Help!! Wheel Broke off...4/5 Studs gone!

[BlackLight]

So I was driving tonight and I noticed that at low speeds and turning left the car would shake from side to side to I immeditely pulled over and checked the wheels to see if one was loose or flat or something, nothing. I debated calling the tow truck, but since I was about 2 mins away from home I figured I'd park it and fix it in the morning. Well, right as I got to my driveway, I was going into my parking spot and then I heard it. Sounded like a couple things breaking then BAM!!! felt like I ran something over and the car leaned to the passenger side. Immedately I put it in park and put on the ebrake and got out. Sure enough, the passenger front wheel was at about a 45 degree angle from the ground, and the car was kinda resting on it. Not wanting to bend the rim, I jacked it up immediately and removed the wheel to find that 4 of the 5 wheel studs had been completely snapped off and it looks like the bumper on that side has a little more gap btwn the grille above it and itself than the drivers side. So it got towed and well find out the damage tomorrow. But now here is what is confusing me....what could have caused this? From what I saw of the previous owner (FRDRCING aka tyson), he took meticulous care of it and would never leave lugs untightened, there were no major alinment problems and I havent hit any huge bumps, dips or bumps or otherwise so I'm kinda out of ideas...neone got one?

[98Cobra]

Could someone have loosened them wherever you were at?

[FRDRCING]

Evan

I never had any alinment issues with the truck when I had it. Dad and I had the rims off a few months before I put it up for sale to re-paint the calibers and then we tourqed them back down. I new were most of the Big pot wholes and stuff like that were at around town so I would always avoid them as most of them were bad. So not sure what caused them to break. When we re-painted the calibers a few months back we re-tourqed the lugs back down to the specs. I was given from the manufacture of the rims.

[BlackLight]

Evan

I never had any alinment issues with the truck when I had it. Dad and I had the rims off a few months before I put it up for sale to re-paint the calibers and then we tourqed them back down. I new were most of the Big pot wholes and stuff like that were at around town so I would always avoid them as most of them were bad. So not sure what caused them to break. When we re-painted the calibers a few months back we re-tourqed the lugs back down to the specs. I was given from the manufacture of the rims.

Alright, no worries, I didn't think it had anything to do with that but I had to check :-) I guess someone thought it would be funny to loosen my lugs and see how far I got. Thank god I was in my driveway and not driving when this happened or there would be one less Lightning :-(

[L-Fever]

Could someone have loosened them wherever you were at?

+1

Sounds like someone was trying to jack one or more of your wheels!

[Silver_2000]

Yep
sounds like you have aftermarket rims
I bet someone was scared away in the middle of trying to get your rim

Only thing that would break the studs is running the truck with the rim loose

Doug

[WA 2 FST]

This happened to me years ago in my Mustang (not wheel studs breaking, but the wheel came off while driving). I was coming back from a trip to the strip (I had only run on street tires, so I hadn't pulled the wheels off any time recently), was 2 miles from home, exited the freeway and next thing I knew I saw my driver's rear tire passing me... then the vehicle dropped down onto the sway bar/axle housing and obviously I carefully slowed from there.

Not one of my better nights. 1am, not a vehicle in sight, police driving by who couldn't care less about a stranded motorist (Plano's finest, my arse). My wife happened to be out of town, so I had to call a buddy I'd been racing with to see if he could drive from Mesquite to give me a tow home. Bolted up the spare (barely... the lugs were all stripped really bad), got it onto his trailer, and got it back in my garage ~3:30am.

Fortunately, I was only doing ~40mph when it came off, rather than 125 down the strip. The crazy thing is that I never felt a thing as far as vibration or anything like that (I'm sure a front wheel would be different). Damaged the rear axle, brake seals, and I lost a wheel (never could find it...who knows how far it rolled). I can only suspect someone at the strip didn't like getting beat, and decided to loosen a lug nut or 3 or 4.

Just thought I'd make your day. :) It could have been worse, for sure! Glad you were at home in your own parking spot.

[03LightningRocks]

Yep
sounds like you have aftermarket rims
I bet someone was scared away in the middle of trying to get your rim

Only thing that would break the studs is running the truck with the rim loose

Doug


My first thought also. I bet you came real close to walking up on a thief.

[BlackLight]

Well just an update, we got two Lightning studs from the local dealership and since we had three, got the spare wheel on and were able to get it up onto a flatbed and tow it to the Ford dealership up here and theyre gonna look at it, put hte new studs on, check the other studs, tighten everything to spec and balance the wheel that fell off to make sure it isn't broken or cracked or bent or anything then I'm taking it to somewhere to have an alignment done later on.

[BlackLight]

Oh yeah and here are some pics I took last night...last pic is of one stud that snapped off in the driveway, the others are probably over our neighborhood.
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/500/medium/Photoshoot_010.jpg
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/500/medium/Photoshoot_008.jpg
http://www.svtgalleries.net/gallery/data/500/medium/Photoshoot_009.jpg

[99WhiteBeast]

just curious did you have wheels locks?

[StormShadow]

Only thing that would break the studs is running the truck with the rim loose

Doug

Or me with a 4 way at Kennedale. I broke two wheel studs on my truck trying to get my slicks off one night. ( bent my 4 way too)

[BlackLight]

just curious did you have wheels locks?
Nope, I haven't gotten around to buying anything for the truck yet, ive only had it for about 3 weeks or so now, but that along with a Viper or Compustar alarm system was going to be in the next few months, but I guess im going to do that asap in case someone tries to finish the job. And it looks like we got everything repaired, studs are all fine, all the lug nuts are tightened to spec on all wheels and I went and got an alignment done just in case, and it was perfect so yeah, the beast is back lol.

[Tex Arcana]

This happened to me years ago in my Mustang (not wheel studs breaking, but the wheel came off while driving). I was coming back from a trip to the strip (I had only run on street tires, so I hadn't pulled the wheels off any time recently), was 2 miles from home, exited the freeway and next thing I knew I saw my driver's rear tire passing me... then the vehicle dropped down onto the sway bar/axle housing and obviously I carefully slowed from there.

Not one of my better nights. 1am, not a vehicle in sight, police driving by who couldn't care less about a stranded motorist (Plano's finest, my arse). My wife happened to be out of town, so I had to call a buddy I'd been racing with to see if he could drive from Mesquite to give me a tow home. Bolted up the spare (barely... the lugs were all stripped really bad), got it onto his trailer, and got it back in my garage ~3:30am.

Fortunately, I was only doing ~40mph when it came off, rather than 125 down the strip. The crazy thing is that I never felt a thing as far as vibration or anything like that (I'm sure a front wheel would be different). Damaged the rear axle, brake seals, and I lost a wheel (never could find it...who knows how far it rolled). I can only suspect someone at the strip didn't like getting beat, and decided to loosen a lug nut or 3 or 4.

Just thought I'd make your day. :) It could have been worse, for sure! Glad you were at home in your own parking spot.


I had a similar incident happen to me way back when I did a brake job on my '74 Cougar. Me and friend did the job, and when we got done, I crashed and went to work the next day. Well, on my way home, I had the window open (summer, hot, ac was out), and I heard a rattle coming from the back, so I opened the door as I was passing Spring Valley road and Abrams (yes, Mark, near where you live), leaned out, looked back, and saw the driver's side wheel wobbling away. :eek2: All 5 lugs were loose. So I stop, tighten them up, and go on home. When i see my friend that weekend, I confronted him on it, because he was working on that side, and his comeback was "Hell, it's YOUR car, you should've checked them!!" :rll: Lesson learned. ;)