It goes without saying that some car parts are more acceptable to shed while underway than others. A bumper sticker fluttering away due to loss of adhesion? Minimal issue. A mud flap falling off? Unfortunate, but not likely to cause too much carnage. However, you absolutely don’t want a wheel to come off your vehicle or any vehicle around you, because the consequences can be seriously scary. Just look at how this lug nut embedded itself in a windshield after a loose wheel caused mayhem in Canada.
On Thursday, Ontario Provincial Police responded to a report of a loose wheel collision near Aurora, Ontario. They arrived on scene and snapped some photos that seemed straight out of a Final Destination movie. But before we get to that, let’s take a good look at the carnage the loose wheel caused to the vehicle it flew off of.
![Vidframe Min Top](https://images-stag.jazelc.com/uploads/theautopian-m2en/vidframe_min_top1.png)
![Vidframe Min Bottom](https://images-stag.jazelc.com/uploads/theautopian-m2en/vidframe_min_bottom1.png)
Yep, that fender ripped clean off of its lower mounting, and judging by the rust evident both on the lower inside face of the fender and the mounting surface, a new one might not be the easiest thing to reattach. In addition, once the front wheel left the vehicle, the front left corner planted itself into the tarmac, causing some abrasion to the bumper cover and actually pulling said bumper cover loose from its clips, if not breaking them. From this photo alone, there’s no way of telling which underbody components received damage, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the total bodywork and mechanical repair bills total this Chevrolet Cruze. However, it’s not even the car involved with the most visible damage.
See, once a wheel comes loose, it has to go somewhere, and that’s usually into traffic, where it gets smacked by a vehicle whose driver just can’t get out of the way in time. In this case, it appears that a second-generation Ford Escape hit the tire hard, shattering its grille, fracturing its bumper trim, caving in its headlight, messing up its bumper, bending its radiator, and giving its hood the topography of the moon. Needless to say, this is brutal for the owner of the Escape because it means this older American crossover could also be deemed a total loss.
However, the Cruze and the Escape weren’t the only two vehicles involved in this loose-wheel incident. Ever wondered where the lug nuts go when a wheel flies loose? The owner of a third vehicle found out the hard way, as evidenced by this photo. That’s not a projectile fired from a conventional weapon, that’s a lug nut. Terrifying stuff.
While the fallout of this incident will likely play out behind closed doors, liability may not exclusively fall on the owner of the Cruze. According to the Ontario Provincial Police, “In this case, the driver had been to his garage recently and had only driven for a short distance before the tire came off.” Given that reporting, there’s a high chance the shop may come under government scrutiny, provided the driver hadn’t exceeded the recommended re-torque mileage.
Even if someone else works on your car, it’s a good idea to buy a half-inch, click-type torque wrench. You can pick one up for under $30, throw on the appropriate socket for your car’s lug nuts, keep it in the trunk of your car, and know you have the right torque on each lug fastener by following the manufacturer’s torque guidelines and rotating clockwise until you hear and feel a click. Not only will this let you check lug torque at home, it adds another level of safety to installing a spare tire to get you home.
(Photo credits: Ontario Provincial Police)
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I was lucky one time with loose lug nuts. Was driving a Vandura and had a clunking noise from the back and discovered one wheel wasn’t torqued correctly. Thankfully, the only damage was to the studs. Man, it sure was LOUD getting the old studs off with a hammer!
None of the studs appear to be broken off, so this is almost guaranteed to be a case of not properly torquing the nuts
Yes, torque your lug nuts. Also important: don’t over torque your lug nuts.
I lost a front wheel once on my Volvo 242 GT when getting on the highway. Someone was kind enough to grab it and bring it back to me. Jacked it up, put the wheel back on and drove it for another year with a flat spot on the rotor. Best $250 I ever spent on a car.
What I don’t understand is why the Cuze driver didn’t stop before the wheel came off, the steering wheel vibrations must’ve been insane at highway speeds.
When I was just 18 I had one of my front wheels loosen its lugnuts (I forgot to tighten them) and I had to stop to check it out because I couldn’t hold the steering wheel in my hands at 25-30mph.
You down with OPP? This driver is.
I very nearly faced the same fate as the Cruze driver about 15 years ago. I got a flat while out of town visiting some family. Took my GMT400 Chevy to a tire shop to get it fixed. A while later, at highway speed, I started getting an odd noise from the back end of the truck. I thought I had a u-joint or something in the differential going, although I wasn’t getting much vibration. Then I noticed that it went away under braking, and discovered that the tire shop had just spun the lug nuts on with an impact driver and didn’t bother torquing them at all. I was livid – I’d been driving with my daughter in a car seat and an upright piano in the box of the truck (long story). The tire shop’s response? “You can’t prove it was us.”
I use the German method of Gutentwist for my wheel nuts.
Gutentite.
I see we may have some M539 Restorations channel fans here.
*rapidfire clicking noises*
Had to do this on my van recently during a road trip. Suffered some unusual braking issues over the 300 mile trip, got to the house I was staying at, which thankfully had a garage. Took everything apart and ended-up doing a brake job, but forgot my torque wrenches.
Thankfully, I’ve done this job many times on this vehicle, so I have a rough feel for the amount of torque needed on everything. Gutentite did the job though and got us back home, with plenty of extra mileage on top.
You can buy a 1/2″ torque wrench for $11 at Harbor Freight and actually know what you’re torquing them to. Too tight is also bad.
I lost a hitch ball once, no idea how it got that loose I saw it bouncing in my rear view, lucky the highway was empty
Almost a guarantee that it then got ran over and flew into some poor guy’s windshield.
You picked a fine time to leave me, loose wheel…
The click wrench is very satisfying for sure, and if you have to remove a wheel make sure you have a friend around so you can ask “Hey can you hold my nuts?”
I torqued my nuts, once. You could hear the scream on both coasts.
I’ve been hit by large insects, flying beetles, and stones on the motorcycle. They really really hurt. I do not understand people’s logic of riding a motorcycle sans-visor, let alone riding without an entire helmet.
I would really not want to be on the receiving end of a wheel nut, stud, or bolt, let alone a whole wheel. And even with a helmet, I’d hope for the geometry and physics gods to help me survive with good angles or a non-converging path.
Hail, even the small stuff, also hurts like hell.
Bugs can be no joke. I was riding at night one time and still had my dark smoke visor on from earlier that day. I had forgotten to put my clear one back in my bag after cleaning it.
I was in the woods and having trouble seeing if an exit was the correct one so I flipped my visor up and immediately, I mean almost instantly, took some massive bug right smack in my right eye. I couldn’t see and had to limp back into the city, straight to the ER.
That was not fun at all. It took my eye almost 2 weeks to recover. I really thought I had lost vision in it forever for the first few days. I never forgot my clear visor again.
Man, same. I don’t get that at all. Or crossing over into Lesser Carolina where there are no helmet laws and people really do just ride without. Setting aside the ease of fatality without it, why the hell wouldn’t you at least wear something to catch the bugs and rocks? Even the dust from a dump truck has left my eyes feeling gritty. I don’t care to think of riding through that with a naked face.
Even on a bicycle, bugs to the eyes hurt! When biking after dark I wear safety glasses (as well as helmet, etc) to keep the wind and bugs out of my eyes.
I’m not a biker but I’ve been hit by RAIN at 70mph (convertable) and it hurts like a bear. I’m hoping to get into bikes soon and you can bet your boots my pretty face is going to be fully protected.
Use a breaker bar to loosen a bit then re-torque with the click wrench. DO NOT loosen with the click wrench. Return torque setting to zero before storage.
Have you tried a split beam torque wrench? I got a Tekton one as a gift and hot dang its a game changer! If you do any sort of regular vehicle work it’s such a nice addition to your toolset.
Tell me more. Mine’s the click type, but I’ve always noticed the beam type, never been sure if maybe I should have one too. They’re for more fine-scale tightening?
With the Tekton or HF’s Icon split beam torque wrench, you have a dial on the side that you turn with an actual read-out in legible numbers for your torque setting. So not only is it super easy to get the torque spec that you want, you can also store it at a torque setting without damage to the wrench. I do enough things the hard way and can’t always afford/justify having the nicest tools, but a tool like this that’s a staple is totally worth upgrading to. My FIL has a digital snap-on torque wrench, and it’s nice, but I’d take my wrench over his any day of the week.
Thanks! How does it indicate when it’s at your specified TQ, or do you have to watch the dial?
No problem! It still has a click indication so you hear/feel it, but it is not quite as noticeable as the old click type torque wrench that I upgraded from. I also like this much more than the buzz/vibration that digital torque wrenches have. I’m not sure if product links are frowned upon but here’s the one I use. Also this isn’t an affiliate link or anything. It’s just a tool I’ve come to love and I’m happy to tell others about it: https://www.amazon.com/TEKTON-Torque-Wrench-ft-lb-TRQ62103AMZ/dp/B0B4BDRM5Q/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1CYNOTTRJGHVE&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.vU4rEksH1fgtqeatMYKjrpnRqx48jGwWJ84fUb8oNNpgalV0wycnpdID8dJNzzQqEv0kxVemguxE5EJaTIbU7O5lTb06KW7NXdZDluqpAbpuhKr8EvQqQKTfnDnfDG5sqhJDA9WTwwSI7rYhB-S3U_TEhk6PhFN0RE8hVIh_JYmvBN3AzNW06uO-HLu2kezu_divVeT-A45Lae7PrhIc9Q.dpxfHlUAlwI1g2s41C1sZhcfKnnqGWNHvSqds3RMeFM&dib_tag=se&keywords=tekton+split+beam+torque+wrench+3%2F8&qid=1721965642&sprefix=tekton+split+beam%2Caps%2C111&sr=8-1
Yeah, I have the HF Icon one and it’s great. Set it at lugnut torque spec and leave it there, doesn’t matter.
Plus since it’s HF, you can usually snag it with a 20-25% off coupon without much issue.
Dial the torque setting in on an easy to read scale, flip the cover over the adjustment screw, and it’ll click when it hits the torque value. Super easy to work with and tests great in every review I’ve seen.
Really drives home the importance of that flanged base.
“Without a base, without a trace“
Semi Truck with huge Spike lug nuts has entered the chat
Relax, those are just cheap plastic nut covers.
My car has lug bolts and I can only imagine how much more damage they’d do bouncing down the highway.
Also they’re a huge pain when trying to put a wheel back on. Whoever decided to use them was a monster.
It’s not that bad if you get one of those wheel hangers that threads in like a lugbolt.
They still suck, compared to lug nuts.
Yeah I curse God every time I have to spend 8 seconds threading in a pin.
You can buy wheel alignment pins (I had to google what they were called in English) which makes it possible to align the rim to the bolt holes
For sure, though I’ve gotten good at balancing them on the hub. I installed a stud kit for my track E46 and that’s been nice. Probably not practical for a daily though.
Hello fellow BMW owner!
My Volvo also has lug bolts instead of nuts. Must be a Euro thing?
The irony of the Ford Escape not…Escaping
I once realized at a stoplight that I was behind an Escape with a POW sticker in the window and I’ve kicked myself regularly for not having a camera on my phone at that moment.
I’ve had a lug nut hit my car on the freeway… thought it was a spent cigarette sparking down the road; it was not. Shattered my headlight, dented and took paint off my bumper. Those things are no joke.
Lost a fog light to an errant lug nut once. I thought it was a rock until I dug it out of the housing.
Remember that Kia Soul that got launched by the loose wheel? Pepperidge Farms remembers…
https://youtu.be/EOosn78WsMg?si=fH1FMA1OH8Rw_Zmx
I very much remember that!
Considering it was linked in the fourth line of this article, I think Autopian remembers too :’D
DAMMIT!!! I thought I was being SOOOOO clever.
The wheel hitting it in the tailgate after it came to a stop was adding insult To injury