Andrew

I was planning on driving my vette to work today (first time it has been out of the garage in about two months). About 2 miles from my house, I felt the rear of the car raise up about 2 inches, then came crashing down to the road. I immediately turned the car off and just happened to glance to my right and my tire and wheel was rolling down the road beside me. Luckily I was right next to a gas station and was able to get it to their parking lot. It was just my luck that the tire hit another car and dented it up, so I get to pay for that. Well, the studs sheared of. ALL 5 OF THEM!!!! Now how does that happen?

I was only going about 20 mph and there was absolutely no visible damage. The tire did leave some marks on the paint that I could easily rub out. NOW HOW LUCKY IS THAT?? My mechanic is going to try to see what caused it. Talk about a wake up call!!!!

RC73

Glad to hear that you or anyone else was not injuried.

zwede

Wow! :eek:

Never heard of all studs shearing unless the wheel lugs were loose.

shoptek

Glad that you are OK, and that any damages are fairly minor!

Andrew

So far the damages are minor, I just hope that the rear end is OK. Nobody was hurt, but I am still shaking.

I'm just thinking, What if I was going 70 mph, What if I was under hard acceleration, what if.......?

Brettmc

Isnt it exciting driving old vehicles?

Brett :thumbs:

allanb63roadster

I'm very curious as to how that can happen also. It sounds very scary, glad you could keep it under control with very minimal damage.

Does it look like the wheel studs just sheared off cleanly? Did you find any lug nuts still attached to a broken stub?

Were you using after market wheels with spacers?

How many miles on your car? Anything done with that wheel removed lately?

Wow, sorry for all the questions like that. Just trying to determine if I need to do anything to mine.

Al

Twin_Turbo

:steering: that's what causes them to break

Andrew

The studs were not even showing through the rotor. I was trying to see them and could only see the new metal showing through where the studs should be. There was no sign of the lug nuts or studs. They just seemed to have scattered on the street, or one may have broken up the road and the others started breaking after that. I still don't know.

I do have aftermarket wheels, but don't have any spacers. The wheel is still good with no sign of any damage. The car has 130,XXX kilometers (about 80,600 miles). I have never had the wheel off. The last time I had the car out, I had it inspected, which the inspection station could have removed the wheel. I am still as confused about it as anyone else.

My mechanic thought a bearing could have gone out and stopped the wheel from spinning, but I don't entirely beleive this. Wouldn't I have noticed if the rear end froze up?

Andrew

Twin Turbo,

I wouldn't think that my car would have enough power or get the traction needed to sheer them off. I was putting the car around when it happened. Is this just a routine type of repair?

Thanks for any info!! :cheers:

theandies

That happened to me with my 1973 MGB with real knock-off wire wheels. I pulled up to a stop light and I hear this grinding noise from the right front wheel. I was just about stipped and the right side of the car dropped and my wheel went through the intersection and ended up in a parking lot. Good thing a cop wasn't around or he may have given me a ticket for running the red light. :lol: :lolg:

Smitty's75

Overtorquing with air ratchet can cause stress in the metal!!! I had this happen when I had some tires put on,,,sheared 4 lugnuts driving,,,I checked my other tires and couldn't get the lug nuts off without air ratchet,,so I replaced all of them fearing the same stress on them,,I wish I would have gotten them magna-fluxed for cracks!!!!!

Chuck Harmon

Very good point! I would make sure all the other lugs are replaced just to be safe. Pretty easy to do.

Has there been anyone really mad at you?

Chuck

GrandSportC3

:iagree:

Vmo

Sound like too much torque on the lugs to me. This is the reason most reputable tire and brake shops use torque sticks, or a torque wrench when installing wheels instead of the old standby impact wrench. Please post your mechanic's opinion after looking at them.

MN-Brent

My money is on overtorque of the lug nuts by an educated monkey.

Alwyn678

That or undertightening or a bearing could be any of those

Smitty's75

I've usually been warned by loose lugs by a shake, or wobble before shearing,,when I was racing and changing a lot of tires in a day,,sometimes I missed a couple!!!!

Andrew

UPDATE. I just talked with the mechanic and he still is not sure. They have not had time to really try and find out the problem since there is no rush and this is not my daily driver.

He mentioned over tightening the lugs as a possibility. I asked him to check the rest of the studs and lugs to be safe. Would it behoove me to just get shop to replace all of them. How hard is it to put new studs on?

Andrew

:lol:
I don't think anyone has been mad at me. Since it has sat in the garage for the last few months, maybe my wife did it???? (Just joking).