Losing A Rear Wheel While Driving 100Kmh Down The Hwy...

[jackbh241]

Fun story. I took the stagea down the south coast of NSW for some shows (I play in a band) had a great weekend and at the end decided we'd drive home (sydney) in the middle of the night rather than sleep in the car.... long story short: turns out throughout the course of the weekend someone tried to steal my wheels but failed and left the bolts loose so driving down the hwy at 100kmh (luckily not more) my passenger side rear wheels comes off, slamming to the ground and sliding to a halt and only just managing to get it off the highway. Luckily managed to get away with only damaged wheels and two snapped wheel studs, could've been worse.

Moral of the story (tl;dr). Never trust anyone.

Also if anyone has any suggestions of things I should get checked over once I get it back from the mechanic that would be great? As far as I can tell I got lucky and none of the body work or exhaust or anything hit the ground as the rotor fell into the wheel rim and the weight in the back (a lot) kept it within the wheel arch so brakes are my main concern I guess?

[Blek]

Jesus, exactly how much poo came out?

Hope the repair isn't too pricey, good luck.

[chef_stagea]

If you split a brake line you would be aware by now. But check for any lines that may have pinched.

If your car has hicas (4 wheel steer) the main part of that is back there. But its all electric.

Me and my mate drove a boat from adel to melb weighing about 1700kgs. All 4 wheels were loose. We found out 2kms from home..... Sus

[KiwiRS4T]

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Also if anyone has any suggestions of things I should get checked over once I get it back from the mechanic that would be great? As far as I can tell I got lucky and none of the body work or exhaust or anything hit the ground as the rotor fell into the wheel rim and the weight in the back (a lot) kept it within the wheel arch so brakes are my main concern I guess?[/size]

Get the rotor(s) skimmed - machine operator should be able to check for runout.

[Daleo]

You are very lucky my friend!

As a teenager, I had someone attempt to steal the rears off my Triumph 2500s one night, and the first I knew about it was when I was going around a corner, heard a rattle & a thump, and the left rear bounced past the car and flew down into a gully!

Mine unfortunately exited from the rear & punched the floor of the boot in.

Count yourself lucky, go & get an alignment check and have your mechanic look for anything that is obviously bent, or areas on arms & bodywork underneath where paint is missing, or distressed.

Then go and buy a set of lock nuts.

[Hertz Donut]

Man that sucks, good to hear you came out of it ok. Coming from a Commodore I'm not too flash on fancy stuff like suspension that isn't derived from a sprung cart, but maybe check the shock body too for scarring.

I haven't had a wheel come completely off but I've had one come loose at the drags once, making the steering wheel wobble madly from side to side. Not a pleasant sensation at nearly 160km/h but it was my own stupid fault for not double-checking my nuts (oo-er...) after swapping wheels.

[satinoval]

been there dude - built a vw beetle and converted the front brakes to stud and nuts - after all the on and off, on and off of wheels in the 3 years it was being build i managed to lossen the studs slightly - they chose to fail on me on my way to get a roadworthy - sat on the side of the road with the car touching the floor and my girlfriend chasing the wheel down the street..

end of the day its only metal - expensive metal but it sure does shit you up