Wheel came off in the freeway - yikes!!

[ManoNegra]

Short and sweet:
My front driver side wheel came off while driving on the freeway today on my way back from work.
Luckily I didn't hit anyone and the only damage is a misaligned fender, bent rotor and bent TC arm.
Couldn't find my wheel though. :-/

Story Time:
I've had a shitty alignment (but manageable) for the last couple of months or so.
Been waiting to change/install a few more things before getting a quality alignment.
After getting Stance coils, lowering the car and swaping out the S14 adjustable RUCAs I had for S13 ones (long story) I couldn't put the alignment any longer. I still wanted to replace my sway bar and rear bushings so I decided to get temporary alignment at a shop near my house to get me by for a little while.
1st try - after 20 or so minutes they tell me they can't do it. Need to remove the bumper. PITA
2nd try - I bring it back sans bumper and after 15 mins they still can't align it. Now I'm pissed.
3rd try - I take it to the alignment shop next to the SR20Store in Gardena since it's not far and I had dealt with the old man that runs it before and he was cool.
Well this time he rushes through the job - he's got someone waiting.
Tells me he can't do the rear because 'it would take too long'.
I'm pissed but bite my lip and say 'fuck it'.
Brings the car down and hands it to me without test driving it.
I ask if the car runs straight now.
He tells me he can't guarantee it since the car is lowered and that he just set the front to the computer's recommendations.
I'm furious by now but stay cool and bow never to go back there.
The worse part is tha the car is running worse than before.

So I do what I should have done a while back, I call West End Alignment and make an appointment for next Wednesday morning for a 4 wheel job and corner balance.
I will just have to drive my shitty aligned car for a week, no big deal.
Car drives horrible - it drives like a yo-yo at low speeds and shakes/vibrates at ~70mph. I have no choice since it's my only car at the moment.

Which brings me to today.
Coming back from work on the freeway I start getting a violent shaking/vibration through the steering wheel.
I'm close to my exit and decide to get on the slow lane and take it easy, get off the freeway and check to see what's wrong.
Well, about 5 mins later I'm doing about 55mph with two exits to go when my driver side wheels decides to make a run across the freeway.
Luckily the car goes straight, the wheel doesn't hit anyone (not much traffic) and no one rear ends me.
I call my brother so he can bring me a tire and a jack.
I call 911 to send a tow truck to get me off the freeway.
Apparently all the lugnuts came off... wtf?
I spend about an hour and a half looking for my wheel until it gets dark. No luck. Anyone got an R33 GTR wheel to sell? Help a brother out.
Well, as already mentioned above, the damage wasn't too severe and I was actually able to drive home after slapping on an S14 SE wheel.

I should have stopped as soon as I felt the vibration but I just attributed it to my ongoing alignment issues. Just thought I'd share. Has anyone experienced something like this before?
Funny this is I'm not upset about my lost wheel and minor car damage but rather relieved that I didn't get hurt or hit somebody. Whew, time for a cold one.

[chmercer]

never trust anybody but yourself to work on your car

ps he shouldnt have had to remove any wheels to do an alignment?

[OptionZero]

Ifyou have to have a shop work on it, re-torque the lug nuts yourself personally

i've lost a wheel before and had shops fuck up

[DJPimpFlex]

I've almost had my wheel come off a couple of times, but I just feel the tell tail vibrations and pull over to see whats up. Thats crazy that you cant find your wheel though.

[Irukandji]

yep ... common lesson learned... always retorque your lug nuts after having a tire/wheel shop take them off.

[powersteeringless180sx]

that's happened to me before. my rear wheel came off on the freeway. tore off all the studs except for one from the spindle. luckily i exited and stopped before the wheel flew off.

[chlatboy]

Luckily you are safe. See if you can get anything from the people who aligned your car.

[topsecretgold]

glad your ok...a friend of mine had some work done at one of the quick in and out places one day and they completely forgot to torque down both the front wheels...so when she got on the freeway...you can guess the rest (large settlement).

[WERDdabuilder]

happened to me before. i was driving on the freeway and i heard some noise coming from my rear pass wheel, wasnt sure what it was. picked up a friend then did a left turn and BAM! felt the back go down and pulled over. went out and saw my rear tucked in. broke 2 studs and found 3 of my nuts in the street. that was couple days after i got tires put on. learned my lesson...always put your own shit on.

[s13silvia03]

Thats shitty. On the bright side the damage wasn't that bad and no one was injured. Hope you get it fixed soon and get another wheel.

[Team Rootbeer]

man, id go back to that shop and burn it down

although, like it was said earlier in the thread, why would they have taken your wheel off to do an alignment?

[cgguy]

Bummer dude! 9-times out of ten a shop is either going to under torque your lugs ore completely over torque the living sh*t out of them.

It's too late now but if you just needed a temp. allignment you could have pretty much measured/eyeballed it yourself. Just having coilovers and rucas theres not much for you to bugger up, and it's a good learning process.

When you get all of the other suspension bits then have it professionally alligned once and for all. And make sure the shop clearly marks all of the adjustable parts to zero allignment. That way if you tinker with it yourself you can always re-set things to zero.

['90RPS13]

yeah, like chmercer said, i dont trust anyone to work on my car other then my uncle and me. definately glad your ok though. I will keep a eye out for a R33 rim for ya. *a

[WilloW]

never trust anybody but yourself to work on your car

ps he shouldnt have had to remove any wheels to do an alignment?

^^What he said, I don't trust shops doing anything to my car. The last time they did, they torqued my lug nuts with an air gun so tight that by the time I got to it the damn things just snapped off. The worst part is when they screw shit up, they would then try to cover it up too. Take your car to get an alignment elsewhere, and sorry to hear about the funk.

[ManoNegra]

Just woke up.

The thing is nobody took off my wheels during alignment. But you guys are right, I should have re-torqued them myself. All the other wheels are fine too. I mistook the vibrations as a result of the bad alignment.
Nothing broke, just common damage from having your car rest on the ground without a tire and sliding for about 10 meters.
On the opposite side of the freeway there's a an embankment with dry bushes and weeds.
As I was slowing the car down, putting my hazzards on and looking out for other cars I could have sworn that I noticed the wheel hop over the divider and cross the on-coming side of traffic into those shrubs.
Looked for a good couple of hours until it got dark. Didn't find it nor see it around the freeway either.
Brother suggested someone might have picked it up in the time the tow truck came and took me off the freeway.

[projectRDM]

I love the reading comprehension. You specifically said no one had done a full alignment on the car yet (and had no reason to remove the wheels), but everyone replying is insisting the shop is at fault.

Check the front wheel bearing, the loose wheel could have damaged it during the time it had freeplay, and also go ahead and replace all the wheel studs.

[REDSH!FT]

When was the last time you torqued your lugs?

[ManoNegra]

Check the front wheel bearing, the loose wheel could have damaged it during the time it had freeplay, and also go ahead and replace all the wheel studs.

Bearings on that side are fairly new, replaced the hub less than a year ago. Studs are about 1 month old. Peak performance, they seem to be holding the S14 wheel fine right now. I'll make sure to check the bearing when I replace the rotors though.

When was the last time you torqued your lugs?
Last monday, early before my last cheap attempt at an alignment.

Just ordered a Nismo Powerbrace and a new set of lugnuts. I'll ride with Z32 wheels on the front for now and deal with the busted fender later.

[cosil8e]

i had the local big o repair a flat on my subaru a couple of weeks ago and they super overtorqued my lug nuts back on. i couldn't budge them when i checked them later so i went back to bitch about it. when i got home to torque them on properly a couple were barely on while others where still very tight. luckily they didn't charge me for the tire repair because they did a poor job patching my tire being that it was flat again by the afternoon....and they think i'm going to buy tires from them? :madfawk:

i ususally take ONLY my rims and tires from the 240 to the tire shop(not big o) for mounting and balancing because i don't trust the impact wrench. even if you ask them to hand torque the guys in the garage often don't do it.

[wntrcoatblu240]

wow.. that's some scary ish, but glad to hear the damage wasn't too extreme, i know everyone was saying "the shop doesn't need to remove the wheel for the alignment" or something like that, but MAYBE, just maybe your rims were targeted, some one was trying to get them, but then you showed up or something like that and they had to go... scary stuff huh?

[REDSH!FT]

no way, do you think a theif is seriously looking that far ahead to be able to make away with a jack and lug wrench after seeing him coming?

There is user error involved here, not sure on who's part, but definitely someone's whether it be the driver of the car or the mechanic who last touched the lugs, for whatever reason

[aznpoopy]

damn you lucked out dude... glad it worked out in the end

[kawika219]

same thing happened to me while autoxing...all my fault...not telling the story cause its just retarded

[ManoNegra]

There is user error involved here, not sure on who's part, but definitely someone's whether it be the driver of the car or the mechanic who last touched the lugs, for whatever reason

Agree and since I can't quite figure out where, I'll take the blame. I'll be checking out the car even more analy and reguarly than I already do.

[dannyboi]

I think i have A.D.D... but what was the problem? The lug nuts were not tightened?

B/c i have a problem of my steering wheel shaking above 65 mph too, and i havent had my car aligned for a year (its my corolla) after i changed suspension. I do the work myself (i dont think thats a good thing, i suck) and I hope my wheel dont fall off... I think i have a shortened stud too. Maybe i should go fix that...

[j00ni3]

wheel shaking CAN be from the wheel balance ... not just the suspension alignment... that's what i thought but after i got my rims balanced... no more vibrations...

[ledzeppelin240]

A vibration is either going to be wheels out of balance, bad tires, or a wheel about to fall off, or a driveline vibration. An alignment or lack of is not going to cause a vibration... I work in a shop and whenever I remove wheels I use my impact gun to tighten the lug nuts first (lowest setting torques to about 80ft/lbs) and then use a torque wrench. I have personally never had a problem since. It is those stupid torque stick that after they have been used a million times I doubt they toruqe correctly anymore.

[ManoNegra]

A few things could be the reason.
S14 steering rack and S14 FLCA with a stock S13 sway bar may not be a good idea.
Cheap spacers or not thick enough (10mm, 15mm or 20mm would have been better), tire could have been rubbing the shock.

I had my appointment with West End Alignment today (awsome place btw) and the car is soo much better. I had a 4 wheel alignment and corner balance performed. Still have some vibration but I know that I need to change rotors, replace some busted studs and have a friend make me some hubcentric spacers. I may go back to the S13 FLCA awell.
Overall, the car is running much better now but I still get nervous on the freeway. Gotta save up for a daily beater and stop driving the S13 but that's a few months away.