sent down to do time

[winterbourne]

I read yesterday that a"boy racer" in an Evo3 was sent to prison for two years for;He put wider/larger rims on his car and his locking wheel nuts did'nt fit so like a complete numpty he drove with 3 wheel nuts until he could buy another set of lockers.Whilst driving several hours later one wheel broke(due to insufficient bolting),flew off and hit(killing) a young lad walking down the high street.After an investigation by the experts they reached the afore mentioned conclution and he was up infront of the judge,sentenced and did'nt pass go!!
Would that happen in the uk i wonder?
This was New Zealand.

[GreenV8S]

one wheel broke(due to insufficient bolting)

That's pretty amazing, quite scary in fact. I would have expected it to be quite safe on three out of four bolts, for a gentle drive down to the shops. I wonder if he had standard wheels, or something more delicate.

Cheers,
Peter Humhries (and a green V8S)

[gnomesmith]

I picked up an early Mini as a spares car. It had crashed after loosing a wheel.

All wheelnuts were intact, the wheel's holes had expanded and pulled over the intact nuts.

Investigation revealed that the nuts must have been done up with a 12' scaffold pole so greatly over the specified torque were they. Amazing the studs had not broken although they were well into their elastic limit and had stretched.

Remember to use a torque wrench on your wheel nuts!

[winterbourne]

the picture showed a non standard,five spoke,aluminium alloy with an ultra low profile tyre.It did look a flimsy wheel!

[Esprit]

I hadn't heard of that (over here in NZ you see) so im not sure.
I'll have a scan of the boyracer boards over here and see what i can find... it sounds about right though, if you did that you'd get jail for sure.... oby racers are hated oer here and I can see why..... with the glut of jap imports, for the UK equivalent of 3000squid you can have a VR4 Galant that will get sown a 1/4 mile in mid 12-second territory.... my mate's got one and he can't drive it for shit (loves the straight line, gets freaked out when he goes round corners)... basicallly these guys are all in cars way beyond their ability and have the uncanny knack of killing pedestrians/other motorists etc... hardly suprising coz I know I probably couldnt handle the power they've got and i know I'm a better driver than 99% of them!

[kevinday]

Remember to use a torque wrench on your wheel nuts!

Just like all the 'professionals' do ..

NOT

[pawsmcgraw]

Yeh,well said.The last time someone in a garage did my wheel nuts up they just blasted them with an air wrench and did'nt even check them after!!!

[Captain Muppet]

Another possible cause is that the original wheel nuts/bolts had a different cone angle than that required for his new wheels. If you get the cone angle wrong you can toque the nuts up correctly but the ally under the nut will have too little bearing area and will yeild - you lose the preload and the fastener comes undone. You should always get new fasteners to go with your new wheels.

[SGirl]

pawsmcgraw said: Yeh,well said.The last time someone in a garage did my wheel nuts up they just blasted them with an air wrench and did'nt even check them after!!!

You mean they're meant to check them?? I always do this myself, I've never been anywhere where they check them.

[pawsmcgraw]

yeh,so do i.