Disaster averted but barely. Thanking the good Lord above.

Left our home Saturday for the first multi-week trip out in the RV in almost a year due to many family and personal matters.
Got about an hour down the road and started to feel a funny vibration in the seat of my pants from under the truck as well as through the steering wheel.
Stopped several times to check tire pressures and condition but could not see an issues. Employee at a large truck shop thought it might be the hanger/carrier bearing going out.
Progressively got worse over next 2 hours until we pulled off in Lima Ohio and found a campground for the night hoping to find a tires shop Sunday thinking we had a bunch of broken belts in the front tires after hitting massive potholes on Michigan roads.
As we were pulling off we heard and felt a mild "POP" and the vibration got worse.
Got trailer parked in a campground for the night Saturday and next morning found a large Firestone tire shop open Sunday. On route to tire shop we had another mild "POP" followed about 10min's later by a loud bang as our right front hubcap shot across the road up a curb into a parking lot in downtown Lima.
I knew at that moment we were in serious trouble, but I was still shocked to see that the right front wheel was being held on by only 3 studs.
Truck was flat-bedded to tire shop and we sat in Lima till Tuesday morning before we could get parts to make the repair and get moving again.
Never experienced a loose wheel before and never want to again, but now I at least know the symptom's only too well.
The last 3 remaining nuts were only finger tight when truck arrived a tire shop.
Needless to say all the stud holes in my aluminium rim were reamed out and totally shot now forcing me to find another rim.
DW swears now she won't let me leave a campsite with trailer "ON" without now checking tire pressures AND lug nut torques and BOTH truck and trailer.
Going to have a quick conversation with the shop that had done my maintenance and safety inspections for the past 6 years. "YOUR FIRED" will be my message as I also noticed while checking tires before getting to the tire shop the that the left rear brake caliper bolts had fallen out completely. The shop I have used for 6 years had the rear calipers off not 2 months ago to replace leaking rear axles seals.
There is no explanation for caliper bolts loosening and falling out except that they were never torqued tight to begin with.

Tow Vehicles

28 Replies

Dave_and_Sue
Explorer
Oct 05, 2016
Your guardian angel was working overtime

Remember,never go faster than your guardian angel can fly. Glad it worked out for you.
manualman
Explorer II
Oct 04, 2016
Nope. Star pattern and a good torque wrench here. Happened anyways. I suspect my occurrence involved some rust on the hub that wore away after remount and introduced some play...
wnjj
Explorer II
Sep 24, 2016
I suspect the lug nuts that loosen relatively soon after being torqued properly has to do with how centered the wheel was and the tightening pattern used. If you just shove the wheel on and the torque all of the nuts in a circle (especially with an air impact wrench) it's likely the wheel ends up very slightly shifted on the lug tapers. After driving some it moves a little, freeing up enough space for the torque to decrease on the nuts.

If you torque in a criscross pattern first half way, then all the way I don't see how they can loosen up as easily.
Slownsy
Explorer
Sep 24, 2016
Newer had a nut come loose on a mag after it being of or for that mater any wheel.
Frank.
manualman
Explorer II
Sep 23, 2016
I have personally done a brake job before where I KNOW that I torqued the lugs properly with a torque wrench afterwards and still had those lugs loosen up on me after a hundred miles or so. Doesn't explain the caliper bolts, but the lugs might be your negligence, not the shop's. You really do need to retighten lugs on aluminum wheels!
wilber1
Explorer
Sep 23, 2016
The tire shop I now use hangs a card on the mirror stating the pressures and torque used. Before you leave they tell you to come back the next day to have them re torqued. Nice touch I think.
Fordlover
Explorer
Sep 23, 2016
When I was younger, I was swapping my street tires for my super swamper tires on my off road truck for a trip to the beach. A female friend of mine stopped by while I was working and distracted me. About 100 miles later, I noticed looseness in the rear end. When I stopped all 5 lugs had backed off about 1/4 inch on my passenger rear wheel. Scary indeed.
Stefonius
Explorer
Sep 23, 2016
(singing) "You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel..."

Sorry... I couldn't resist. :)
kennethwooster
Explorer
Sep 23, 2016
Glad it was not worse. Yes God was looking after you. I'm very picky on who does my service. We are at their mercy. I'm bad about trusting everybody, and just not checking things as I should. In my younger days, as a farmer, I did all my service. Today I have to rely on others.
Thunderbolt
Explorer
Sep 23, 2016
I do everything that I can for the very reason you just explained. Good luck. In either case it was a blessing that nobody was injured.

gitane59 wrote:
Thunderbolt wrote:
Glad there were no injuries. I don't have an explanation for the caliper bolts. I see you have aluminum wheels. My tire shop has a statement in bold print that the lug nuts need to be checked after 50 mile with Aluminum wheels. I always torque mine to specs after the tire shop has the wheels off too. I don't trust them.

I will admit that after the front wheels were removed in February 2016 for the annual safety check by the shop I have frequented I did not re-torque the lug nuts what with snow and ice covering everything in early February. Front wheels had not been removed since then so if they were loose since then that's over 6 month's before the issue became evident and although I almost lost the right front wheel the left one exhibited no looseness at all this past weekend at the tire shop.
I had not mentioned yet that while replacing the studs they checked the steering and found my tie rods ends and draglink to be badly worn and loose. They showed me just how bad the drag link was and how bad the front wheel was wobbling because of it. We had not driven the truck more than 5K miles since the safety check back in Feb 2016 so I am suspicious of the quality of work performed now during the safety check and as another poster suggested it is something that needs to be reported although the because of the time since the inspection it would be hard for anyone ot prove fault or negligence.
Regardless I will not let it happen again as I am going to take over as much of the maintenance myself and what I can't do you can be sure I will be double checking work performed.
With the front end rebuilt including 3 tie rods end and the draglink the truck feels like a brand new vehicle.
Now I know how a frog feels in a pot of water on a stove not realizing just how hot it's getting until he's dead. I had not noticed the slow steady decay of the tightness in the front end until it was rebuilt and now it feels excellent.