Lost a Wheel

[strangenuts]

Recently while on route to a western Qld hunting property I lost my right rear wheel on my 2012 Hilux. We were fully loaded with gear and towing a bogie axle trailer loaded with two quads and gear. At about 110km/hr, for a couple of seconds it was pretty hairy and when we finally came to a stop I was thankful we were all in one piece. When we got out to examine what had happened we noticed 150m or so back that there a grass fire on the side of the road, the backing plate of my brakes had dragged along the road and ground away creating molten metal which then ignited the grass. Thankfully we got that out after some tense moments. On examination, all my wheel studs were snapped. After some bush mechanics we got rolling again and limped into the next town and got repairs the next morning. The mechanic told me that he sees snapped wheel studs a quite bit with alloy rims and weight. :unknown: Obviously I'm wanting to find the reason this happened so I have asked around a bit since and get mostly scratching of heads.

I rotated my tyres before I left, the same way I have done countless times in the past. After the first 500km I checked them all for finger tightness and they passed that check.(maybe I should of used a spanner) We made it to the first property only to be rained out and then have to move on to the another one. I would of travelled near 2500km when it happened. As I said all studs were snapped. On the wheel only a couple of holes had a little flogging out but it was on the inside and looked like studs that had snapped earlier had caused it. Just before it happened we had done 70km of dirt with a fair few cattle grids but it was by no means really rough dirt roads. I'm guessing my wheel nuts came loose but I'm far from convinced, especially being the right side and travelling that far. After the incident I obviously checked the tightness of all the other wheel nuts. On maybe 3 of the 18 I might of got 1/4 of a turn if I was lucky, not what you would call indicative of loose nuts.

Anyway I am interested if anyone has had similar experiences or may have an opinion on the matter.

[Gipsy]

All I can say is you shoulda checked yer nuts! Finger tight is not ok for every reason under the sun. It is probably the result of incorrectly tightening the nuts after you rotated the tyres. Use a proper wheel brace and do it with the wheels off the ground first then again after the wheels are back on the ground.
You and your mates are very lucky it didn't end in a tragedy, especially for an innocent driver and family coming the other way. Worse still it could have been a road train that stopped your weekend and your mates lives.

[taresk]

The only reasons it's common with alloy wheels is because a lot of aftermarket rims aren't an exact match for the vehicle, they might fit the stud pattern, but not the hub size, so a few mm of play there puts extra load on the studs. Another cause is using the wrong nuts, using the ones from factory steelies, generally have the wrong taper for the alloys, so they don't centre properly and work loose.

[Plumb Perfect]

When you say “alloy rims”, do you mean they are the factory alloy rims or you have aftermarket rims??

If they are aftermarket, you may also have a hub ring. When you rotated the tyres if that hub ring hasn’t been put on right or if one was stuck in the rim and you doubled up without knowing this will cause an issue. The nuts will tighten and you will be fine for a few hundred or thousand Kay’s. Then eventually, they will loosen and/or studs will snap and possibly have your wheel fly off.
When tightening, the studs are over tightened/ stretched because of the hub ring not allowing it to sit flat.

How do I know???
That’s exactly what happened to me!
Thankfully I stopped just before the wheel came off. I had the tyres rotated a few weeks prior.


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[HK1837]

I’ve had this happen when using aftermarket alloy mags on a Holden. Relying on just the studs is a no-no, you need the wheel centre bore to be the same diameter as the car it is going on so all load goes on the hub not the studs.

[strangenuts]

All I can say is you shoulda checked yer nuts! Finger tight is not ok for every reason under the sun. It is probably the result of incorrectly tightening the nuts after you rotated the tyres. Use a proper wheel brace and do it with the wheels off the ground first then again after the wheels are back on the ground.
You and your mates are very lucky it didn't end in a tragedy, especially for an innocent driver and family coming the other way. Worse still it could have been a road train that stopped your weekend and your mates lives.

I tightened them correctly, but in hindsight yes should of checked them with a spanner. As I said all the others were fine and I've been doing it the same way for years.

[strangenuts]

When you say “alloy rims”, do you mean they are the factory alloy rims or you have aftermarket rims??

If they are aftermarket, you may also have a hub ring. When you rotated the tyres if that hub ring hasn’t been put on right or if one was stuck in the rim and you doubled up without knowing this will cause an issue. The nuts will tighten and you will be fine for a few hundred or thousand Kay’s. Then eventually, they will loosen and/or studs will snap and possibly have your wheel fly off.
When tightening, the studs are over tightened/ stretched because of the hub ring not allowing it to sit flat.

How do I know???
That’s exactly what happened to me!
Thankfully I stopped just before the wheel came off. I had the tyres rotated a few weeks prior.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They are ROH rims with no hub ring, fitted originally from a tyre shop, came with there own nuts.

[strangenuts]

All I can say is you shoulda checked yer nuts! Finger tight is not ok for every reason under the sun. It is probably the result of incorrectly tightening the nuts after you rotated the tyres. Use a proper wheel brace and do it with the wheels off the ground first then again after the wheels are back on the ground.
You and your mates are very lucky it didn't end in a tragedy, especially for an innocent driver and family coming the other way. Worse still it could have been a road train that stopped your weekend and your mates lives.

So is it common practice to go round with a wheel brace and check them all a week after changing wheels? It will be for me now but I'm not sure it actually is for others?

[Gipsy]

Yep, read your owner's manual, it says just that!

[DeadlyBeast]

Get a torque wrench and check the other wheel nuts.
Seen broken studs on the GRR resulting from gorillas jumping on the wheel brace or overdoing it with the rattle gun.
Over-tightened wheel nuts will stretch the studs then snap them when going over corrugations. Look for around 110nM

[Philos]

Get a torque wrench and check the other wheel nuts.
Seen broken studs on the GRR resulting from gorillas jumping on the wheel brace or overdoing it with the rattle gun.
Over-tightened wheel nuts will stretch the studs then snap them when going over corrugations. Look for around 110nM

^ This

Also, if you put the correct torque on the wheel nuts you’ll be able to get them off without the need of a rattle gun as well.

[strangenuts]

Been asking around a fair bit and showing the rim to several different mechanics. Almost all came to the conclusion as I did that the studs snapped, they did not come loose. No wheel locator ring is applicable to these rims as the bore is 106mm which match the Hiluxes hubs. Over tightening in the past may have weakened them, or simply fatigue due to a combination of high weight and rough roads. I have since replaced the rear wheel studs and will keep a close eye on them from now on especially when doing long trips with weight.