2 days ago im on my second day of work in a long time as a delivery driver, i had just put on my chromes (please dont flame we all have our preferences) and wished i didnt as i use my own car to deliver. I had 3 out of 4 chrome 18"s on due to a stuck lug nut on my right front wich only had 3 lugs to begin with. Im headin to my first pickup heading through the ted williams tunnel, make it through and all of a sudden i here this flat-tire like noise but i knew it wasnt, everything was shaking and going crazy skowed the hell down, im like it has to be my 3 lug stock tire.
I go over the zakim bridge going slow as hell taking first exit to somerville and baaam my all 5 lug chrome wheel left front flys off and jumps over the barrier falling atleast 125 feet because im on the ramp and i slide on my rotar 70-100 feet. i got flat bedded to a safe location and actually found my tire after 30 mins unscuffed!! and not flat, props to mass dot no1 even called and it was free that guy helped me like i was his best friend. AAA comes and actually says well lets put the tire back on,huh? my rotar is flapping in the wind and chewed all up who knows if my axel or anything is snapped. the action of the tire flying off crunched my body wheel well and now my door sticks and its a plain ole' eye soar.
Well guys Im just venting and wanted to tell some peeps who would feel my pain it was a scarey situation, it coulda been worse and calling my boss on my second day, " um hey alex i cant make these deliverys today my tire flew off on the highway" that was great.
so it was due to me putting my 2 front chromes on the back and the wholes that the stem goes through were worn. like pencil stem through a sharpie size lug whole so it just came off. im not getting ride off these wheels i love em. but thanks for reading even if i get no replies, mayb share similar nerve racking storys? we"ll thanks guys i love this place big help. what should i do? i can post pics tomorow of rotar and body damage

 

holy sh*t!

























































lolwut?

 

I would hate for that to happen anywhere, but in the Ted Williams? I feel your pain. Hopefully, you can get everything back together cheaply.

 

Get a torque wrench.

 

best bet 4 sho. extended lugs with racing nuts. you cant do anything without "nuts"

 

How are you going to get them to stay on if the holes are worn?

 

I know long story but i had to get it off my chest and am still pretty new to this i dont know all the tricksofthetrade. thanks for the input. welll its proably still not that safe but i just put them back to the way they were last year because i rotated them and the worn 1 was in the front wich was the rear last year, and being the wheel that has the power and is steering itcouldnt hang on in the front but it was fine in the back, thanks guys just wanted to vent

 

New brakes and wheel studs... that happened to a friend who had a legend too, so this wouldn't be the 1st I've heard of this... I hope you get everything sorted out man... excersise some patients and take it easy bro... good luck

 

 

I realized that you probably didn't take auto mechanics, but did you even graduate high school? Your grammar is horrendous.

Glad to hear that you are safe.

 

Can I get an editor's version and a physics lesson on how this is even possible?

 

-Dude puts on chrome wheels without using a torque wrench, one wheel has worn lug holes
-Drives around a lot
-Lugs on worn wheel come loose enough to cause serious vibration
-Driver continues to drive on it until he can find an exit
-Wheel flies off after driving on it too long

I'm a bit amazed that you were driving around with 3 lug nuts on one wheel and are stubbornly using dangerous wheels even after what just happened. I would recommend taking your car to a reputable shop for repairs to get everything back in safe working order. In the future when working on your car if you don't have the right tools or something gets put back together wrong, go straight to a discount tire or similar and they may even help you out for free if it's a safety issue. Also, I know you don't want to hear it... but I wouldn't put that wheel back on the front or back if it was really the wheel which was a problem.

 

Well, it is better he didn't stop in the Ted Williams tunnel because then he may have been killed by falling roof panels.

 

Thanks, sparks lol. I was missing the bit about the holes already being worn.

I've never used a tq wrench, but greasing the studs fairly heavy and strong arming a 4 way or big ratchet has insured that no wheel will ever come off my car, loose holes or not (and without breaking studs).

 

He said the vibration didn't start until he exited the tunnel, I'm not sure if there is a shoulder at that point or not though.

 

thanks for the responses guys, and yes mr. edward lee i do have a diploma, im not gonna spell check or make sure im all proper for a online car website, that video is crazy lol damn. yah not the smartest thing to drive with 3 lugs and put the wheel that flew off back on but it will be fixed actually headin to the shop now, but thanks for the info peeps.

 

brutal... first off having one mismatched wheels on the the wheels that provide power is a bad idea for your tranny, as i can guarantee if you dont know how to install tires your probably dont know about proper tire sizing and circumfrence differences between the 2 sets
2 on the back and 2 on the front are okay to drive on but will look stupid.
chrome wheels = ugly
3 chrome wheels = ghetto
losing your wheel = god punishing you for having chrome wheels

 

Such a failure. Did you really think rushing to get the ugly rims on and not doing it properly was worth it? Your car may very well be totaled depending on how bad it's damaged now.

Just makes me think of that one guy's sig quote who has the fourth gen. As the fifth generation Maxima ages, its owners get younger and dumber.

 

Not the issue here I dont think.
Although it's good advice.

Yup sounds to me like the wheel was loose, the holes for the studs wore (eggshaped), and you foolishly kept driving the thing around.

The WORST part of this, although that's hard to pinpoint out of the huge run on sentance in the OP, is probably the fact that you KNEW there was a problem, you had a 'spare' on the Right front, riding on 3 studs because you'd already broken 2!!!!

Then the VERY close second, is the fact that even after this terrifying experience, you're still dumb enough to drive on those rims, KNOWING they are damaged!

Honestly dude, I'm pretty upset with you, you want to risk your life and your car, fine, but keep that thing of the streets where there are Innocent people driving, and children on the side of the street.
If I knew your contact information I'd call the cops on you right now.

To all the people who said 'aww too bad for you', you either didn't read the OP (don't blame you, it was painful to try and interpret), or you're high off your a$$es, this guy deserves no pity, he deserves to lose his car and his licence immediately, if not more.

Just out of curiosity, are/were you running spacers? and which size?

^^ Sorry but I need to tell you this so you don't have the same problem. Maybe you're just using the wrong wording, but you should never ''grease'' your studs, that causes improper torque, and triples the likelyhood of them coming loose.

The proper way is to just keep them CLEAN, NO lubricant, and properly torqued.

 

Crazy story glad you are alright....but Damn 3 studs you can do 4 but 3 that's when its time to get that fixed....Good Luck....

 

Don't worry about me. I check the lugs often enough and I've never had them become loose. I'm no nancy boy. Those *****es are on there tight. And there's no way in hell I can get them back off without risking them snapping with no lube. I just replaced all the lugs b/c after install/removal of the wheels several times I started stripping them (okay, maybe too tight haha).

I may not be very old (26), but this by far yielded great results for me. No loose lugs and no snapped studs to date. The grease/oil gets thin after a bit anyway. I don't reapply lube if there's some still on it.

 

You're free to do it how you please, but you're doing it wrong.

I am not trying to insult or single you out, but you need clarification on this apparently.

Torque specs exist for a reason. Exceeding them stretches the studs. The tighter you make them, the more they stretch.
Stretching the studs weakens the studs. The more they stretch the weaker they get.
Weak studs are prone to snapping.
You also damage the wheel, you squish and spin the lug nuts against the wheel more than they are supposed to seat, weakening the rim, and mounting surface.


Doing this more than once compounds the effect.
You've proven this in your statement about stripping them. You've stretched them so far that the thread pitch is actually different. So when you take them off, they strip.

Torqing the wheels properly will allow you to keep your wheels tight, save your studs, lug nuts, rims, hub, etc.

No lube, no nonsense, no 'tough guy' strongarming.

 

Wow...

 

THIS! I drive through the exact area this guy described on a daily basis to and from work and that is one the last things I want to see on my commute, besides someone getting seriously injured. No set of wheels is worth running 3 of when the 4th is drastically different in size from the rest, especially not on the front of a fwd vehicle...let alone the 3 lug nut deal...overall I am blown away at the ignorance displayed and I hope you are not anywhere near me on I-93 "theonlymax88" when I am safely driving with all 5 lug nuts and properly matched tires.

 

you know what, every1 who thinks i did somthing wrong here to cause damage to myself or other ppl and giving me **** for my car looks and think they are the all mighty best can act nuts all you want on here but come see me at the y.m.c.a in quincy and we'll see even my grammer lol like really...probaby have no girlfriend and small *****'s. my wheel came off to worn lug wholes not my fault...thanks to every1 else, i have another post in the works i took my car to the shop and i got a laundry list of issues so ill post that up, thanks guys

 

I'm not ganging up on you because everyone else is...it's simply because you're one of the dumbest people I've seen on the forum, just judging from what you've said here, that I have to say something...

Really, you want to box at the YMCA any of these people that are giving you ****? Really? Dude, take note, the wheel falling off, was completely your fault. You put it on, it was notably defective, it came off, how is that not your fault???

 

While its true your car does look like garbage that was not the reason I posted a comment in the first place, you can be in denial all you want that this mishap was "not your fault" but back in real life it was 100% your fault. It just so happens that you did this in the same area I travel through everyday which is reason enough for me to comment about how foolish this move was.

And what would I come see at the YMCA in Quincy, you trying to install wheels with a set of plastic lug nut covers?

 

Apparently whoever created you must have left out a couple of chromosomes. Hey, not their fault one of them was egg shaped.

Are the wheels in your picture the ones that fell off? Did you take them off a Barnum & Bailey's clown car?

 

I'll go there and steal your spiderman wheels and chrome pillars.

 

I didn't make my comments because of 'appearance'. I could give a fiddlers green what your car looks like, your car, your call how you want to mod it.

I made my comments because it is painstakingly evident that this was 100% your fault, you were dumb enough to keep driving when you KNEW the car was unsafe.

Then you KEPT driving after installing an incorrect size tire on a hub that only had 3 studs.

Then, you lost your wheel because of your previous stupidity.

Then, You were somehow DUMB enough to REINSTALL THE DAMN WHEELS !!!!!!!!!!!!


The fact that you are dumb enough to think this isn't your fault doesn't really surprise me after examining the stupidity that preceeded it.

 

This thread rocks. Thank you for being you, OP.