Driving home from work yesterday and noticiced a shudder at the back of the twincab. Pulled over and discovered that one of the wheel studs had broken completely off and the few nuts that were still on were very loose.
Re-tightened the nuts and borrowed a nut from two other wheels to get it home.
This happened to anyone else?
theverybigtallman ·
the first time my bush bashing dub got back on the track after i rolled the previous one, took a corner, heard clunk clunk clunk. damn i think, that be the diff. pull up to investigate and my back wheel come past be and crash into the fence. not the car's fault though. someone (not me) only did the nuts up fingertight. so all was well and the dub lived to fight another day.
ColumBUS ·
had my front left wheel bearings seize whilst on a pizza delivery... was stranded in st andrews after dark for an hour... i ate the pizza
VWCOOL ·
Had an IRS axle snap one day under my Bug. I'd just driven from Sydney to Canberra to Wagga and was heading back home - but I changed my mind at the last minute (I wanted my holiday to lasy longer!) and headed up to the Central Coast to see a mate. Two blocks from his house in Umina, I heard a crunch and saw my left rear wheel fly past me.
The scary thing is, as well as doing nearly 2000km in my five-day holiday, I'd been doing burnouts/street racing in Wagga all weekend... and just minutes before my wheel came off in Umina I was pulling 180+ km/h across the Mooney Mooney bridge (pre-camera days in 1992).
Scary sh*t...The axle showed signs of corrosion in the crack that stretched over 2/3 of the axle thickness so it had been 'criticaly dangerous' for some time...
ancientbugger ·
My brother in an old kombi lost his rear passenger side wheel but just thought he had a flat tyre, when he pulled over a load of bikies that were riding behind him started congratulating him on his great driving with only 3 wheels, when it sank in what they had said he shit himself! A couple of the bikies had seen the wheel bounce over a fence and disappear into bushland and went to retrieve it when they got back the hubcap was still on and the castellated nut was inside! They then lifted the van (there was a few of them) and fitted the wheel for him without him having to lift a finger😎
BiX ·
My borhter o n his bug had a wheel come loose. by the time i worked out what it was and pulled over all the nuts had come out and it was just sliding along the stub part near the rear but!!!!
Boozer ·
Kroozin_Kikko wrote:had my front left wheel bearings seize whilst on a pizza delivery... was stranded in st andrews after dark for an hour... i ate the pizza
that is the funniest thing I have read this week!:thumb
akean1 ·
i was in the back seat with KK driving down sydney rd in melbourne a few years ago, the back left wheel came off, jamed itself to the inside of the guard. i couldnt work out why he was taking so long to stop. the brake line had busted, and the drum was grinding a small trench in the road
tdegens ·
My trailer wheel came off and went into the pond at the front of school.I went around the roundabout and it went in for a swim. When I first saw the wheel in the pond I thought how slack some one was to chuck a tyre into the pond then to realise it was my wheel, The trailer still had brake drums on it and still rolled ok then I went and grabbed a stick and a couple of kids and put it back on.
72TWINCAB ·
It seems that wheels falling off VW's is quite a common thing. Who would of thought......
If there is a lesson leart from this, it is "Don't assume your wheel nuts are always tight". Worth checking every couple of months I would say.
Anthiron ·
might go check my nuts before i go fora drive today i think:jesus
one of the threads in my drivers side front drum is only just grabbing with the last little bit to hold that stud nut in but its still in there for now lol. i need new drums.
andrewh ·
Anthiron wrote:might go check my nuts before i go fora drive today i think:jesus
You mean your wheel nuts of course 🙂
Anthiron ·
:party sure........wheel nuts.......
Tyrone-Shoelaces ·
Boozer wrote:
Kroozin_Kikko wrote:had my front left wheel bearings seize whilst on a pizza delivery... was stranded in st andrews after dark for an hour... i ate the pizza
that is the funniest thing I have read this week!:thumb
Not if you knew St Andrews after dark! 😀
jo_tas ·
lmfao
one of my cars i owned (which i'd rather forget about), a HZ Holden sedan, was missing one wheel nut the entire time i owned it... didn't worry me, "It has 4 others anyway" i thought... if my notch was missing one, then i'd worry... 3 isn't enough! and peugeot's are just weird....
ratty 63 ·
...it will normally be the LH drive wheel that comes loose - something to do with the direction of rotation I am told....
Years ago my Mum had the LH rear wheel come loose on my parents 411 sedan - she had had a flat tyre the day before (same wheel) and had the spare put on by some well meaning passer by - it would appear that either he didn't tighten the bolts enough, or didn't ensure that they were correctly seated before tightening them. Thankfully, nothing serious happened as we first heard the wheel coming loose as we turned into our street so we made it home before it came off....Dad was not impressed! Chopped out the bolt holes in the rim a little - nothing too bad.
My Brothers type IV powered '67 beetle had lost the LH rear wheel too (twice!) - the guard is bent where the wheel made its way out from under the car (and some of the suspension parts have flat edges/gravel rash on them!) - the first time was with the previous owner. The second time it wasn't exactly the cars 'fault'.... Take one mid sized box trailer, fill with dirt, attach to back of '67, get too heavy with right foot whilst pulling a U-turn on a wet road (bit too much sideways action), make contact with concrete drain on side of road, brand new brake drum explodes :duh and wheel wanders off by itself. Destroyed the drum (obviously!), brake shoes, backing plate and wheel cylinder. We replaced all of the above on the side of the road - hardest part was getting the nut off the axel....:bounce
R 🙂
72TWINCAB ·
Mine was the LH rear wheel... Im so glad I pulled over before it came off.
zac_smits ·
nah all my nuts are safe and my wheels are stying on the road...
Yogie ·
We were moving house and had a parts car to move. We loaded it with concrete blocks for a retainer wall and other bits and pieces for the move.
I was in the car in front of the tow truck we hired and wondered why he was slowing down. Then I noticed one of the beetles wheels go flying down a steep gully. I had to climb about 300 metres down to get the wheel but not much damage done to the drum or bug. Jacked it up and actually tightened the nuts this time and everything was sweeeeet.
Yogie
GL1972 ·
In 1981 I had a custom Baja with airbrushed artwork all over it. Did some work on it with a mate and fitted up the rear sand tyres. I tightened one side and he did the other (big mistake!). Dirving down a main road 20 minutes later BANG! Car veers violently sideways which I correct just in time to see a 31inch tall sand tyre land from behind me in front of the front bar.
Damage: Ripped off rear guard, bent rear bars, destroyed bottom shock mount and a very smashed up letter box down the road (I got caught grabbing the wheel and had to fix it)
Brendan
pete wood ·
bought some tyres once for beetle. usually a good place, bee real helpful before. drove out the driveway and clunk clunk clunk. went round the next corner and had 30degrees of neg camber on the back wheels. Jacked it up, torqued em up and went back. the guy was real embarressed, someone else was using the rattle gun and he'd just screwed em in a bit.
Oh well, no harm done. :o
mhbourke ·
Going up Bulli pass during a big bush fire bumper to bumper traffic the clutch on my old type3 started to slip so had to turn around. The only car that would let me was VW of course. Tried to sort the clutch ended up saying stuff it lets go have a beer. Further down I was overtaken by my passenger rear rim. My mate in the car behind went down the cliff and bought it back and we put it on, taking 1 nut off the other rims.
Quess I should have tightened them a bit more. Now carry a nice length of pipe which is handly for other situations as well
akean1 ·
three studs?
phantom ·
Not a 'wheel' story but close....
May 89, we were driving from Bundaberg to Brissy in our 76 Kombi, at one part of the journey the missus was driving. She asked me if I could hear a noise, I politely told her this was a VW and was full of a dozen noises! She said she could hear something, but the car was driving OK, so we pressed on, probably stupidly.
We pulled up soon afterwards at a servo for lunch, as we exited and walked towards the building (past the back of the car) I noticed a large scratch indented into the driveway, leading up to the Kombi. Didn't see it when we drove in, so had a look under the back of the car.
Sure enough, the muffler had partially broken at one joint to the extent where it was leaning onto the road but still joined to the main pipes. It had been in contact with the road and left a large trail back up the road as far as we could see, as well as wearing a huge hole in the pipe. At this point some other travellers talked to us, they had been travelling behind and said they had seen a shower of sparks under the car soon before we pulled in.
Wired the muffler back into position with a wire coathanger and got it repaired when back in Brissy, was a bit noisy until then!
helterskelter400 ·
lost my left front wheel just before xmas. lucky it was slowish on a track. stole a few off other wheels, lifted front of buggy onto an obliging mallee root (by myself!!) and refitted wheel.
got some pics & will post when i find them.
funny thing was, on the way out to the tracks i was accell up & down to 90mph to see how she'd go. (90mph on the speedo anyway - 31x10.5Rs on the back throw speedo waay out. there was more left in it but was v twitchy at that speed)
lucky i didnt loose the front wheel then !!
i am very sure to torque the wheels up as soon as i let the jack down now.
squizy ·
....another left rear lost here on my KG. Did some work on it and my mate had only finger tightened ALL of the nuts....lucky didn't lose more. Luckily heard the noise and was just about stopped when it fell up into the guard.
Squiz....
GL1972 ·
Got to watch out for those mates who tighten wheels for you!
Brendan
helterskelter400 ·
helterskelter400 wrote:lost my left front wheel just before xmas. lucky it was slowish on a track. stole a few bolts off other wheels, lifted front of buggy onto an obliging mallee root (by myself!!) and refitted wheel.
got some pics & will post when i find them.
funny thing was, on the way out to the tracks i was accell up & down to 90mph to see how she'd go. (90mph on the speedo anyway - 31x10.5Rs on the back throw speedo waay out. there was more left in it but was v twitchy at that speed)
lucky i didnt loose the front wheel then !!
i am very sure to torque the wheels up as soon as i let the jack down now.
pics
h ·
had a 65 beetle a few years back and it started shakin the steering wheel, pulled over and nearly shat my pants as all the nuts were loose on the left front... very freaky :o