How dodgy is this

[-VY LoVeR-]

Hey guys
have been hearing some scratchy noises on my back wheel for a while now but only when you go slowly. that went on for a while but the past 2 days heard a little knocking and felt like a flat tyre. so i pulled off the wheel cover to reveal the nuts and the 3 of the heads fell onto the ground. i found that they the bolts had sheered as they were still in the heads. had a look and took off one of the remaining heads and reattached with not a huge amount of pressure and that one sheered too. I reckon when i got my service they said they done the brake pads which requires taking the wheel off, when they put the wheel back on the over tightened it with the high powered gun they use and sheered them but just left them there.

whats also a bit suss is when i got my front tyres replaced and realigned i asked them to check all of tyres and such and on the receipt it says at the bottom in the notes that they didnt remove the rear wheels. thats pretty suspicious ay, i mean why even mention it.

my car is under warranty but doesnt cover the wheels. whats the best way to go with this?

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

I'd say the nuts were left loose, this will break the studs more often than over tightening them.

How long since you had the service? I would take it back to them as they were the last ones to remove the rear wheels. Checking tyres doesn't require the removal of a wheel, but one would think a tyre shop would know what a loose wheel felt like if it was loose when taken in to them.

[acarmody]

I'd be going in and having a word with the service manager. Thats down right dangerous.

[Sabbath']

Chances are, if you've only heard the noise in the last two days, they've sheared in the last two days. Tyre shop may have just noted that down incase anything happens, you cant turn around and say that they had the wheels off and now there's a problem.

[-VY LoVeR-]

well the service was done about 6 months ago. its due for one soon. but they must have done something wrong coz ive never touched the rear wheels.
we'll be going down first thing tomorrow and having a word coz it is just bloody dangerous

[VYMAD]

This is exactly why I always check my wheel nuts whenever I get the car back from a tyre shop or brake place. Shouldn't have to, but it only takes a few minutes to go over each one with a wheel brace. Peace of mind, as people can forget to tighten them up properly or over tighten them too much. I would say either one of these mistakes has caused your problem, and you should definately take it back if you are sure they were the last ones to have supposedly removed your wheels.

[edals]

This is Why i don't let any mechanics touch my car, I mean FFS how hard is it. I Take my wheels off, Take the rims down and just have the rubber fitted and thats it cause i to had the same thing, got home, checked the wheel nuts, could remove them with my fingers.
My Brother left the mechanics one day after getting new brake pads fitted, first time he applied the brakes, no pressure at all. he yanked on the hand brake, looked and found fluid everywhere on the front left, turns out they forgot to tighten a bleed nipple.
I Found on my VY what was thought to be leaking Transmission hoses, took the car to 5 mechanics, all said the hoses were stuffed, turns out it was my power steering pump leaking everywhere. So i replaced it been fine since YAY! Just something telling me that they were wrong and sure enough they were all wrong.

[Darcon666]

Name & Shame, name & shame I say...

[Grennan]

well the service was done about 6 months ago. its due for one soon. but they must have done something wrong coz ive never touched the rear wheels.
we'll be going down first thing tomorrow and having a word coz it is just bloody dangerous

6 months is a fairly long time though. Whats to say you didnt hit a very large pothole or something.

[-VY LoVeR-]

my mechanic will fix it for me i only have to buy the studs. cant be bothered going thru all the hassle

[M01ST]

Fix it yourself its not hard to change a few studs!

[Kingston_99]

Fix it yourself its not hard to change a few studs!

+1 its pretty easy mate. you need to buy yourself a service manual and save a couple of $$$ on the easy jobs.

[RiCeY]

6 months? If nuts were left loose it would have failed months ago.

[0081]

Name & Shame, name & shame I say...

What 6 months after they serviced it, likely around 10,000kms, who knows what ass holes have walked past it thinking i would like that and you can say with enough reason its there fault. you can just going around trying to name and shame a business with no proof.

You should have a go your selfits not that hard to change the studs your self. also change all 5

[RiCeY]

Id be following up the note from the tyre place about not removing the rear wheels.

[angelkl27]

OMG THAT HAPPENED TO ME TOO ACTUALLY, i had a vy acclaim and the exact same thing happened i would hear a squeaking noise and when i turn it becomes a knocking and the more people i have in the car the louder it is, i never expected it to be the nuts...but when i checked it i was only running on 2 very loose nuts the rest were just...well..not there :\

so yea that cost me about $500 to fix i think but i still don't know why that happened :\ i didnt change the tyre or brake pads or anything, it just happened out of no where but i must say that one more day and i would've been running on 3 wheels on the highway..not a pretty picture.

anyway enough of my story...i think you should tell the mechanic about it because normally if they change the brake pads they check both rear and front to make sure the rear are good aswell so iam assuming (100% in my mind they did open them) thats just my theory

[nemesis_adrasteia]

6 months is a long time between leaving wheel nuts loose and having the studs snap, i would be more incluned to think someones tried to steal your wheels and got scared off or whatever before they could finish the job.

[Calaber]

6 months is a long time between leaving wheel nuts loose and having the studs snap, i would be more incluned to think someones tried to steal your wheels and got scared off or whatever before they could finish the job.

I agree. No chance of proving that this was negligence on the mechanic's part.

Good opportunity for some wise old advice though.

"Guys, you should always check your nuts".

[-VY LoVeR-]

easy as fix. 5 wheel studs cost about 40 bucks. just bang em out and put new ones in. i think they were over-tightened and broke over time. but its done now not gonna follow up coz you just know you're going to spend ages trying to get anythin back