Front wheel came off hub after recent tyre change
Discussion
Hi All,
Long story short...had two front tyres changed by a tyre garage last Friday (I supplied them the tyres). The car left the tyre place (about 3.5 miles from my house) and was then parked in my garage for a week.
Yesterday morning I was making a longer trip in the car and after brief vibration in the steering wheel (after aproxx 20 miles), I pulled up to see the wheel had actually come off the hub with the nuts on the floor, and the wheel wedged between the arch on front wing.
The wheel is damaged, studs are damaged, possibly also the hub, discs and suspension, and the front wing needs to be replaced.
AA recovered the vehicle and the mechanic suggested that in his opinion the wheel nuts have not been tightened properly. Called tyre garage today...they are denying responsibility, but will get the manager to look into it. I have asked them to correspond in writing (via email).
I am not a litigious type of person, but feel that the responsibility lies with the garage, as it is their responsibility to make sure nuts are tightened. I am aware that it is advised that wheel should be checked again after 30 or so miles, but the wheels should be correctly tightened in the first instance (which these appear to not have been). In any case, in 13 years of driving, I have never checked the wheel nuts when they have been removed and never had a problem.
I have been advised that if the garage does not admit liability, I can go through the small claims court. Any advice on how I should deal with matter will be greatly appreciated, along with my likely chance of success for recovering repair costs.
I was fortunate the wheel did not come clean off...
Long story short...had two front tyres changed by a tyre garage last Friday (I supplied them the tyres). The car left the tyre place (about 3.5 miles from my house) and was then parked in my garage for a week.
Yesterday morning I was making a longer trip in the car and after brief vibration in the steering wheel (after aproxx 20 miles), I pulled up to see the wheel had actually come off the hub with the nuts on the floor, and the wheel wedged between the arch on front wing.
The wheel is damaged, studs are damaged, possibly also the hub, discs and suspension, and the front wing needs to be replaced.
AA recovered the vehicle and the mechanic suggested that in his opinion the wheel nuts have not been tightened properly. Called tyre garage today...they are denying responsibility, but will get the manager to look into it. I have asked them to correspond in writing (via email).
I am not a litigious type of person, but feel that the responsibility lies with the garage, as it is their responsibility to make sure nuts are tightened. I am aware that it is advised that wheel should be checked again after 30 or so miles, but the wheels should be correctly tightened in the first instance (which these appear to not have been). In any case, in 13 years of driving, I have never checked the wheel nuts when they have been removed and never had a problem.
I have been advised that if the garage does not admit liability, I can go through the small claims court. Any advice on how I should deal with matter will be greatly appreciated, along with my likely chance of success for recovering repair costs.
I was fortunate the wheel did not come clean off...
Yesterday i helped a chap who had bought new wheels for his Volvo S40,he had had them fitted in the morning, i guess he had driven few miles when he turned out of a junction and the front pax wheel departed. I helped a couple of scaffolders get his car up on to the jack, we put the spare wheel on tried doing the nuts back up but i think most where dethreaded.He had bought the new wheels from a hand carwash place that obviously didn't have a torque wrench as the rear wheel i tried was just over finger tight. I recommended he park the car and call the AA. Damaged front wing the door the sill and the brake disc didn't look to great either.
gtidriver said:
Yesterday i helped a chap who had bought new wheels for his Volvo S40,he had had them fitted in the morning, i guess he had driven few miles when he turned out of a junction and the front pax wheel departed. I helped a couple of scaffolders get his car up on to the jack, we put the spare wheel on tried doing the nuts back up but i think most where dethreaded.He had bought the new wheels from a hand carwash place that obviously didn't have a torque wrench as the rear wheel i tried was just over finger tight. I recommended he park the car and call the AA. Damaged front wing the door the sill and the brake disc didn't look to great either.
Thats a shame. And as I sat in my car waiting for the AA I was thinking I must be the only person that this has happened to today...obviously I was wrong.JimClark49 said:
I am not a litigious type of person, but feel that the responsibility lies with the garage, as it is their responsibility to make sure nuts are tightened. I am aware that it is advised that wheel should be checked again after 30 or so miles, but the wheels should be correctly tightened in the first instance (which these appear to not have been). In any case, in 13 years of driving, I have never checked the wheel nuts when they have been removed and never had a problem.
I'm pretty sure that every time I've had wheels off at a garage they've made it very clear it's my responsibility to check everything's OK after a short distance.bigandclever said:
I'm pretty sure that every time I've had wheels off at a garage they've made it very clear it's my responsibility to check everything's OK after a short distance.
The garage did have a sign up stating that nuts should be checked after a certain amount of miles, but surely this only applies to nuts that have been correctly torqued in the first place? What else may cause five wheel nuts to drop off while driving? If they were tight then they should not be coming undone.
This will go nowhere.
If it happened as you left the tyre place, then yeah, they'd take responsibility I guess... But anyone could have loosened your wheel nuts whilst the car was parked.
Yes, I know that's not what happened, and I know that the tyre place is probably responsible to some degree (as are you), but you won't 'win' anything. They will deny, you won't be able to prove anything.
If it happened as you left the tyre place, then yeah, they'd take responsibility I guess... But anyone could have loosened your wheel nuts whilst the car was parked.
Yes, I know that's not what happened, and I know that the tyre place is probably responsible to some degree (as are you), but you won't 'win' anything. They will deny, you won't be able to prove anything.
You should check the nuts after a short distance. You made a mistake here.
JimClark49 said:
The garage did have a sign up stating that nuts should be checked after a certain amount of miles, but surely this only applies to nuts that have been correctly torqued in the first place?
What else may cause five wheel nuts to drop off while driving? If they were tight then they should not be coming undone.
Owned!What else may cause five wheel nuts to drop off while driving? If they were tight then they should not be coming undone.
JimClark49 said:
The garage did have a sign up stating that nuts should be checked after a certain amount of miles, but surely this only applies to nuts that have been correctly torqued in the first place?
What else may cause five wheel nuts to drop off while driving? If they were tight then they should not be coming undone.
Why are you arguing with the people you sought advice from?What else may cause five wheel nuts to drop off while driving? If they were tight then they should not be coming undone.
Tyre fitters all have this catch-all of 'check wheel nuts after XX miles' for a reason. Lesson learned.
JimClark49 said:
Hi All,
Long story short...had two front tyres changed by a tyre garage last Friday (I supplied them the tyres). The car left the tyre place (about 3.5 miles from my house) and was then parked in my garage for a week.
Yesterday morning I was making a longer trip in the car and after brief vibration in the steering wheel (after aproxx 20 miles), I pulled up to see the wheel had actually come off the hub with the nuts on the floor, and the wheel wedged between the arch on front wing.
The wheel is damaged, studs are damaged, possibly also the hub, discs and suspension, and the front wing needs to be replaced.
AA recovered the vehicle and the mechanic suggested that in his opinion the wheel nuts have not been tightened properly. Called tyre garage today...they are denying responsibility, but will get the manager to look into it. I have asked them to correspond in writing (via email).
I am not a litigious type of person, but feel that the responsibility lies with the garage, as it is their responsibility to make sure nuts are tightened. I am aware that it is advised that wheel should be checked again after 30 or so miles, but the wheels should be correctly tightened in the first instance (which these appear to not have been). In any case, in 13 years of driving, I have never checked the wheel nuts when they have been removed and never had a problem.
I have been advised that if the garage does not admit liability, I can go through the small claims court. Any advice on how I should deal with matter will be greatly appreciated, along with my likely chance of success for recovering repair costs.
I was fortunate the wheel did not come clean off...
The nuts were on the floor right where you stopped? Long story short...had two front tyres changed by a tyre garage last Friday (I supplied them the tyres). The car left the tyre place (about 3.5 miles from my house) and was then parked in my garage for a week.
Yesterday morning I was making a longer trip in the car and after brief vibration in the steering wheel (after aproxx 20 miles), I pulled up to see the wheel had actually come off the hub with the nuts on the floor, and the wheel wedged between the arch on front wing.
The wheel is damaged, studs are damaged, possibly also the hub, discs and suspension, and the front wing needs to be replaced.
AA recovered the vehicle and the mechanic suggested that in his opinion the wheel nuts have not been tightened properly. Called tyre garage today...they are denying responsibility, but will get the manager to look into it. I have asked them to correspond in writing (via email).
I am not a litigious type of person, but feel that the responsibility lies with the garage, as it is their responsibility to make sure nuts are tightened. I am aware that it is advised that wheel should be checked again after 30 or so miles, but the wheels should be correctly tightened in the first instance (which these appear to not have been). In any case, in 13 years of driving, I have never checked the wheel nuts when they have been removed and never had a problem.
I have been advised that if the garage does not admit liability, I can go through the small claims court. Any advice on how I should deal with matter will be greatly appreciated, along with my likely chance of success for recovering repair costs.
I was fortunate the wheel did not come clean off...
JimClark49 said:
The garage did have a sign up stating that nuts should be checked after a certain amount of miles, but surely this only applies to nuts that have been correctly torqued in the first place?
What else may cause five wheel nuts to drop off while driving? If they were tight then they should not be coming undone.
Why are you arguing with the people you sought advice from?What else may cause five wheel nuts to drop off while driving? If they were tight then they should not be coming undone.
Tyre fitters all have this catch-all of 'check wheel nuts after XX miles' for a reason. Lesson learned.
If the Op's correct he only drove aprox 23 miles IN TOTAL.
I've never in over 10 years of working on cars ever felt the need to check wheel nuts in such a short period of time.
I've also used a garage which was at least 40 miles from home due their rep as being spot on and they knew this when taking my details. They pointed out I should check the nuts over the next few days, but were more than happy for me to drive home that day.
If the mileage is correct I would be heading back to the tyre place with an estimate, along with the invoice they would have provided with the mileage stated when they worked on the car and a photo of the mileage in the car now as proof.
23 miles should not be a problem for properly torqued nuts, end of!
Also OP what did their warning say, I doubt it said check the nuts after 20 miles, if your mileage is less than what their own warning state you have them over a barrel.
I've never in over 10 years of working on cars ever felt the need to check wheel nuts in such a short period of time.
I've also used a garage which was at least 40 miles from home due their rep as being spot on and they knew this when taking my details. They pointed out I should check the nuts over the next few days, but were more than happy for me to drive home that day.
If the mileage is correct I would be heading back to the tyre place with an estimate, along with the invoice they would have provided with the mileage stated when they worked on the car and a photo of the mileage in the car now as proof.
23 miles should not be a problem for properly torqued nuts, end of!
Also OP what did their warning say, I doubt it said check the nuts after 20 miles, if your mileage is less than what their own warning state you have them over a barrel.
JimClark49 said:
Fair enough....and I appreciate the answers and understand the points you have made.
Ultimately, the lesson here is for me - check nuts after 10-20 miles.
Yep, even the very best of garages can forget to torque the nuts after fingering them back on.Ultimately, the lesson here is for me - check nuts after 10-20 miles.
Always, always check them yourself asap.
Another is with freshly refurbished wheels. Always check them after you have done the first 50-100 miles.
This happened to me on journey back from garage. Wheel came clean off whilst doing 50mph. Fortunately no one hurt but car (308 dino) badly damaged. I chased the garage including using the legal cover on my insurance. It is a long story which I won't bore you with but I got nothing from the garage as simply my word against theirs. Sold the carcass for about 5k. Sad day.
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