why did my wheel fall off?

[CRUSHU]

I will also suggest that with a home style compressor and cheapo rattlegun, they wont even be tight. As you will have noticed, they all needa little nipping up with the breaker bar, or will be just OK, not mega tight.
Nuts always rust on a little, making them feel mega tight when you are at the side of the road, then you blame the mechanic and his damned rattle gun for them being so tight, but it usually has nothing to do with it.
Also, steel wheels have raised sections around each nut hole, so the nut causes the wheel to flex a little, acting like a spring washer, preventing the nut from loosening, that is why eastern wheel works type steel wheels are generally not legal, or why the nuts loosen themselves on that type of rim.

I would think it was caused by either the rim not seated against the drum properly (maybe cocked) or with mud in the gap, which later fell out, poor balance, or missed doing that wheel up with the bar.

[GUHOON]

I have literally done up thousands of wheels - almost all with the ratlle gun.
I have the gun set to the second highest setting , put the nuts on by hand 3 or 4 turns , rattle them up in opposing sequence , lower the car onto the ground , then check with a bar , never had a problem.

Had an old kingswood years ago , went for a drive to maccas and the car got all wobbly.
pulled over and found the lhr rim sitting on the studs and all the nuts gone , think some low life tried knocking them off.

One question for you though , are those nuts in the pic the same as the ones that were on it when the wheel fell off?
If you use mag wheel style nuts with normal style rims that can spell trouble.

[shorty_f0rty]

hey everyone thanks for your feedback.. i now have a fair idea what the problem could be .. and i think its just that the wheel wasnt seated properly or checked after the initial drive down to the servo.

hypozook, i went down to the servo to air up to do a quick short run to check for wierdness like what happened on the freeway. i didnt re-check them after returning though which is probably my mistake.

the wheel nuts that are on now (only the shiney ones are replacements) and they are pretty similar to the ones that were on there already..

crushu, the air comp was my OBA and tank.. it usually does pretty good tightening things up. i dont think there was any mud in there getting in the way of things.

davidh: yeh we take the cat for a drive cos its an inside cat, its fully getting the hang of driving now leaning into corners and sitting on the center console without falling off.. it likes the drive but doesnt like it when we cruise thru the valley with all the people lights and noise..

I have since put the wheel that fell off back on the spare wheel carrier and the tapers are all stuffed up, theres big gaps on the holes when the wheelnuts are done up properly.. so i think its time for a new rim.. and another split steelie too..

thanks again everyone, for sharing your insights and experience!!

[99Rodeo]

I used to have a FWD toyota corolla with factory alloy wheels. A week after I bought it the Lh front wheels developed a wobble, it had come loose, the lh rear was loose also.

Every time the wheels came off the car the lhs would come loose and needed a retension then they would stay tight.

I watched at tire shop where they use the socket on the rattle gun with the tapered shaft that limits the torque and then they use a tension wrench, still came loose.

I lived with this car for eleven years and never worked out why they would come loose. Even if I tightened it up with my 24 inch snap on breaker bar they would come loose.

The moral of the story is just to recheck the tension after 50 or 100kms.

Jap trucks have left hand threaded studs on the near side which stops this from happening.

[chunderlicious]

i also noticed that it is mainly on peoples left hand wheel nuts... same as will did in his truck a couple of months ago

[Andy_B]

The something happened to my BJ42 (passenger rear wheel), luckly there was no damage, I think it was caused by the wheels. They were suraysia I think, and were a very soft metal. So once the wheel start vibrating over time the stud holes got wider and allowed for more vibration, which eventually sheered off the studs.

When the incident happened I only replaced the broken studs, but I luckily caught the front studs because I broke 2 on the passenger side when I was rotating the tires. So after that I put in all new studs and bought new wheels (skinnys). And the old cruiser hasn't lost wheels.

I never used a impact wrench, but it just maybe Bj42 Toyota studs are crap.

ANdy