I have.

Took my 2014 Silverado 1500 to the dealer on Saturday for an oil change. Explicitly told them not to rotate the tires because it had just been done. Truck gets finished, I start driving home and start hearing a knocking sound. As I'm going to pull over, I see all 6 lugs fall off and wheel fly past me on the road. Call dealer, dealer admits fault and sends tow truck and says they will fix it.

My question to you OB, is if this has ever happened to anyone else and what they expected of the dealer/shop as far as fixing the vehicle and damages/compensation?

No, but Ron White has...

I bet they offer you a free rotation/balance!

Sucks, hope they make it right. And you start changing your own oil. Bet I can change my oil faster than I can drive to my nearest stealership

Twice, once the axle broke and wheel, tire and brake drum passed me up. Second time, it was a buddy's truck and it was loose lug nuts.

The Chevy jokes just write themselves

Yep. Drove Houston to Huntsville. Got off the highway at 113 and stopped at the light. Light turned green and pulled through the light, got on the other side of the intersection and right front tire came off and rolled down the road. Rotor ground into the pavement and screwed up my panel and door.

Mechanic shop who'd done the break job the day before paid all repair, towing and replacement of my lugs, which had sheared off. They found out their guy had just hand tightened the lugs. Never even put a wrench to them.

Don't disagree with you and have done that plenty of times in the past. $47 for 8 quarts of full synthetic and a filter had just been too easy of a deal to pass up though

To clarify too, been taking it to this dealer past two years for maintenance since I got the truck and they've always done good work. Just really messed up this time though

I saw the tread of a tire come off the wheel on a friends car will cruising the back roads once. Rolled right on past him.

Back in the early 80's, had a '76 Pontiac Grand Prix...great car, long as a train. Had 4 new tires put on, spent the afternoon cleaning and waxing it.

Headed to LaGrange down 77 at about 75mph and start to feel the back end shaking and in a matter of seconds, back left wheel comes off and zips past me...slam into the pavement and able to coast it to the shoulder.

Got the wheel and it was obvious that the lugs were not tightened down. The insurance at the place that put them on paid for repairs...car was never the same. Actually seems like the frame was bent also.

Let me guess, it was the back left? Chevy 10 bolt rear axles are oddly notorious for losing the back left wheel. Happened to me over 20 years ago. Ive seen it a ton since then. Assume it has something to do with harmonics/vibrations.

It was the back left, but truck had no issues at all until this. Service advisor told me they saw it on the video of them not being tightened down or not. Not familiar if the vibrations/harmonics could have contributed to it any more or not

Had a tech at the dealership forget to put one of the bolts back in my brake caliper on my right front wheel. I made it about 15 miles and knew the truck wasn't driving right but couldn't place it. Then on my next decel when I used the brakes all sorts of noise and vibrations unleash themselves. The caliper had pivoted around the other bolt, scraped a trough in my wheel, and wedged itself against the inside of the wheel causing that wheel to lock up. Was lucky I was on a slow FM road and could pull over easily. Required a tow back to the dealership. They paid for everything and bought me a new wheel.

My second car ever was a Datsun 200 SX. It was a POS in addition to having holes in the floor where you can see the ground while driving, one of the stems was broken off, so it could not have a lug nut attached.

I guess at some point one of the other three lug nuts had fallen off or come loose. My brother was borrowing my car, and the wheel fell off on him. Needless to say, I never drove that car again.

In 2007 I took my Toyota tundra for a break change at Midas. I drove from downtown Houston out to Katy and back. The truck was vibrating like mad, but that's right when the interstate was brand new and I thought maybe they grooved it. I got near my house going fairly slowly kept hearing a clicking noise. I got out and all of the nuts were literally about to fall off.

Midas didn't do jack **** for me.

I assume if you're going 70 miles an hour down the interstate in the front tire comes off you die? I'm still pissed about this

Yeah I think a lot of us in this thread have been pretty lucky considering what happened. I know I was definitely really lucky that I was only going 30mph and was not on a highway with tons of other people around

Can't remember the original issue but the drive shaft had to be removed. When it was reinstalled to the rear differential, it was not installed properly

10 miles down the road and the drive shaft fell off at the rear differential.

Was kind of an oh **** moment on Highway 6. Went from doing 65 to nothing quick. The dragging noise was awful.

Front spindle broke off a 2003 Dodge 2500 in a curve headed to an on-ramp... brake rotor & calipers held it captive long enough to roll to a stop on the side of I-35.

Had one nearly hit me on the commute home from work one day. Was doing about 50 westbound and a wheel hopped the guardrail from the eastbound side. Missed me by a foot or less and nailed the car behind me. Pucker factor max. Seemed like it was all in slow motion

Happened to me while I was in grad school.

Had a flat and was late to a night test (I was given to under grads) changed it half-assed and didn't tighten bolts down one it was off the jack. I rode around with it for a week or so, before it finally sheared the lugs off. I was an idiots and didn't realize what I was feeling just about every time I took a turn and left a weight shifting, it was the tire tilting against the lug nuts...

Tire came off on 2818, rolled past me as I grinded to a stop on the shoulder, went down a creek bank and then went flying through the air.

This all happened around 2007-2008 in college station.

Never myself. I check those things more than most. My cousin had an old Datsun 720 that had some pretty worn lugs on the rear, and if he forgot to check them regularly, they were liable to come loose. I was following him down a road one day and they started to fly off. Fortunately he heard one hit the wheel well and stopped while he still had 2 on.

I've heard from a 4WD expedition guy that you usually find all but 1 lug once they start coming off within a half mile or so (provided open ground like a desert). One comes off, then it takes a bit longer but ALL the rest start to rapidly vibrate loose once they start going, and that happens FAST.

Had this happen after getting a new set of tires from western auto on Harvey road back in the day. They forgot to torque the right front wheel down and it slowly came loose and sheared off 2 of the lugs before the tire fell off at the corner of carter creek and villa Maria. The had to replace the rim, brake rotor and hub. To this day I still check every lug with my torque wrench after getting new tires.


Some of you youngster's have never faced a true pucker moment until you sheer an upper or lower balljoint off on a square body c10 while driving down the road.

Guys if you ever get your tires rotated or any work that requires the lugs to be removed, and start feeling excessive vibration at higher speeds, vibration in the brake pedal braking, or any other odd noise/feeling, immediately take it back.

I saw a lot of crazy things at DTC in college but I never had a tire we worked on come back not attached to the vehicle. It's a very dangerous situation that can hurt/kill several people.

I'm laughing my ass off at the specificity of all these 'wheel came off while goin' down the road' stories.

Folks seem to remember exactly where that **** happened, lol.

Yep... couple of years ago. Oil change and tires were rotated (don't even think I asked them to). I made it about 1/4 down 620 in Austin. Felt like something was wrong and pulled in to the H-E-B parking lot. Tire flew off, rolled across the parking lot, and jumped a curb into a grassy median. I am super OCD anytime something is done to the tires/wheels now...

2006 I was living in Arlington. Accelerating up the accces ramp to 360 I noticed an older F250 driving oddly. Next thing I see is a tire bouncing back down the access ramp. I was driving a little Chevy S10 Blazer. The tire bounced right in front of and then over me, and completely smashed the crap out of the front of the van behind me. Good times.

Nope, but a friend of a friend type of thing had it happen right after he put new wheels and tires on - this was probably 25 years or more ago now. Said it puckered him up pretty good, which I can imagine was an accurate statement.

No mechanic to blame it on, but the rear bearings went bad on my old '67 F100. It was in a constant project state, and I hadn't bothered to work on the rear end yet.

I had just pulled off the highway and onto the caliche road leading to my buddies. Suddenly I start to lose power at the wheels, and no matter how much gas I gave it wouldn't accelerate. Then the right rear side started to sag, and I saw my tire slowly moving away from the truck pulling the axle shaft with it. Before I could hit the brakes it pulled all the way out, axle dropped to the ground, and that wheel with the axle shaft just kept on rolling down the line.

Walked to my buddies, grabbed the tractor, and towed it in the rest of the way.

Turned out the bearings going bad had wallowed out the retention plate that held the shafts in. 5$ retention plate, 10$ chinese wheel bearings (US made were 30$, and I didn't have that kind of money to spend), and some RTV got me rolling again.

Never had a tire fall off the vehicle, but my dad and I did have a tire fall off our stock trailer once. Came off as we were making a hairpin turn, and the tire went zooming right in front of us. Thankfully, we were about 100 yards from the house, so it wasnt anything serious.

yep... the batmobile lost its wheel and and the joker got away

My son did at 2 a.m. when he was 17. That episode ended his days of sneaking out of the house with friends.

rlb28 said:

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My son did at 2 a.m. when he was 17. That episode ended his days of sneaking out of the house with friends.

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that's brilliant! I'm gonna start loosening up some lug nuts when my kids get old enough to drive! Or just take them all the way off so they won't make it out of the driveway!