Wheel nuts sheared

[STEALTHY™]

I was doing about 80 when a wheel came off, and didn't flatten the disc.....although i stopped straight away

[Stressball]

My disc isn't completely flattened, it's just got a 1-2" wide flat spot on the bottom coz i had my foot on the brakes when it happened. Also it had to get towed up onto the flatbed to move it, so yeah, just a bit flat on the bottom.

[Brin]

Mine happened whilst the car was jacked up :\

Then watched her roll away.

*cries*

[andyman]

I am not the only person to have a flat disk rotor! *jumps in joy*

Rattergun Experience:

I used a rattle gun once. After using a wheel brace for many years, this was technology for me hahaha. I got excited coz changing a tyre would only take 5 minutes from now on with this tool I had.. kind of.. bagsed. Lol. Next week I got new tyres and couldn't take the nuts off with my wheel brace coz I threaded them with the bloody rattlegun. AND my wheel brace was so worn it wouldn't hold onto the nuts!!

I ran up and down the street like a lunatic all night bothering the neighbours for a wheel brace or rattle gun.

I got my new tyres on about 1 am the next morning lol.

i guess now you know that you start the nuts before you rattle them,

me and mum have had a close call with almost having a wheel come through our windscreen as we where driving down a road, a landcruiser coming the opposite direction lost one and it was heading straight for us, lucky it hit one of those reflector things and its path changed slightly

[Tasmaniak]

Seems pretty simple, your wheel bearing was bad you say? Thats going to build up a LOT LOTLOTLOTLOT of heat in that wheel. Bolts have heated up and they probably have a history of being tightened with a rattle gun causing excess straing and stretching on the threads and possibly even cracking of the stud....something had to give at sometime...sorry dude.

[Stressball]

Seems pretty simple, your wheel bearing was bad you say? Thats going to build up a LOT LOTLOTLOTLOT of heat in that wheel. Bolts have heated up and they probably have a history of being tightened with a rattle gun causing excess straing and stretching on the threads and possibly even cracking of the stud....something had to give at sometime...sorry dude.

We presumed the bearing was the faulty part; we had not had it checked out. Just going by the knowledge of myself and my dad, it sounded like a wheel bearing. I would have thought a bearing would collapse before 3 wheel studs sheared through from the heat combined with rattlegun torsion, the bearing was intact when the wheel came off... Still, possible. I just wouldn't have thought so.

[Tasmaniak]

Everytime you drive the car and then switch it off the wheel studs (actually all metal parts within the vicinity) will heat up and cool down causing metal fatigue. It simply comes down to the weakest link then...stressed studs can fail (not normally though) before the bearing.

[scarp57]

My son has had the exact same thing happen on his VX this week not yet looked at it yet myself are the hubs hard to replace, not done one myself

[commsirac]

Where did the studs shear, Im assuming the definition of shear here is they just broke away? Did they break at the base of the hub or at about just where the end of the nut would be?

It would seem more likely that events unfolded the reverse way from what you describe(im not sure someone else has already suggested it?)

ie two wheel nuts worked loose/came off then put a lot of pressure on the remaining 3 studs that were holding it on,eventually breaking them.

yes a wheel bearing will generate some heat when its on the way out and yes Ive seem the melted remnants stuck onto stub axles, but given your bearing was still intact and the whole assembly wasnt glowing red hot when you got out to have a look, and that on previous drives you hadnt noticed the putrid smell of things burning down there, then failure due to heat stress is unlikely.

[scarp57]

I've not seen it yet he said he was on the freeway felt a vibration then saw the wheel go past at 100kph bloody scary

[Reaper]

Everytime you drive the car and then switch it off the wheel studs (actually all metal parts within the vicinity) will heat up and cool down causing metal fatigue. It simply comes down to the weakest link then...stressed studs can fail (not normally though) before the bearing.

Highly highly unlikely unless the stud was some other way damaged or stressed beyond it's normal operating capabilities as well. By far the two most common modes of failure are over tightening by rattle gun or wheel nuts coming loose and the wheel rattling around on the hub.

Reaper