're OK....

 

Are you sure the shop even put them on? I would think it more likely that they were left off on the installation of the wheels.

 

spec is like 105 ft-lbs

 

3 lug nuts? Ive had all 5! Dont ask!


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^^(asking) How did that happen?

I think the tire shop really screwed up....get a torque wrench to prevent that from happening again...

 

I agree, lesson learned. But seriously, torqued or not, this seems like something that should never ever happen to anyone. I don't think it should be left to the consumer, especially something so fundamental that puts lives on the line. Am I really being unreasonable with that expectation? I even would have been satisfied with a warning saying that I should check it in a few hundred miles, but I got nothing of the sort.

Plus I'm pissed that one of the ones that fell off was the locking one.

And I'd also like to hear how WoodsOfGreen lost all 5.

 

Ok Ok.. I'll get completely flamed for this, but it happens:

Was at the shop. Been there about 6 hrs. Coilovers, sway bars & endlinks, plus exhaust.. All going on.. Gets down to putting the wheels on.. Start on one corner, work my way around with the impact... Get to the last tire, & the fiancee & I get into a fight.. Get distracted.. Go do something else.. Come back, get in car.. Take off..Later down road.. hear wobbling.. pull over.. check suspension.. (Wheels didnt dawn on me. Swore I tigtened all) Pull out, about 1/4 mile down the road I see a lug nut fly off in my perips & then the wheel falls off.. Luckly the lower control arm dug into the stock rim & kept it there long enough to get off the road & so we didnt actually loose a rim(as in rolling away, car dragging on road)

Now I have Volk GT-AVs & they are torqued. =)

 

it happens.

i have a relative who died because the wheel fell off shortly after a tire rotation and she had a heart attack.

the shop paid out around $60k to her family.

 

I'm sorry to hear that, but awfully glad I decided to wipe the break dust off before my 350 mile drive home so that the same didn't happen to me. I have a feeling this ordeal will give me a pretty good dose of paranoia after every rotation/tire change in the 'better safe than sorry' sense.

On a side note, it was odd that the 3 that fell off were all next to each other, which makes me think that maybe they went around tightening them in a clockwise/counterclockwise fashion rather than the star pattern.

 

I had a rear wheel lose 2 of 4 lug nuts on my civic after having new tires mounted and installed. THis happened the next day, after about 10 miles.

These days, I do it myself. When I tighten the lugs, I torque them to 10ft-lb below spec, drive around the block (to let things settle), then tighten them to spec. Without fail, there is ALWAYS 1 lug on each wheel that turns a lot more than the rest.

 

I have never even had one come loose if using the proper star criss cross pattern.

 

yep, and I anti-sieze my threads too

 

You guys ever listen to the Ron White thing about Lug Nut Day?

 

I lost a wheel once...

My steering started madly vibrating at 50mph, I slowed and pulled onto a sidestreet. My mate pointed at something that had veered off infront of us and before he could say 'that's your wheel' the front right side of the car dropped onto its hub and ground to a halt a few yards down the road.

Only damage was a ripped thread on one of the wheel studs! I'm guessing someone tried to steal em and couldn't get the locking nut off...

 

I just had new tires put on by a local mom n pop place. (tire rack tires) the guy put 2 tires on backwards, broke one of the tpms units and broke one of the key lugs AND mutilated my key for the keyed lugs so that dealer coulnt get the keyd lugs off to replace the tpms sensor. Oh and they tightened the lugs down so tight the dealer broke another keyd lug getting it off after I got a new key (~10 days later) WTF. Pop says to me "the key must have been damaged prior but I took 15$ off so you can buy new one". Then he says "Oh, BTW, you should have a fuel system induction clean and we just got the new BG stuff in" I said, I ll call you in a couple days to set up an appt. You can imagine what I really wanted to say. Moral of story: you best stay and supervise these morons or good luck.

 

Update: They're going to reimburse me for the 3 spares plus a set of new ones ,since they supposedly can't order them from Mazda themselves, plus "they're going to see what else they can do for me".

 

Good to see they are doing something for you.

 

Old thread but I just got my summer wheels on and discovered I had lost a control arm nut (or is it lug?). The car was feeling totally normal and the guy at Kal Tire noticed while doing the swap. Pissed off and frightened by it all.