PSA If you haven't checked your lug nuts in a while, do.

[coheed]

Drove the Comanche to work today, which rarely happens cause it's a 50 mile drive and the Comanche doesn't like the highway. Anyway, I make the turn into the parking lot and it starts making an awful noise. I thought the D35 or the t-case finally bit the bullet. I pull in a spot and check the truck and apparently I had lost 2 lug nuts long ago as the studs were rusted, and 2 of the remaining studs had snapped. I think the studs snapped on the turn into the parking lot. The last was only 2 full turns on. I think I'm gonna have to replace the wheel as well as the holes got rounded out a bit. Luckily I've been just sitting and waiting on throwing in the 4.10 axles I have from the parts truck. This gives me a reason to.

 

Anyways go check your lug nuts if you can't recall exactly the last time you did. 

[eaglescout526]

Gnarly and scary! I once ran my truck on just three lugs on the passenger side for a little bit until I got new tires. Luckily they were spaced right but it wasnt comfortable to do for a long period.

[coheed]

5 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

Gnarly and scary! I once ran my truck on just three lugs on the passenger side for a little bit until I got new tires. Luckily they were spaced right but it wasnt comfortable to do for a long period.

One of my co-workers had all her free tows with AAA that she let me use one of, which was awesome. Glad it didn't let go at 55-60.

[eaglescout526]

Thats awfully nice of them. That was a pretty damn scary situation you were in. Luckily it didnt take a turn for the worse until you got to your final destination. 

[Pete M]

I was riding shotgun in a buddy's van where the left front tire parted ways and went bouncing merrily along on its own.  t'was scary indeed to a couple teenagers, but at 35mph we more or less just drove another 50 yards on the rotor until we could pull off the road. 

[SoCalManche]

Back in the day (circa. 2008/09), I had a '97 Chevy Geo Prism and I had my driver side front tire decide to fly off at 70mph. Luckily, it happened when it did, and if it had happened about 50 yards later, I would have flown off an elevated curve, and who knows how that wouldn't went. Gotta love it.

[500 MJ]

I’ve had the passenger rear nuts go off on their merry way twice to me. Once on an XJ and once on my ‘88 MJ. Both times I luckily had drum brakes on the rears and I rode the inside of the wheel off onto the shoulder of the road. Axles never fully hit the ground.

The first time it happened in the XJ I had my date for the afternoon with me. She thought it was great that I could steal lug nuts from other wheels to get us back on the road. 

[Swampy]

Happened to me on my mj about two years ago when I first got it running. I took it on a test drive around the block and heard some weird noises, and suddenly the driver rear side tire was next to me on the road. Good thing I was only doing 5mph and was about 150yards from my house

[89 MJ]

My family and I were coming home on the freeway in our YJ. We start heading a repeated thud. We pull off on our exit and examine the rig. It all looks fine. We drive it another 3 miles. The thud is getting worse. We back in to my grandparents driveway, get out and the tire is barely on-all if the lugnuts were missing. 

[mjeff87]

Just found loose lugnuts on both front wheels of the Focus Monday.  I had been noticing a little "shudder" in the front end on the interstate last week and couldn't think of what was causing it, or if it was just me imagining things.

 

The only reason I found them was I had to change the oil in it, and the easiest way to get at the filter (unless you have a lift, which I don't) is to pull the passenger wheel.  I found 3 of the 4 lugs on that side loose, and all 4 of the driver side ones loose as well .  Both rears were tight as ever.  Weird.

[blakews2217]

My brother has a 97 zj, he was using wheel spacers. Twice as many lug nuts to check. He got lazy and only checked the wheel to the spacer. I borrow it to go to work because my zj lost a water pump the night before. Take a turn and hear a repetitive clunking sound. Sounds from the back. I pull off after I cross the bridge I was on, start looking, don’t see anything. I know it’s the back and this thing is swaying really bad side to side in the back. But it has no sway bars. Just for a piece of mind I aim the mirrors at the back tires. Take another turn and can watch the driver rear tire wobble. I go 5 blocks really slow to a place I can work on it. Cal him to tell him the wheel spacer is junk, that I took the one off because it almost let the wheel go flying. He was mad at me for not fixing it. “Your jeep, your work bud. You never help me”

I had a wheel on my old Xj that broke 4 out of 5. I heard one go flying at 80mph. A band like that will make you check what’s going on (stock Jeep at the time). Thankyou rust.

Nothing too scary other than checking the lugs on aluminum wheels 100 miles after a tire rotation and seeing them go another 1/2-1 full turn. I’ve gotten to the point I keep a T bar with me.


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[derf]

I always torque my lug nuts with a torque wrench.  And check them after 100 miles.  Never had a problem with them coming loose.

 

The only time I've had issues is when someone else worked on my vehicle.  So any time any of them go to the shop I always reset the torque when I get home.

[Minuit]

Yup.

 

Especially if you have aluminum wheels. Put them on with a torque wrench (100 ft-lb is my rule of thumb), drive around the block, check again, drive a little farther, check again. After that, every month or so just give 'em a quick click with the torque wrench. It takes 5 minutes and might just save your @$$.

 

 

[derf]

Also, when it comes to spacers, I prefer blue locktite on the lugs holding the spacer on.

 

Taking the wheels off to check them introduces the chance that you will miss something putting them back on, not to mention needing to check them in 100 miles again.

 

[mjeff87]

I use a torque wrench too, both my vehicles have aluminum wheels.

 

The only thing I can figure is that I had the Focus in the shop a month or so ago for annual safety inspection.  When I picked it up, the service writer told me that they noticed my tires were installed backwards (directional tread) and that they pulled all the wheels off and remounted them.  They were the original installers when they got put on, I just never noticed it (they didn't either, apparently).  So, that would have been the last time the lugnuts were touched until I pulled the passenger wheel a couple days ago.  It's just funny that the 2 rear wheels were still torqued but the fronts were loose.  And I usually double check the torque any time a shop touches the wheels on either of my vehicles, or my wife's.  I'm gonna check them again this weekend to make sure they're still tight.

[gogmorgo]

Driver’s side lug nuts when loose will spin themselves off as the wheel wobbles around. Passenger side spins them back on but not tight enough, eventually the studs fatigue and snap off. Hence the old practice of left-hand-thread lug nuts on the driver’s side. But the wheel coming completely loose is more noticeable than it coming slightly loose.

 

I had a similar thing happen after my first MJ sat over a year before I dropped the second engine into it. There was a regular clunk noise while driving for about a week, but I couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. Kept checking ujoints, springs, etc. Then I was passing someone in a less-than ideal spot, hit 130km/h, and when I pulled back in the rear end of the truck seemed like it was steering itself. I pulled over immediately (I’m sure the guy I passed was impressed) and when I stopped, the back wheel had about 45° of camber. Two lug nuts left holding it on, halfway spun off. Wheel was hosed. Studs seemed okay. I got a friend to come pick me up and I stole a wheel and nuts off my parts xj to get me home. Sketchy for sure. 
 

One advantage of regular tire rotations is that you look at your nuts and take them for a spin to see how well they’re doing. Clean them up, run a thread chase down them if you need to. Replace lug nuts that are looking sketchy. Torque and retorque after 20-50km. 
I rotate tires every oil change. It also means I know I’ll be able to get my nuts off if I ever have a flat. I’ve seen more than once studs breaking on the side of the road because the nuts were seized on. It’s also a good opportunity to get looking at your brakes, and other components. Preventive maintenance is a much better policy than reactive maintenance.