Stupid question - what could cause the lug nuts to loosen? These are just the plain steel rims. The wheels were fine for years, it had been about a year since I last had the wheels off, I drove often, and there were no signs of tampering. I didn't hit any curbs, and only hit the normal run-of-the-mill potholes (I try to avoid them though). I noticed a slight wobble in the right front one day, and stopped to check. I found the lug nuts slightly loose and the holes in the rim were starting to egg-out. I tightened them to get home but it was so bad the rim worked its way over the lug nuts. The wheel didn't fall off (almost did, LOL) and I now have a new rim. But I was just wondering how this might happen with rims and lugs that had been fine for a very long time.
Truzi- torque em, and drive it !!! If the wheel didn't have eggshaped lug openings , you should have been fine ! :TU: :TU:
That's the strange part, the holes were fine to begin with, and the lug nuts were always tight enough. So now I'm a bit worried it may happen again even though the new rim is fine and the lugs are very tight.
did you check the studs? i got a bad stud job, and the studs wobbled around until they worked their way out and ripped themselves from one of the front hubs. i DID lose the wheel.:af: i think loose studs could also cause the nuts to loosen due to loss of pressure.
It might be a good idea to replace all 5 studs/nuts. My dad had something similar happen to his truck back in the fall. All that 'dancing around' the rim did on the lugs couldn't have been good for the threads! Sure makes you wonder if someone didn't help things along a little!:Brow: Plenty of misguided people out there that have 'agendas' regarding older cars! Seems very odd that this happened out of the blue like that.o No:
