Ummmm.... This is embarrassing

[Elvz]

This afternoon my offside front wheel fell off on the A10. When I left home at lunch time the car was making a rumbling sound. I stopped twice and looked to see if there was anything obviously wrong under the front end. I didnt see anything so I kept driving. The second time I looked I'm pretty sure that all the wheel nuts were there but about 2 miles further up the A10 all the wheel studs snapped off and the car came down on the wishbone.

Because the breakdown happened on a major road the Surf had to be recovered by a flatbed truck with a total-lift crane which is going to be expensive. It also has extensive mechanical damage.

The worst thing is that I have absolutely no idea why this happened or what I could have done to prevent it.

[sammy]

Dont be embarrassed, the front wheel fell off my vw polo (my 1st car) only I had no excuse cause I'd forgotten to tighten the studs up.

Dont know what it could be for you though-sorry mate thats bad news.

Sam

[europa88]

This afternoon my offside front wheel fell off on the A10. When I left home at lunch time the car was making a rumbling sound. I stopped twice and looked to see if there was anything obviously wrong under the front end. I didnt see anything so I kept driving. The second time I looked I'm pretty sure that all the wheel nuts were there but about 2 miles further up the A10 all the wheel studs snapped off and the car came down on the wishbone.

Because the breakdown happened on a major road the Surf had to be recovered by a flatbed truck with a total-lift crane which is going to be expensive. It also has extensive mechanical damage.

The worst thing is that I have absolutely no idea why this happened or what I could have done to prevent it.

Yeah !!!!!

Happened to me in my MG back in the 80's! After having new tyres put on by the local tyre depot, I pulled out onto the main road into Oxford and the front left wheel fell off and I brought the rush hour traffic to a stand still Not a happy bunny, neither were the local constabulary!

Yes, the fitter had forgotton to tighten up the wheelnuts!

I believe the hi lux wheels studs are notorious for stress fractures(Source of info, various forums world wide) and I always carry a couple in case, you were unlucky Elvz for all to go!
maybe you were lucky actually not to have a more serious mishap!

Any way, hope It's not too traumatic on your pocket!

[mark g8awo]

Just a thought for you we had a brand new truck in our yard on its first week of operations the rear N/S wheels fell off. It turned out that the wheels were taken off for painting in Scotland, the wheels should of been retorqued on there way down which never happened also when it arrived in to our yard.

The ministry and the police in Hampshire were not amused....


Its worth remembering that the wheels do need retorquing from time to time they should be about 74N/m....

[ChasesDragons]

That must have been such a frightening experience! Its a tall vehicle, the sudden change in ride levels must have been totally disorienting AND its heavy.

I have never heard of this wheel stud fracture problem before....thats another one to worry about in my shopping expedition.

Udhi

[Guest]

This afternoon my offside front wheel fell off on the A10. When I left home at lunch time the car was making a rumbling sound. I stopped twice and looked to see if there was anything obviously wrong under the front end. I didnt see anything so I kept driving. The second time I looked I'm pretty sure that all the wheel nuts were there but about 2 miles further up the A10 all the wheel studs snapped off and the car came down on the wishbone.

Because the breakdown happened on a major road the Surf had to be recovered by a flatbed truck with a total-lift crane which is going to be expensive. It also has extensive mechanical damage.

The worst thing is that I have absolutely no idea why this happened or what I could have done to prevent it.

Hope you were OK though, could have been very nasty.

You hadn't had new tyres on it recently had you, I've heard of situations where undue stress can be put on wheel bolts by the Air guns that they use in Tyre places, they need to be adjusted regular to stop them overtightening the wheel nuts - sometimes 3 times what the torque should be. Over time - or even just once treated like this, the bolts will get stress fractures.

The only other thing I can think of is that at some time someone has had trouble getting a wheel off due to it corroding to the brake disk. A common solution to this is to loosen off the wheel bolts and drive down the road, alternately accelerating and braking hard. Obviously when the wheel loosens, this puts a lot of strain on the bolts. May have happened at some point which may explain why all 6 went. Mind you it may have been just a couple that went but this put added strain on the others and caused them to go.

Good luck with the rebuild.

Cheers

[robnw67]

Wheel Sizes

This also makes me wonder about wheel sizes. Loads of people seem to be putting different sized wheels on their cars with different off-sets. I know that choosing the wrong off-set can damage the bearing, but could it put a load/moment on the wheel studs?

Does anyone know the correct off-set for the Surf hubs?

Rob

[NiftyNev]

This also makes me wonder about wheel sizes. Loads of people seem to be putting different sized wheels on their cars with different off-sets. I know that choosing the wrong off-set can damage the bearing, but could it put a load/moment on the wheel studs?

Does anyone know the correct off-set for the Surf hubs?

Rob

Factory alloys on my '92 are offset 8.

Neville

[Guest]

Factory alloys on my '92 are offset 8.

Neville

Same here on a '93 with factory alloys.

Cheers

[NiftyNev]

After replacing all CV Boots on my '92 two weeks ago I snapped a wheel stud on left side when replacing wheel.Had no time to fix before a trip out west and drove approx 1500 kms.Will now replace all wheel studs ASAP as I am a little worried about the rest of them.

Neville

[Elvz]

Back at work today I now know what the problem was. The truck had a brake overhaul during the first week of March and new rims and tyres were fitted. The wheels were tightened with an impact wrench and a yellow 65ftlb torque extension. About a week later someone complained that the wheels were loose and they were retorqued. The Surf was taken out for a road test and apparently came back with the wheels loose again so they were tightened with the impact wrench without a torque limiter.

Unfortunately no one wondered why the wheels had become loose so quickly. The actual reason for the wheel studs breaking was that the Surf was fitted with Land Cruiser 16"x8" rims with sleeve and washer type nuts and these sleeves were 4mm too long so even when they were correctly torqued down they allowed the rims to slide on the sleeves until we butchered them with an impact gun on full power.

The Surf coped extremely well with the loss of a front wheel at over 50mph and it didnt feel particularly unstable. I was more amazed than frightened by the loss of the wheel...wheeee.... look at that The wheel and tyre rolled for an amazing distance, straight down the middle of the three lanes.

At least 4 of the 6 wheel studs snapped in the last 200 metres before the wheel came off as the broken ends were lying on the road. The end of the lower ball joint took most of the damage until it was worn away then the disc and the forging on the wishbone were scraped along the road causing quite a lot more damage. The wheel rim was destroyed as it came off, the nearside front tyre was also damaged, and during the recovery the wheel arch extension and the offside wing were crumpled because a total-lift recovery truck needs the vehicle it's lifting to have four wheels.

[Morr]

Good to know you've found the cause, nothing worse than having an incident like that and being unable to figure out why.
Damage sounds nasty enough, altough as you say, the Surf coped well which is good to here.
Hope you get it all sorted without too much hassle.

[Linda]

Glad to know you weren't hurt and that you found the cause!!

[surffreak]

i was chatting to a fleet mecanic who used to work on hilux pick ups and land rovers, he said to me that to look after the landrovers he needed £8000 worth of spares and all he needed for the hilux was pads shoes and filters and wheel studs.

[laser_jock99]

[QUOTE=Elvz]Unfortunately no one wondered why the wheels had become loose so quickly. The actual reason for the wheel studs breaking was that the Surf was fitted with Land Cruiser 16"x8" rims with sleeve and washer type nuts and these sleeves were 4mm too long so even when they were correctly torqued down they allowed the rims to slide on the sleeves until we butchered them with an impact gun on full power.

QUOTE]

It's always worth bearing in mind that steel rims and aloys require different types of wheel nuts too.

Maybe we all need positional indicators like the HGV's!!

Nevillef