Wheel Came Off After I Picked Up from Dealer (1 Viewer)

[taylorbrooks]

Dropped my car off for a 50k mile service at the local Toyota dealership in Austin yesterday. Picked it up this morning and drove to Houston for work.

On my way home, the driver's side wheel... came off. I still don't understand exactly what happened or how this is possible.

Years ago I had Spidertrax spacers and OMEs installed at Ed Martin. I wonder if my local dealer didn't fully tighten the lug nuts or re-install the wheel properly after rotating. Any ideas on what might've happened? Anyone had a similar experience?

I'm just really thankful this didn't happen when I was driving at speed on the highway home.

 

[Artie]

Damn lucky it wasn’t worse.

Did they remove the spacers for some reason? I’m guessing they didn’t tighten them if they did.

Any signs of something wrong before this happened?

I’ve always had a slight fear of this happening, may be the push to lol at properly offset wheels.

 

[taylorbrooks]

Damn lucky it wasn’t worse.

Did they remove the spacers for some reason? I’m guessing they didn’t tighten them if they did.

Any signs of something wrong before this happened?

I’ve always had a slight fear of this happening, may be the push to lol at properly offset wheels.

They did a rotation and alignment as part of the service. I’m not sure if they removed the spacers as part of that.

I’ve had the spacers on since 5k miles. No issues.

 

[Fj81]

I was surprised to find soo many 200 series owners using wheel spacers instead of getting proper offset wheels. Sure they can be run and some have done so safely for many miles but I just thing it better to get the right rims. Unless you are checking them every few hundred miles how can you be sure the spacers are still fastened properly.

I have always seen the use of spacers like a bandaid till you can afford the right wheels for a road vehicle. But I guess for the 2hundos the wheel selection is limited and sometimes tire upsizing creates issues easily solved with spacers.

Dont take this as a personal attack, just making an observation. I am glad it didnt come all the way off causing the body to hit the ground and no one got hurt. Most tire shops in my area will not mess with spacers due to liability issues.

 

[taylorbrooks]

I was surprised to find soo many 200 series owners using wheel spacers instead of getting proper offset wheels. Sure they can be run and some have done so safely for many miles but I just thing it better to get the right rims. Unless you are checking them every few hundred miles how can you be sure the spacers are still fastened properly.

I have always seen the use of spacers like a bandaid till you can afford the right wheels for a road vehicle. But I guess for the 2hundos the wheel selection is limited and sometimes tire upsizing creates issues easily solved with spacers.

Dont take this as a personal attack, just making an observation. I am glad it didnt come all the way off causing the body to hit the ground and no one got hurt. Most tire shops in my area will not mess with spacers due to liability issues.

No offense taken.

What offset wheels would you suggest?

 

[Njck22]

When you take that spacer off are the nuts just loose in there?

 

[taylorbrooks]

When you take that spacer off are the nuts just loose in there?

Yep

 

[doru]

I've run spacers for almost 200K miles on my wagon with zero issues. Even the hubs life was same as the average for those wagons.
Spacers properly designed and fabricated from proper material, using proper bolts and torque with regular maintenance (as in checking & torquing them during tire rotation / season change) are a good solution.

I do not know the details of the OP install and incident so can't comment on it.

 

[doru]

They did a rotation and alignment as part of the service. I’m not sure if they removed the spacers as part of that.

I would check the nuts on all the remaining spacers, and also remove and inspect them. Sometimes you can tell if they have been removed.

Usually, dealers do not do alignments on vehicles with spacers. Interesting they done it on yours. Or maybe they removed the spacers first and then put them back after.

Are you retorque the spacers when you rotate the tires? If the tire rotations are done at shops, who did them before the last one?

You should inquire at the dealer how they've done the alignment w/ or w/o spacers. Also inquire if they removed the spacer and why. Don't mention the lost wheel before that.

Was any work done on that side since spacer was installed (e.g. change disc, parking brake pads)?

You are so lucky that the damage is so small compared to what it usually is when you lose a wheel.

 

[TheComedian]

I was surprised to find soo many 200 series owners using wheel spacers instead of getting proper offset wheels. Sure they can be run and some have done so safely for many miles but I just thing it better to get the right rims. Unless you are checking them every few hundred miles how can you be sure the spacers are still fastened properly.

I have always seen the use of spacers like a bandaid till you can afford the right wheels for a road vehicle. But I guess for the 2hundos the wheel selection is limited and sometimes tire upsizing creates issues easily solved with spacers.

Dont take this as a personal attack, just making an observation. I am glad it didnt come all the way off causing the body to hit the ground and no one got hurt. Most tire shops in my area will not mess with spacers due to liability issues.

Well you don’t get the OEM steelies with another offset. But to be honest I also wouldn’t trust aluminum spacers on a vehicle that weight if I would do (like I do) every now and then some weird stuff with the car (200s flying pretty stable…).
So I got steel spacers so the rims deform way before the spacer does.
But no offense to you guys over there on the other side of the pond but there is so much stuff over there „road legal“ where here in Germany the state inspection guys would be like „nope nope nope, you can directly order a flatbed to the next workshop to remove that!“.

But in OP‘s case I would just guess that they removed the spacers to check the rear brakes n stuff to readjust and then forgot to tighten them before mounting the wheel….

 

[Fj81]

No offense taken.

What offset wheels would you suggest?

lt just depends what you are trying to achieve. Figure whatever offset your wheels are plus the size of the spacer used to give you the right offset. I have not researched it for my LX yet since I just got it. Mine is bone stock on the 20s. I usually just check the wheel and tire thread in here to see what the concensus is. And I like tall skinny tires too so that means I can stay close to stock on offset. Maybe I will Just get rock warriors

 

[Fj81]

On the plus side, now you can get a shirt with a picture of your truck that says ' damnit Jesus, not that wheel '

 

[Artie]

Are you retorque the spacers when you rotate the tires? If the tire rotations are done at shops, who did them before the last one?

If you are using loctite on the spacer lugs is this necessary? Seems like this would reduce the effectiveness of the loctite.

 

[taylorbrooks]

I would check the nuts on all the remaining spacers, and also remove and inspect them. Sometimes you can tell if they have been removed.

Usually, dealers do not do alignments on vehicles with spacers. Interesting they done it on yours. Or maybe they removed the spacers first and then put them back after.

Are you retorque the spacers when you rotate the tires? If the tire rotations are done at shops, who did them before the last one?

You should inquire at the dealer how they've done the alignment w/ or w/o spacers. Also inquire if they removed the spacer and why. Don't mention the lost wheel before that.

Was any work done on that side since spacer was installed (e.g. change disc, parking brake pads)?

You are so lucky that the damage is so small compared to what it usually is when you lose a wheel.

I would check the nuts on all the remaining spacers, and also remove and inspect them. Sometimes you can tell if they have been removed.

Usually, dealers do not do alignments on vehicles with spacers. Interesting they done it on yours. Or maybe they removed the spacers first and then put them back after.

Are you retorque the spacers when you rotate the tires? If the tire rotations are done at shops, who did them before the last one?

You should inquire at the dealer how they've done the alignment w/ or w/o spacers. Also inquire if they removed the spacer and why. Don't mention the lost wheel before that.

Was any work done on that side since spacer was installed (e.g. change disc, parking brake pads)?

You are so lucky that the damage is so small compared to what it usually is when you lose a wheel.

This is helpful thanks. I’ve only serviced the car at the dealership.

If the spacers were removed as part of the service, what then?

They were planning to replace brakes as part of the service, but didn’t have the parts in stock. So…

 

[Specialeyes]

But no offense to you guys over there on the other side of the pond but there is so much stuff over there „road legal“ where here in Germany the state inspection guys would be like „nope nope nope, you can directly order a flatbed to the next workshop to remove that!“.

No offense taken here. I’ve made similar observations when I’ve been in Europe and prefer the way you guys do things in that department.

I was running Spider Trax 1.25 spacers on my first cruiser because I really like the bronze wheels that come on the heritage trucks but was always leery of something like this happening when I left it at the dealership to do service. Been leaning towards no spacers at all on my current cruiser or just changing the wheels all together.

 

[Artie]

No offense taken.

What offset wheels would you suggest?

I’m using the same spacers as you and have been looking at different wheels that allow me to ditch the spacers. Based on what I’ve read on the multiple wheel threads and using my lift and tire size as a guide I’ve been looking at +20-+30 offset wheels.

My OEM HE wheels are +60 and the wheel spacers I have now are 31.75mm. After subtraction that leaves me with +28.25 for my current configuration. The sucky part about the Cruiser wheels are that they are 5 lug so that limits choices, at least that’s been my experience. I don’t want to lose offset so I’m looking closer to the +20mm side of that +20-+30 offset window. Again, this is for my lift and desired appearance with bumpers and all.

I’m sure I’m about to have some knowledge dropped on my from more experience members on this topic and I welcome it.

 

[doru]

If the spacers were removed as part of the service, what then?

Then you know who forgot to torque the flying spacer. Holding them responsible is another question, as they might say they did torque them, and that might actually be true, but not to the proper specs.

If you do not wrench yourself on it, and rely on the dealer to do it right, make them aware of the spacers proper torque (probably same as the wheel) and show them the pics. Maybe ask them to add a note on file about the spacers so future techs pay more attention.

If I'd be in your place, I'll check the torque myself. I always do that if someone else than me is touching the wheel nuts, even with having no spacers and OEM wheels on this truck. If that doesn't work for you, I'd just bite the bulet and get proper offset wheels eliminating the spacers.

 

[doru]

BTW even w/o spacers some people had the wheel flying off because dealer forgot to torque it.

 

[doru]

Something that I wanted to ask you: did you feel any vibration when the wheel/spacer become lose? Usually, an out of balance wheel creates such vibrations.
Is the cruiser suspension soaking them up or maybe the fact that the wheel is lose on the bolts reduces the amount of vibration transmitted to the suspension/body?

 

[doru]

If you are using loctite on the spacer lugs is this necessary? Seems like this would reduce the effectiveness of the loctite.

Right, no retorquing can be done if using loctite, unless you actually reinstall them.

But thread locker or not will still not solve the problem of the dealer messing up with the spacers. The spacers are safe as they are w/o loctite if they are properly torqued.

As for using Loctite, it will mess up the torque reading when you torque the bolts. There are tables to use to reduce the torque but in general the advice is not using thread locker or anything for that matter on the wheel studs/nuts.

There was a thread here about the force provided by the flange assembly (the interface between wheel and hub) with input from people more qualified than me if you want to get into the engineering details.