Walmart Forgot to Tighten Lug Nuts and tire falls off Going 35mph (1 Viewer)

[Mark WV]

Wall mart has a department that handles claims of this type (probably 100’s of claims daily on a nationwide basis) Do not try calling or negotiating with them. Just make sure the local manager documents what happened.

get your own carrier notified and let them do what they do best get your car fixed promptly and then they will surrogate against wallmart

Bringing in an attorney on a non-bodily injury claim is only going to cost you 33% or more of whatever amount is eventually recovered - Not worth the money or headache on a property damage only claim with clear liability on Walmart’s part

 

[777Gage]

I came across this a few months ago after my lift was installed...... the day after my wife and I took a quick trip to San Diego and back. Was ordering a few new clips to put the OEM inner fender skirts back on and found the bolt almost out. Only the wires behind it kept it in.
(I didn't tell her, just took it back to the install shop, and after apologizing over and over again, they Fixed it right the 2nd time!!!!)
Grateful to God for keeping us and anyone around us from a catastrophe!

 

[RET2]

I'd agree with this.

Lawyering up sounds great, aside from this being what you pay your premiums for, the whole lawyer approach isn't going to be effective with Wally world. I'd you're lucky a Gener Manager might be able to resolve the situation etc if you worked directly with them, but as soon as you involve a lawyer I can almost guarantee they'll have a policy that would prevent them from doing anything else and they'd have to defer to their legal team as well, and at that point you're weeks if not months away from a resolution.

Personally I'd file the claim with insurance and then also work up the chain at the store to get to a GM or regional VP etc, they can likely help get deductibles and other added compensation taken care of. If you want to go nuclear with a lawyer have at it, just know it'll likely be a much longer process

I'm assuming the end game is to be made whole and put this behind you but it seldom is a 100% thing.

Agreed that getting a lawyer involved would most likely turn the whole thing into a circus. Giving the store / regional manager a chance to rectify the situation and/or help cover deductibles and such makes a lot of sense to me. My only real concern with getting the car insurance company involved is the hit on future resale value as I'm assuming this is something that would show up in the car's history - there's a good chance there's enough damage that it would.

It should show up and you are entitled to "diminished value" If I were buying such a vehicle I would want to know of it and make the decision to buy accordingly. Not mentioned was any damage to other vehicle that caught your errant tire and wheel, use your insurance.

 

[skrypj]

I have a hard time paying people to do things for me anymore because I am finding that 9/10 times they are incompetent. Last time I had a shop work on one of my cars they didnt tighten down the brake caliper bolts. The next day my right front caliper came loose driving my son to school. Luckily the wheel held the caliper on the rotor but it screwed up my wheel. pretty good.

The shop offered to give me a bunch of free oil changes to make up for it, which I refused, because who knows what else they would screw up.

 

[ohlancaster]

Make sure to check the lug holes in the wheels out well on all four tires. They get wallowed out pretty easily. You can see aluminum in the threads of the lugs on the wheel that fell off, I'm pretty sure that one is toast.

Mechanic mentioned that. Filed through my own so I'll be sure to get that included

 

[ohlancaster]

Are the brakes still spongy? The initial feeling could be because the brake rotor wasn't clamped to the hub face, which will push the rear caliper piston back more than usual.. when you hit the brakes it has to move a lot further than normal to actually clamp that disk. If the spongy feeling didn't go away after a few pedal presses once a wheel was mounted, could be something else.

Also your last picture of the sway bar bracket is normal, that curved metal is supposed to be like that and the gap in the rubber. The rest? yikes.

I concur with having the other wheels checked.. the way our lugs are constructed they should do a good job of keeping things centered, but still it's a small amount of effort with huge potential reward.

This is why I put Sam's/wal-mart in the Safelite category of businesses that will never touch my vehicle.

Lexus Dealer indicated both rear caliper pins seized. The dealer quoted $44 in parts and $450 in labor oddly. I had the local shop delve into this. Replaced right caliper and pins and bushing for both. Paid close to what the dealer quoted which was not by design.

 

[ohlancaster]

I'm assuming the end game is to be made whole and put this behind you but it seldom is a 100% thing.

It should show up and you are entitled to "diminished value" If I were buying such a vehicle I would want to know of it and make the decision to buy accordingly. Not mentioned was any damage to other vehicle that caught your errant tire and wheel, use your insurance.

Your bringing up a significant point most people never consider demanding. Because it's not something offered, that's for sure.
I've made my claim and have an appointment for next week for their body shop to estimate. Wonder how this will work? The body shop won't be the ones to approve the initial $300 bill or the subsequent $170 Lexus diagnosis. In total, there's about $2000 in mechanical and maybe $1500 for the body. Not sure on that one.

The Sam's employees are struggling in there role and were not much help. I went directly through my own insurance. let them handle this.

 

[RET2]

Your bringing up a significant point most people never consider demanding. Because it's not something offered, that's for sure.
I've made my claim and have an appointment for next week for their body shop to estimate. Wonder how this will work? The body shop won't be the ones to approve the initial $300 bill or the subsequent $170 Lexus diagnosis. In total, there's about $2000 in mechanical and maybe $1500 for the body. Not sure on that one.

The Sam's employees are struggling in there role and were not much help. I went directly through my own insurance. let them handle this.

Why even bother with their body shop? It's a certainty that they will use the cheapest shop. Consult your insurance, you should be able to select any shop you want.

 

[ohlancaster]

Why even bother with their body shop? It's a certainty that they will use the cheapest shop. Consult your insurance, you should be able to select any shop you want

It's how they do the estimate

 

[jbyrd78]

WalMart's insurance company has to pay for this. Take it to a dealership and get a full repair estimate and submit it to the store manager at Walmart. By law, They have to turn this in to their insurance company. They will call you, and cut you a check. Make sure you document everything as well. I had a similar situation happen about 4yrs ago when I took my Nissan Xterra in for an oil change. A few hrs after getting it back, I noticed the hood on the drivers side was lifted up. When I went opened the hood, I noticed the mechanic had left his tools under the hood. He couldn't get the hood to close, so he pushed the hood down so damn hard, he caved the middle of the hood in. I called the store manager told them what happened and that I was also on my way in so they could take pictures and return the mechnics tools. I told the manager flat out to tell their insurance company I wanted a new hood. I went and got 2 estimates from 2 seperate dealerships and took them to the manager. A week later their insurance company called me, to verify the incident, and I had a check two days later to get the work done.

 

[ohlancaster]

Ok guys, some of you recall that I had to replace all 4 actuators in my 09 570 on April 7th [4 months ago.]
This service was handled by the same tech who just inspected my 570 for damage from the tire; he provided the estimates below to fix the damage caused from the tire and then some.

Rear Shocks-$1040
Rear Caliper Silde Pins Siezed; $471 [$46 in parts and $425 in Labor] (why not just a new caliper?)
Both Front Struts Leaking Fluid: $1555 [$710 labor & $844 parts]
Flush for $169.

I decided to have my local guys handle the Caliper issue to get rid of my sponge problem.
Ultimately, they replaced the pins on the left and the caliper on the right. Whatever.

There was no mention of any leak when he replaced the actuators 4 months ago. Obviously this is new.

So, I go 285,000 miles with only having the Starter, Alternator, the bull**** 02 sensor/charcoal replacement jazz, and a power steering pump fail on the Lexus LX 570. Everything else is original. No maintenance outside of oil and pads and that's also going 100% Regular Gas as of 2015 (no difference at all, btw). Half the things that failed were from user error.
The pump was definitely user error as I believe the Charcoal canister my error as I always over topped with gas. Yeah, I know. BTW, new canister did nothing.

But, after my 6 ton rig scrapes itself along the concrete, rotor, and shock absorber, is it not highly probable this impact 'inspired' the leak upfront. I mean come'on. The car's been almost bullet proof 12 years and 313,000 and suddenly I'm being stuck with these byproducts of my vehicle being body slammed by BS out of my control events.
Any takers?


FYI, body damage pics added.

 

[TimCFJ40]

I’d find it very unlikely that the rear wheel falling off caused the front shocks to leak. You just probably didn’t notice before the incident made you look.

 

[99toylc]

Even the rear ones at this mileage are most likely a regular replacement (you can see that they are a bit darker at the bottom where there is moisture from a slow leak - pic with the wheel off when it broke) as well as the caliper / pin issues are a Chicago thing (rust belt)

Btw: you can buy original Lexus rear struts for about $60.00 a piece online and the replacement is pretty easy - I can't see it costing over $1000.00 unless someone is making a pretty good mark up on this.

 

[Broski]

Find a old school tire shop and use it all the time get to know the service writer, bring in some donuts for the workers.
All of your wally world problems go away, a nice Lexus has no business at Walmart in the first place !!

 

[jefo13]

I have the original shocks from my 200 with about 40,000 miles. PM me if you are interested to buy them

 

[Weedhopper]

^^^ this Broski.
My first thought was “why Wal Mart?” But the guys who left my lugs loose as in my above post was a privately owned tire shop. So it can happen anywhere.

I use an old, old school tire shop for everything now. I can hang out and watch them ( observe) torque the lug nuts. They are good guys.

 

[RET2]

^^^ this Broski.
My first thought was “why Wal Mart?” But the guys who left my lugs loose as in my above post was a privately owned tire shop. So it can happen anywhere.

I use an old, old school tire shop for everything now. I can hang out and watch them ( observe) torque the lug nuts. They are good guys.

It's not a bad idea to periodically check and re-torque, especially if you have aftermarket rims and park in a public place and have "friends" who may know you and want to help you remove your rims.

 

[ohlancaster]

Ok guys, some of you recall that I had to replace all 4 actuators in my 09 570 on April 7th [4 months ago.]
This service was handled by the same tech who just inspected my 570 for damage from the tire; he provided the estimates below to fix the damage caused from the tire and then some.

Rear Shocks-$1040
Rear Caliper Silde Pins Siezed; $471 [$46 in parts and $425 in Labor] (why not just a new caliper?)
Both Front Struts Leaking Fluid: $1555 [$710 labor & $844 parts]
Flush for $169.

I decided to have my local guys handle the Caliper issue to get rid of my sponge problem.
Ultimately, they replaced the pins on the left and the caliper on the right. Whatever.

There was no mention of any leak when he replaced the actuators 4 months ago. Obviously this is new.

So, I go 285,000 miles with only having the Starter, Alternator, the bulls*** 02 sensor/charcoal replacement jazz, and a power steering pump fail on the Lexus LX 570. Everything else is original. No maintenance outside of oil and pads and that's also going 100% Regular Gas as of 2015 (no difference at all, btw). Half the things that failed were from user error.
The pump was definitely user error as I believe the Charcoal canister my error as I always over topped with gas. Yeah, I know. BTW, new canister did nothing.

But, after my 6 ton rig scrapes itself along the concrete, rotor, and shock absorber, is it not highly probable this impact 'inspired' the leak upfront. I mean come'on. The car's been almost bullet proof 12 years and 313,000 and suddenly I'm being stuck with these byproducts of my vehicle being body slammed by BS out of my control events.
Any takers?


FYI, body damage pics added.

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It was the bearings, driver front wheel bearings. My suspension feels brand new and the sponge is gone. After dealing with both calipers, front pads, a new rotor and, the discovery of the 39 mm 1/2 inch socket and what you need to know about having your driver front hub wheel bearing assembly replaced. I would be wise to throw down a little extra for that passenger rotor and wheel bearing replacement. I wonder if my suspension will be even more improved?

 

[ohlancaster]

It was the bearings, driver front wheel bearings. Could my rig crashing to the concrete and driving on a rotor have any cause and effect on that front bearing. Suspension feels brand new (great really) and the sponge is gone. After dealing with both calipers, front pads, a new rotor and, the discovery of the 39 mm 1/2 inch socket and what you need to know about having your driver front hub wheel bearing assembly replaced. Would I not be be wise to throw down a little extra for that passenger rotor and wheel bearing replacement as well? I know I'll get chastised for only handling the one side. . I wonder if my suspension will be even more improved?

 

[Boss Hog]

My $0.02 - If you have full coverage call your insurance company. Just like in a multi-driver accident, they will handle it for you. The manager at Walmart isn't going to reimburse you for an expense like this, it will have to go to corporate and you're going to spend weeks upon weeks trying to get it resolved through their insurance company

I’m a former Walmart GM. This is the best approach.

The Store Manager has a responsibility to ensure the store does an incident report and it gets submitted up the chain. An outside company handles those claims. An automatic charge of $25k to the store’s bottom line for ANY incident reported where insurance gets involved certainly gets their attention, but it’s mostly out of their hands. Whatever the cost to repair your vehicle will get charged to the store as well. Stores are self-insured up to $1m (or were when I worked there).

Walmarts throw away more meat , dairy, & produce in a week than what the repair will cost. Your insurance will get their money back in short order.

And for everyone else never, EVER EVER EVER take your vehicle to a Walmart TLE. They damaged my Pig (I was the GM!!) and I elected NOT to file a claim because it would hit the P&L and impact everyones’ bonus.