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...
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.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.
Thanks for the further comments guys.
Unfortunately, no invoice as this was a 'cash in hand' tyre place. The tyre place itself has been going for 20 years, so its not a 'backstreet' place. I think I remember seeing a warning about wheel nuts on the wall, but was not told verbally or in any other way.
Before the critics wade in, yes I should have checked for tightness after some miles, but as I said in 12 or so years of driving I have never checked tightness and never had a problem.
I normally use Event tyres but since I moved to Wales (they do not cover that area), I have had problems finding decent tyre places here. Most petrolheads I spoke to struggled with finding good tyre places - and this one was given to me on recommendation of a friend.
I know the garage have not done anything malicious, but a simple error on their part in tightening the nuts has resulted in the wheel coming off. Correctly tightened nuts do not just become loose like that.
Loon - the wheel nuts were scattered on the road which I managed to recover while waiting for the AA.
Unfortunately, no invoice as this was a 'cash in hand' tyre place. The tyre place itself has been going for 20 years, so its not a 'backstreet' place. I think I remember seeing a warning about wheel nuts on the wall, but was not told verbally or in any other way.
Before the critics wade in, yes I should have checked for tightness after some miles, but as I said in 12 or so years of driving I have never checked tightness and never had a problem.
I normally use Event tyres but since I moved to Wales (they do not cover that area), I have had problems finding decent tyre places here. Most petrolheads I spoke to struggled with finding good tyre places - and this one was given to me on recommendation of a friend.
I know the garage have not done anything malicious, but a simple error on their part in tightening the nuts has resulted in the wheel coming off. Correctly tightened nuts do not just become loose like that.
Loon - the wheel nuts were scattered on the road which I managed to recover while waiting for the AA.
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