Wheel fell of truck...whos fault?

[snomaker321]

I was driving home the other night and the front tire fell off my truck and rested on the brake rotor. I probably should've realized the lug nuts were probably loose as the wheel was making some weird sounds, but I thought it was the wheel bearing on its way out(happened on the other side last year and sounded similar)

Anyway, now im stuck with a $100 towing bill and whatever it costs to fix it all.

A wheel doesn't just fall off. I had the tires rotated at a dealership about 2 months ago. It sounds like a long time, but the truck sat for about 3 weeks with a dead battery. I haven't driven much, definitely under 1000 miles, probably under 500 but I haven't checked.

Does this sound like the dealerships fault to you guys? How do I go about getting them to fix/pay for the damage?

Thanks for the help

 

[Chris_North]

The receipt for my new tires had at the bottom in bold print "Lug nuts must be checked and properly torqued after a period of 50 miles and periodically thereafter."

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Yup...no re torque after having the wheels off = its on you.

It states on every work order we print out at our dealership if your wheels were removed during your service visit you need to have them re torqued within 100kms.

 

[kimcrwbr1]

My question is why you would be driving it with a bad wheel bearing anyway unless you were on your way to a shop or to park it until you had it fixed. It is all on you it takes all of 2 minutes to determine if the wheels are good. Grab the top of the tire and wiggle it hard if it clunks stop driving until you have it right. Your lucky no one died!

 

[adsm08]

My question is why you would be driving it with a bad wheel bearing anyway unless you were on your way to a shop or to park it until you had it fixed. It is all on you it takes all of 2 minutes to determine if the wheels are good. Grab the top of the tire and wiggle it hard if it clunks stop driving until you have it right. Your lucky no one died!

Hey, when I lost my own wheel last January I had driven for 3 months with a womp sound that sounded like something stuck in the backer or tire treads. I had put it up in the air and checked for play in the wheel at least twice since the last time the wheel was off and found nothing of concern. I noticed a vibration while driving after dark and was trying to make it to the next lit spot where I could stop and check it out (about 1.5 miles away). I lost the wheel before I got there.

It's not always that easy.



I do probably 50 wheels a week that don't come back to be retorqued after 50 miles, and none of them fall off, but you are supposed to recheck them after driving it for a while because road vibration can let them work loose. If you went more than 100 miles without rechecking them I would say it is on you.

 

[LearjetMinako]

I really do want to say it is the shop's fault for not properly torqueing the wheel lugs down. Put they will probably find some clause stating that you should have brought it back within 30 days / 100 miles for a re-torque. Go to the shop that did the work and tell them what happened.

 

[tmcalavy]

Sorry dude...it's on you as others have said...going back to the dealer will only waste your time and push your aggravation upwards cause they'll put it on you. My peeve is the opposite...the shops that hire a dork who wants to air-wratchet the lugs on so tight that I can't break 'em loose when I need to with a 4-way. So I'm that basterd who insists they hand-torque the lugs and stands there to make sure they do it...even so, I check mine about once a month...recent service or not.

 

[bigmark303]

Unfortunatly it is your fault. The only way it wouldnt be is if you brought the truck back to them and had the lugs retorqued.

I check mine every weekend along with multiple things on my trucks just for good measure and youd be surprised at how some lug nuts come loose just over a few hundred miles. Not enough to come fully off but a significant amount to where I have to crank a full turn or more to snug them up. If the guy at the shop put them on finger tight when the truck was in the air and then never tightened them when the truck was on the ground with weight on the wheels I could see them working free over time.

 

[snomaker321]

I knew I probably shouldn't be driving it but I had to get somewhere and had no other choice. It was only a couple miles across town and the sounds wasn't severe so I thought it would survive.

Checked my mileage. Its been about 600 miles.

I have never been told to retorque my lugnuts after having anything done. I checked the paperwork from the place I bought the tires and rotated them the first time and they did not tell me to retorque them nor does it say to on any of the paperwork I received.

I do not have the paperwork on with me from this most recent place, so I will have to double check that, but they definitely did not tell me to retorque them or bring it back. I will check that its not in the fine print.

Im just glad it happened where it did and not on the highway or something.

Now I just have to chew out the local police, the towing company, and AAA for their poor handling of the situation.

 

[straycat]

I knew I probably shouldn't be driving it but I had to get somewhere and had no other choice. It was only a couple miles across town and the sounds wasn't severe so I thought it would survive.

Checked my mileage. Its been about 600 miles.

I have never been told to retorque my lugnuts after having anything done. I checked the paperwork from the place I bought the tires and rotated them the first time and they did not tell me to retorque them nor does it say to on any of the paperwork I received.

I do not have the paperwork on with me from this most recent place, so I will have to double check that, but they definitely did not tell me to retorque them or bring it back. I will check that its not in the fine print.

Im just glad it happened where it did and not on the highway or something.

Now I just have to chew out the local police, the towing company, and AAA for their poor handling of the situation.

Yea...it is on you. My Goodyear shop does my tire rotate, balance for free (I got the lifetime offer for $50). I always have this. They tell me to come back within 50 miles and they always recheck the wheel lugs for me. No charge and I get a great free cup of coffee while I wait.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

I just bought a new 5" inner tube for the front of my lawn mower and it had the standard "check your lugnut" clause at the bottom.

I got a chuckle out of it because my lawn mower wheel is held on by a snap ring.

I think they need to have a basic vehicle ownership class in high school so people can learn this stuff and why it is important rather than neglect something so "petty" and then come running with a lawyer when a lack of basic automotive knowlage bites them in the butt. Not saying that you did but to tell people why this stuff is important not just another boring disclamer on the bottom of a receipt.

 

[JackDW]

Recently had tires rotated at my Local Dealership (not on the Ranger) and I told them that I will recheck the wheels for them. They told me that they torqued the wheel and they are good and it was not necessary to check them.

Not sure I really beleive them but I don't think I ever remember finding a loose lug nut during a torque check.

 

[bmerr98]

I hate it for you, but I'm with everyone else on this one. Basic operator maintenance. Not busting your chops (fixing the damage will do enough of that). It's easy to overlook stuff that "someone else" is supposed to take care of, but it's you and yours in the vehicle on the road, not to mention other people and theirs out there with you.

Thankfully no one was hurt when things fell apart, but next time may not go as well. Next time it might be the other guy's tire coming off. If it hit you and (God forbid) you or a loved one were hurt, how receptive would you be if they started in on how the shop that rotated their tires must not have done their job? Probably not very.

Our vehicles are our responsibility no matter who does the work on them. I know it's tempting to blame someone else when things go bad, but we have to take responsibility for the safe operation of our vehicles. That's being a grown up. That's being a man.

 

[zachis4wheeling]

I know it's tempting to blame someone else when things go bad, but we have to take responsibility for the safe operation of our vehicles. That's being a grown up. That's being a man.

Let me tell you something similar from the other side of the road bud.

About 4 months ago, I was offered a load of free scrap lumber from a deck my buddy tore off of his house that I could use for shelving in the shop, etc....only catch was, I had to load it and take it away. Cool.

I didn't have a trailer at the time and borrowed one from a buddy. Before doing so, I called my insurance company and double checked with them to make sure I was legal to tow HIS trailer. They told me that the liability and comprehensive coverage from my truck extended to the trailer as long as it was mechanically sound and legal for use...which it was.

I loaded all of the wood in the trailer and onto the truck and started on my way home. It was about 9:15 PM. Driving down the road at about 40 mph I suddenly felt the truck jerk and looked behind me in the passenger side mirror to see a white tahoe slamming into the passenger side of the trailer. Time to hold on for the ride of my life. As I worked to get the mess off the road and get the fishtailing trailer under control, it jackknifed into the drivers side of the truck, then caught traction, whipped around the back of the truck and slammed into the passenger side of the truck. Both bedsides ****ed to tears. Then the frame of the trailer snapped and away it went behind me with the hitch, chains and electric still hooked up. Steel broke right in half from all the stress. I finally get out of the way and the trailer comes to a halt in the middle of the road. Then I see the white tahoe fly past me and drives away before I can get a plate #. I call 911 and tell them to send out cops to control the traffic and a wrecker to help clean up the mess. I hang up and look at the trailer about 100 yards away in the road, only to next witness true horror. A guy in a chevy 3/4 ton mid 90's POS truck with NO LIGHTS ON slams into the trailer. Hard. Wood flys everywhere. his truck is totalled and the trailer is annihalated. Then another car drives over the debris pile. Then another. I call 911 back and tell them to send fire and EMS. I am an EMT-Basic and run up to the dudes truck and he has his leg busted up bad. Bones sticking out. I work to stabilize him as best I can. Fire/EMS comes and takes him away.

Couple days later, I find out the police didn't blame me for the accident. The insurance company on the other hand.....thats a nightmare. They wouldnt cover the tow bill, the cost of a new trailer, and were blaming me for the accident. They also informed me that the information that they had on me, as far as my limmits on my policy go, was wrong and I actually had far LESS c coverage than I had documentation of, due to an error on their employees part.

They also claimed I made up the entire story about the Tahoe and told me that the towing accident was my fault.

The police put a call out to a bunch of local body shops on my behalf over the next few weeks and told them to look out for a white 92-99 Tahoe on 22" + sized rms with major frontend damage.

About a week later, a detective called me and told me they had a Tahoe come into a shop to get a quote for major frontend damage, and while there, the shop tech took the plate #, called the cops and before the cops could get there, the "crooks" caught wind of it and hit the road.

Yet my insurance fails to believe this and wants to place all the blame on me so they can jack my rate up and get more $$ out of me.

I feel like shit because this guys got a busted leg, a few other people are dealing with horrible car problems now, and I am being blamed for it. Believe me, it sucks.





Accepting that this all sucks and it's all a part of life really sucks.....but I still gotta be responsible and be a man about it.

And you do too.

Hope this helped to show that things can get MUCH worse.

 

[bmerr98]

Good googa-mooga!!! That is freaking crazy! Sorry you get stuck holding the bag. Tahoe douchebag caused all that and skipped out on his responsibility. Doesn't help much, but he'll answer for that one day.