So the front left wheel flew off my car today...

Did an oil change today and as a precaution I took that wheel off to stick under the car as a backup to jackstands. When I put it back on I got the lugs as tight as I could while the wheel was in the air (which, surprise, is not very tight at all). Then I proceeded to completely forget to tighten them anymore Did about a 20 mile round trip when I notice a knocking sound coming from the front of the car that is especially pronounced when I'm coasting. Before I can pull over to check out what it is the wheel come off, going across the other side of the street and coming to a stop in someones yard. Luckily nothing/no one was hit, I'm fine, that car (besides the brake rotor and fender arch) is fine as far as I can tell. I was able to get home, grab my jack and jackstands and get the front end off the ground. So my car is spending tonight on the side of the road, jacked up on the front end in front of some random person's house.

Learn the lesson from me, always double check every bolt you touch with a torque wrench.

As far as I can see, the wheel is fine, suspension is fine, no frame damage, no motor damage. Just $30 in wheel lugs and a $100 fender arch. I have a spare brake rotor and a JCW front brake kit on standby already for replacements. I'll give an update tomorrow if there is any more damage. Maybe I'll need an alignment.

 

Well, I'm glad you weren't on the freeway when that happened!!

Yup, check everything. I go over the lugs twice with a torque wrench just to make sure I didn't miss one on the first round.

 

Ok, if I'm to learn this lesson from you, I will require an explanation of how, at my advanced age, I can remember to double check the tightness of bolts if I can't remember to tighten them the first time.

I started writing notes when I found myself entering stores and wondering what I went there to buy. Then I began forgetting that I had a note. Then I began forgetting to write them. We found ourselves going up or down stairs and then forgetting why we did it. Then it began happening after walking into the next room. Then if was shortly after standing up. It appears to be a very slippery slope one can only traverse by focusing exclusively on the task at hand. If one can remember what it was.

 

At least you can blame age haha. I'm 21. Though I may or may not have ADD as I've been learning recently....

 

Hey, I'm 65 and I often "see a squirrel" and get distracted! I feel your pain....

The best I can do is to be very methodical, and try not to start something like a wheel install until I can finish it, then carrying the process through.

I pulled my snow wheels last weekend and installed street rims and tires. On the fronts, I did them one at a time, got the lugs snug from inertia using a 4-way wrench, then dropped each tire into light contact with the pavement and torqued them before I released the jack fully. Same process on each wheel.

And since I still may make a mistake, I check what I did before driving. I torqued each wheel's lugs twice.

Last weekend I realized that I wasn't 100% sure I had torqued the crankshaft pulley bolt on my 280ZX that I've been working on. I was getting ready to start it, so I jacked it up, pulled off the belly pan and re-torqued it. Turns out that I had done it before this, but I'm perfectly happy that I invested another half-hour in making sure.

It's terrible to suffer from CRS, isn't it?

WAIT!! - - Is that a squirrel..............?

 

One trick is to do something like put the torque wrench on the driver's seat any time you take a wheel off. That will make sure you see something out of the ordinary before you try to drive, and will hopefully remind you what to do before you actually drive.

I know people who put reminders to themselves there, or with their keys, or somewhere they have to look at it before they can drive the car.

BTW, I feel your pain. At one point I had to repeatedly drive 3 blocks, get out and finger-tighten the lug bolts, then drive 3 more blocks, then.... For about 2 miles, until I got the car back home where I had left my wrenches. My fingers were sore for days!

At least you didn't do this:

 

So my car go to my mechanic today. Turns out 3 of the holes in the wheel hub for the lugs were stripped out (boy is it nerve wracking to put a car on a tow truck with only one lug holding the wheel on). So that's a new wheel hub/bearing assembly. I told my mechanic to put my JCW brakes on to fix the marred rotor. Ordered a new wheel because the one that fell off has marred lug holes, and my mechanic might want to replace it, if not one of my wheels is bent anyway. Ordered a new fender flare because that one came off, and my quarter panel between the door and hood is bent, but that's not of the biggest concern right now.

 

Sorry to hear about this, but you made good calls in replacing that wheel. If it's damaged that badly, you don't want to run it long-term.

 

Final update with costs:

Tow: $69
Wheel Hub: $300
Labor (Includes Installation of supplied JCW front brakes): $225
JCW Brake Kit (Used): $450
State Tax on parts and labor: $51.23
Fender Flare: $100 shipped
Wheel (Not needed in the end, will put on car anyway): $160 shipped

Total: $1355.23

All because I forgot to take 2 minutes and tighten my wheel lugs. And I'm extremely lucky only my car was affected. Live and learn.

 

I'm glad you are OK. That could have been much worse for the car and for you.

 

This isn't even including the future body shop bill I'm going to have because the majority of my wheel well is all bent out of shape and I need to take it to get fixed.

 

One more note to the torque wrench routine. I always go around each wheel twice once the tires are back on the ground. Then I drive around the bypass at speed, return to the garage and torque each bolt again. There are always a few bolts that give a little slack after that short run.

 

Yes, I cringed when I heard the wheel came off while driving,. glad you are ok. When that happens its very hard to control the car.

 

I was going to say something...but I forgot what it was.

 

I've never had that problem, but there is absolutely no harm to doing this. It can only increase the safety factor.