That's what it looks like, when you drive 600 miles with loose wheel nuts.

Joined
Jan 5, 2023
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Down South in Germany
Just came home from a 600 miles drive, sounded like the left front wheel baring is shot again, so I ordered a new one.
When I had her on the lift to replace it, I noticed that the whole wheel was wobbling way more than just a shot bearing would allow, and that 4 of my wheel nuts where loose. The wheel has eaten some nice marks in the brake disc.

The pic is with the new bearing already in place.

image_2023-02-19_025959506.png
 
I've seen quite a bit of that running a large commercial fleet of light/medium duty trucks. Usually due to not having a retorque completed after having wheels removed for a service and a poor quality trip inspection. Before, during, after.

Would need a new studs, wheel and lugnuts at a minimum.
 
Interesting. The wear marks are a bit deeper than what I see on my rotors, after 100k or whatever. I presume you have steel rims here? I think steel rims can flex a bit, making similar (but not nearly as deep) marks.

How loose was loose? Like 3 turns out, or finger tight? I’m going to assume, no idea how long they have been loose—that 600 miles was for a recent trip, not the last time you ran a torque wrench on things.
 
Usually due to not having a retorque completed after having wheels removed ..
That's exactly what it was - I had a flat tire a while ago, and ADAC (German road side assistance) put the spare wheel on for me.
I always thought that steel wheels don't need retoque.
 
How loose was loose? Like 3 turns out, or finger tight? I’m going to assume, no idea how long they have been loose—that 600 miles was for a recent trip, not the last time you ran a torque wrench on things.
Finger tight/steel wheels - and yeah I have no idea, but the sound and the vibration started at the beginning of that trip.
 
No pics of the chewed up studs from the old hub?

I also believe steel wheels are pretty good at not needing retorquing-- the part that interfaces with the lugs is usually stamped in such a fashion that there's an air gap behind it, allowing for a good amount of spring, which should keep tension on the lugs.

"Mags" when they came out had no such air gap, so you were relying only on the stretch of the lug, which wasn't as much. They got a rep for loosening.
 
Not sure what I'm looking at appears to be new and fully functional?
If those studs werent replaced they appear to be fine...

You said the brake rotor was chewed up? but its not visible in pic.

*confused*
 
Anything installed by 'roadside hacks' needs to be double checked regardless. I hope that you learned your lesson.

Now, send the pictures and repair bill to the 'roadside destroyers' and ask them to pay for it.
 
Not sure what I'm looking at appears to be new and fully functional?
If those studs werent replaced they appear to be fine...

You said the brake rotor was chewed up? but its not visible in pic.

*confused*


In my initial post I said, that picture was taken with the new bearing assembly already in place - since the studs are part of the new assembly ...

Here are the marks.


image_2023-02-19_194825448.jpg
 
I see it now.
To me at first glance it looked like normal marks from where the wheels were against it vs rusting
 
Happened to a friend of mine in college, sheered every wheel stud off. Excuse the flip phone quality pic, that's all we had back then.
I had a similar experience - a wheel spacer broke and fall off - studs sheered, and if that was not enough, the wheel almost hit an other car and than rolled into a river.

Needless to say, I had better days before - thanks god, I was already pretty slow at that point (just got off the Autobahn) - that could have ended much worse.
 
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