So I was on my way to work this morning and the darndest thing happened...








































How did it happen you ask? Well, the lug nuts disappeared...

I did do some work on it this past Saturday which did involve taking off the back tires (changed the 3rd member gasket, you may recall the thread about it), BUT I specifically remember tightening to lug nuts down; it's just one of the things I remember doing. I threaded them on with my fingers, put the 4-way to them once to snug them up, then let the truck down off the jack-stands, then went back and torqued em down, both tires, all 12 lugs, I'm 210% positive that I did. I also drove around in Orlando a little bit after putting it all back together Sat, then drove back home from Orlando on Sunday afternoon. All that time, there was no noise or indecation that tire was loose or was going to come off, and I prbably put 150-200 miles on it after the tire was put back on after the work.

So this morning as I left the house, it seems to have a bit of a vibration. Nothing new because my tires are shot and the rear wheel bearings are shot, but it's usually not as bad as it was. I at least figured it would last me through the day, so I carried on. So I'm on a side road getting into the turning lane to get onto the highway to go to work, and as I'm hitting the brakes to slow down, I here a clunk, the back corner of the truck drops and I here a scraping, and my freekin tired rolls pass me... as pissed as I was, I had to laugh; I'm not gunna lie, it was kida funny to see my own tire off my truck roll pass me...


The only thing I can think of is that we have some hoodlems running around at this apartment complex screwing with people's vehicles... it wouldn't surprise me one bit... but I bet it surprises them to see my truck made it back home today, lol


The only thing it did was rough up the edge of the brake drum, mess up the holes on the rim that the wheel studs go through, messed up the wheels studs a little bit too, and pushed the fender behind the tire up and in a bit where the truck rolled over the tire. Oh, and it tore my center cap to shreads; still not sure how it did that... But I pulled the finder out a bit, and put some new lugs on, and amazingly it's fine now...

Could have been a lot worse though... it could have stayed on till I got on the highway and did 70mph...

oh what a fun day this has been...

 

wow, that really sucks.
good thing it wasn't a front wheel.
glad to hear you're okay though.

 

did you ever find the lug nuts? Could they have sheared off or something if a few were cross threaded and the wheel was cockeyed? How did the threads look?

 

haha, I can only imagine what it must be like to watch a wheel roll by you. glad to hear you are quite ok though.

 

nope; I drove back down the road I travel 3 times and didn't see a one of them. they weren't cross-threaded or anything, they threaded on and off before very easily before the incedent; could spin the lugs on with my fingers no problem. after it happened, the threads are just a little flattened where the rim beat on em a little bit when it was wobbling, but some new lug nuts threaded right on no problem, by hand too! and they grab the old studs fine. I'm doing the wheel bearings this weekend, so for a buck a peice, I'll probably install new studs too sense the whole thing's gunna be tore apart n e way...

dude, you have no idea, lol. I was mad for like a second, then when I realised what had just happened and had a quick flashback of my tire rolling by...

I just laughed as I stood there beside the road, one foot up on my tire laying on the ground, staring at my brake drum digging into the grass...

 

that sucks

 

Same thing here...



Glad your okay though!

 

I've had that happen before. I was trading sets of wheels off another truck and forgot to tourque 1 of the 8 wheels. I was doing about 60 when it came off, scared the sht out of me. I stopped before the wheel came off though. I guess i felt it wobble side to side, if i had gone another 3 feet it would have left.

 

Wow! Time for some wheel locks. Defantly replace the studs, you dont want that happening again!

P.s

I though your title ment you installed a locker.

 

I thought it was some kind of performance downgrade.

Looks like anti-seize on the wheel studs, I wonder if that perhaps was an issue. I use it myself and I very much doubt it, but some people have said otherwise.

 

ouch man not good my neon was like that for a whole weekend i raced drove 110 on the freeway and everything came back homw and she was shacking then i looked i never tighted down the lugs good thing it never came off or anytthing and yes all the lugs stayied there but my rim looked just like yours!!

and 91yota i had that same car 87 honda civic si with the efi baby!!!!

 

I remember being told once by a mech. buddy when you torque down a set of lugs you need to go back either after a short drive or maybe a half-hour later and re-torque them to spec again to ensure they've seated properly.

Def. replace the studs and get the drum checked before you re-install the wheel.
They have piece of rod retainer things on some 18 wheelers now to stop the problem of the wheels running away from you... maybe that could be your next mod... LOL

 

been there done that in my 93 explorer, on the front wheel, while coming down a hill...fun times.




My bet is you forgot to torque the lugs...thats what happened to me.

my advice would be to replace the lug studs, as they are probably pretty tore up from the lugnuts vibrating off. I was given this advice, didnt follow it, and ended up having to cut one of the new lugnuts off a few weeks later with a torch because the stud had actually stripped out of the back of the rotor.

at the very least carefully inspect the threads on each of the studs

 

Glad to hear you weren't on the highway when that happened. Same thing happened to me a couple years ago in my old K5 blazer with 4" lift and 35s. I was over at a friends house, chillin', then on my way home, about a block away from my place, my front driver's side tire came off and I saw it rollin' past me. took a second or two for the axle to drop down. good thing my drive was only a few miles and i wasn't on the highway when it happened. i, too think some hooligans were messing with our vehicles at that friends house because a few of our vehicles had mysterious things happen over there. the threads were perfect looking, no sheared studs or messed up threads. good thing they didn't jack my hi lift or i'd have been f*ed. after that, i invested in some wheel locks, i recommend the same.

 

...Scary time. Lucky you or anyone didn't get hurt and lucky enough that your own tire run off w/o hitting no one. This guy was unlucky...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYRkSEG56b0[/youtube]

 

Haha nice! Except its a CRX..but its a civic crx...so its the same thing. Yes...its SI. Not my car though. Its my brothers...lol.

 

You are very lucky it happened where it did. Glad to see it came out ok. good thing you had rear drums. I doubt discs would have faired so well.

 

when i lost the front on my explorer, at around 35 mph, it ground a nice flat spot in the rotor, but you couldn't even notice it unless you were braking from 10mph-ish to stop at a slow rate. normal braking it wasn't even noticable

 

Man that sucks. I'm glad your ok though and no one else was near you when it happened.

I had that happen in a 1 ton Ford diesel on 38's. Our local tire shop didn't torque the studs to spec after doing my tire rotation. The dang thing came off at 80 running down I-10 back from New Mexico (lived in Texas then). I'll tell you when a tire that big crawls up your fender, over the hood and across the deer pusher it leaves a lasting impression in your mind. I thought the wife was going to lose her mind. Did a heck of a lot of damage and the tire shop paid for every cent.

The shops excuse? "You shouldn't be driving a truck that big to begin with." It went over great with our lawyer.

 

Are those aluminum rims? Technically, you are supposed to re-torque the lugs on those after 25mi, guess after they warm up some, the lugs loosen and need re-tightened. I have got away with out doing it many times, but I think from now on I will always re-torque after the 25mi.