Wheels coming off.

[donald_5078413]

Thanks for a great forum guys. Just bought my first van at the age of 50 and ofcourse I got totally ripped off. Damp, fautly electrics and every window in the van dropsout when opened. Found the answers to my problems on the Technical thread. Still it will keep me busy for a while putting it right. On the subject of wheels coming lose, a friend of mine who was an area manager of Kwick fit tells me that the reason that they torque wheels on after a tyre change is because of an incident involving a Peugeot where 3 miles down the road a wheel cmae off. The solution? Take each wheel nut off the van and drill a small hole through the edge at an angle. You can then thread wire through the holes locking all the wheel nuts to each other. Works on most aircraft and they are CAA inspected.

 

[parker1158]

Hi All

In a previous job I did for twenty odd years I worked as an motorsport mechanic for the Audi factory team (Hannu mikkola , Michelle Moutan etc for all you Rally buffs out there). When we prepared a car any given nut was checked and checked again then checked by someone else who would then put a blob of paint, or we used a wax type substance, on the nut where it met the treaded stud. You can see then by a simple visual inspection if the nut has moved. The arrow type affairs that fit to the wheels work well but I would imagine some may find these unsightly(a friend of mine who drives a lorry is forever having his nicked anyway). The blob of paint can also work for things like hitch bolts etc

 

[Lutz]

If a wheel came off after only 3 miles it was just plain not tight in the first place. That was shoddy workmanship and has nothing to do with possible loosening of nuts. Any garage that allows a car or caravan back on to the road in such a condition should be given a very wide berth.

 

[WatsonJohnG]

Good idea though it is to wire the nuts/studs it would not be possible on alloy wheels where the nut is in a deep recess.

A torque wrench is only as good as the fitter using it.

I witnessed a new keen fitter sheer a wheel bolt as he had screwed the torque wrench down to max setting much to his bosses annoyance not to say the customer's.

Had the wrench been set slightly lower the bolt could have been damaged and sheered on the road etc.

I collected a new caravan once and the alloy wheels had been fitted with the steel wheel bolts and torqued to the lower steel wheel setting.

Its important with alloys to change the bolts as well as they have a different profile and this could cause wheel damage/detachment as well.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Good idea though it is to wire the nuts/studs it would not be possible on alloy wheels where the nut is in a deep recess.

A torque wrench is only as good as the fitter using it.

I witnessed a new keen fitter sheer a wheel bolt as he had screwed the torque wrench down to max setting much to his bosses annoyance not to say the customer's.

Had the wrench been set slightly lower the bolt could have been damaged and sheered on the road etc.

I collected a new caravan once and the alloy wheels had been fitted with the steel wheel bolts and torqued to the lower steel wheel setting.

Its important with alloys to change the bolts as well as they have a different profile and this could cause wheel damage/detachment as well.

I concure whole heartedly! and in addition, if a bolt has been over tightened but slackend of and then re-torqued to the correct setting , it is still in danger.

 

[chris_5068897]

A further solution to loosening wheel nuts is Tyron 'Nutlocks'- these are made from a square section spring wire that forms a figure of 8 round the nuts (steady guys). Only for 4 stud wheels with 100mm PCD.