Crashing is real bad for fuel economy
 

So take my advice and always tighten your lugs!

...


In unrelated news I fixed that clunking on my car, ;)

So what have you crashed then???

I've only personally crashed a bike, :p. But would've been close had a gone for a longer drive on the half-on lugs

I did this in my Supra, left one back wheel on just finger tight after changing the brake pads. A few days later I took a friend for a spin on a private road up to 'a lot' of mph.... then noticed a knocking noise the next day. That back wheel had started working its way loose :eek:

I was lucky LOL

I too have done this, but was too stupid to find it.

Did brakes on my old 85 Toyota pickup. A few days later the backend was clunking badly as I pulled into the apartments. I knew the pinion bearing was on it's way out, and assumed the noise was teeth being sheared off the ring/pinion.

Didn't drive it for 3 weeks while searching for a center section I could afford. Spent the better part of 2 hours digging a parts truck out of the snow that a buddy had (sat behind the barn, snow was drifted about 9-10 feet deep over it, made a little tunnel to the rear end).

Later on I found out the front wheel had come loose, and the horrible knocking/jerking was the cast ribs on the back of the wheel smacking the caliper. :mad:

Stupid stupid STUPID!

But hey, we all make mistakes....

Add me to the list too. :) I actually took off work on a Friday to fix my CV joint (or what I thought was a CV) because I was going on a trip that afternoon. Turns out I just had to tighten up the lugs. It was a happy time.

Yikes! That would've sucked! I once saw what happened when a car lost a wheel and hit another vehicle head-on.

Later, the accident investigators reported only one lug nut held the wheel on and it sheared off after driving a few miles. Turned out to be an attempted murder case (those other 3 lug nuts didn't magically unfasten)...

Good thing you checked it. Glad you're OK!!!

Maybe everyone should go out and give them a quick torque. I shall declare it "Lug Nut Torque Awareness Day" :thumbup:

-Rick

Lug nut sins
 

Forgive me fathers for I too, have committed this sin.
I once had a minivan on stands with a 4 wheel removal project, put the wheels on thinking I would remember to tighten them up after dropping it down, then forgot after dropping it. I drove it to work the next day for testing, then realized it was awful wobbly after about 20 miles. I pulled over to find almost every wheel was not tightened and ready to fall off :eek:

This all reminds me of Ron White's bit against Sears.

"Apparently their mechanic was absent on lug nut day..."

I was in Chautauqua County, NY riding with the PD out there for work when we went by a call they had just gotten, the tire came off a car, bounced at the side of the road and went through a picture window in a VFW building. Luckily nobody was hurt in the instance but lug nut awareness is important!

This happened to me in my old Firebird back in 1989. I'm guessing someone sabotaged me because I hadn't done any work on my car in a while. Luckily I was going real slow around a corner, having just stopped at a red light. The left rear wheel came off, crunched the rear quarter panel and shot off across the road. By the time I got the car pulled off the road some guy comes along with my tire. I was on a Navy base in the Philippines at the time so there was no shortage of people to come to my aid. I ended up taking one lug from each of the other three wheels to put it back on.

The only thing that saved me from real damage was my $20 bolt on traction bars.

Had it done to me, too. Probably 20 years ago, 'cause I was driving a '78 Datsun pickup. Took it in to a tire shop for new front tires, came back a couple hours later & it was done and parked in their lot. So I paid & drove away. A few hundred yards later, I'd just made the first left when the front corner dropped, and I saw a tire rolling away down the (luckily almost empty) road. Took a look, and guess what? No lug nuts. They were back at the tire store, where the installer obviously forgot to put them on.

i broke three of five posts off, trying to tighten the lug nuts when i finally realized what that clunk clunk clunk clunk was. but hey all the vibration sure made it easy to press out the old ones

Always always always use new cotter pins and do it the first time! Never think you'll do it later! I put in an old one on the bunny just to roll it out of the garage and completely forgot about it. ~1000 miles later the nut worked it's way off and one of my wheels started flapping around at 55mph. :o

I have not done this; however I have been a victim of this.

A buddy of mine had a 70's Camaro Hot rod, we were always futzing with it.
Anyways we were out one night, and during one of the few periods at which we were not breaking any laws we had a bit of an event. The back of the car started hopping up and down then all of a sudden I'm looking forward at the road; the front bumper hit the ground and then we hit the ground (correct direction) and skidded about 10 feet to a stop. I had NO CLUE what had happened. But he knew exactly what the issue was the, Right rear wheel had come off.


Moral of the story; torque your lugs.

Next time Our story will be. Breaking a weld on the 4 link while backing up at Sonic.

I had a chevy impalla 1979 model, big boat, got a motor from a racer friend, right out of there stock car :) Added a race modified turbo 350 tranny and posi rear end.. after I got it all put together I went to the gas station added some fuel and then took off like a batt out of hell , the front end came up and dropped back down the drivers side front shot off and rolled a 1/4 mile.. the problem? it had mag wheels on it and the nuts required special washers to hold the rims on.. they were not on the lugs. the lugs were still on the studs with no tire/wheel.. no one was hurt and the car wasn't moving fast so nothing more than abit of road rash on the front disc.

Boy that car was a beast.. fast as hell..