Story of my lost wheel

Oh my.......... bet you said, "someone's going to be worried when they find their wheel missing". Oh goodness!

You picked a fine time t leave me loose-wheel :@)
Hey, last time you looked, did they look tight or feel tight???
Had that happen to my van.....around balambi crfeek corner of all places....tried to figure it out for weeks till i spoke to the van shop, he was quite forward, and said it must have been loose...orit wouldnt have fallen off.....
Hope they can fix it without too much folding stuff needed...
Andrew

When was the rim last off the 4by?

Peter, you have just reminded me for what i have not done for quite some time now.I wash them ,i dry them, then dress them, but alway's forget to feel them. A must do on the weekend if they last 'til then, Bob.

I read a similar incident on the patrol4wd forum in yahoo. Same description of the wheel overtaking the vehicle!

They mentioned that the cause may be overtightening of the wheel nuts, then the bolts shear off. I assume this is caused by the use of incorrectly set ratchet gun.

Strewth mate,

Leave you alone for 5 minutes and look what happens...!!!! ;-))

Sorry to read of your dilemma mate. As you said, lucky you didn't have the Ulti on the drawbar at the time. Hope all went well with the rest of your venture into NSW a few weeks ago. It was great to catch up with you, but Annette and I are now "stuck" on warmed-up Stone's Green Ginger...hahahahaha

I recently bought a spare set of front and rear wheel studs for the Patrol, but I'd have to put my thinking cap on in order to work out how to install them. Wouldn't like to be trying to do it on the side of the freeway though!!!

All the best.

Roachie

Yeah this happed to a Work mate the other day sheared one bolt bent another and the other nuts just parted way’s, Last time I let somebody else tighten my wheel nuts up he says.

He just put the rim back on with 3 nuts and is still driving around with it LOL, Fixing it on the weekend.

It was making funny sounds the day before it fell off, but since he had just installed an LSD a few days before just figured he had not shimmed it up right.

The best one I have done was we were driving throe the paddock at a mates farm with the trailer full of firewood, and we looked out the window to see the trailer overtaking us LOL. Must have been having a slow brain day, because I remember thinking that’s funny we don’t have 2 trailers hear, and why is the trailer not attached to a car bleep ! As it crashes into a fence.

Peter,

Glad that you or anyone else was not hurt. Same happened to a work colleague several weeks ago, although it was the rear left on his GU. His investigation seemed to indicate that, for some reason, the correct torque on GU wheel nuts was pretty critical.

Most forumites thought this was BS though, but will be interested to hear the results of your investigation.

Glad you're OK.

Matt.

We didn't actually lose a wheel, but had two studs shear and the remaining four damaged. I have a GU Patrol Sept 03 plate. Alloy wheels. Wheel was changed about 300KM previously due to a flat. The offending wheel had been hanging on the back as a spare since new (about 12 months). Nissan mechanic had no particular advice for me. It was the first one he had dealt with at the time.

Experts on this forum have advised me to:
1. Only tighten nuts with a torque wrench (96 ftlbs)
2. Check the nuts again after driving 20-30 KM

I agree that we were both lucky. Others will report the same problem I am sure. I doubt that Nissan will admit to a problem.

Oh by the way, if your alloy wheel holes are damaged, you can have steel sleeves put in. A new wheel costs over $900.

Kings

This appears to be a common problem with patrol rear wheel studs shearing off. I've seen two examples and I know other people have talked about it on the forum in the past. I'm not sure what causes it, some have suggested over tightening, but I've only heard about it and seen it on the rear of Y61 Patrols so it makes me think it may be something to do with the stud material. Keep us posted if you find out any more.
Regards Jon

We were also overtaken by our rear wheel in an old FJ45 about 26 years ago in North Qld. The axle broke at the flange (semi floating type), so it took the brake drum with it. The brake pedal went to the floor of course.

I'm to this day amazed that it just came to a stop on the side of the road, being dragged to a stop by the rear end dragging.

In those days I used to resurrect old cheapie 4x4s for a bit of a hobby, and she was a pretty tired old thing. When I inspected the damage. I noticed a spot weld at the break, where the flange was attached to the axle shaft. Never figured our why that was done, certainly wouldn't have been factory job.

Brid

Peter,
Sorry to hear what happened mate,
It wont be a recall im affraid mate. I am pretty sure from expierence that the problem was caused by workshop rattle guns on alloy wheels. Rattle guns and alloy rims are a bad combination for any modern vehicle. They can over tighten the nuts to the point where the nut starts to cut into the allow where it sits flush on the taper of the rim...it will be tight at that point, but over time...it will cut loose.
Then gets worse as it rotates. Can take months for it to snap too.
So im trying to say, someone....somewhere, used a rattle gun on your rims. Could have been an apprectice or even a qualified mechanic, or a tyre place. Lots still do it to save time and save them having to get up and grab a breaker bar from their tool box.
P.S. The above can also happen to steel rims. I was assuming yours has alloy ones.
Ange

Peter,

When you checked the nuts how did you do it? I'm thinking that if you gave them a a good swing with a wheel brace just before your failure, you may have overtightened them. I carry a torsion wrench and extended socket just for the wheel nuts these days. The only thing to be aware of is that the torsion wrench will still click off if the nuts have been overtightened, so I guess if someone else has had their hands on your nuts you need to slacken them off and then tighten to spec. The 96 setting is surprisingly "light" to the feel when using the torsion bar. (Admitedly the bar is longer than the supplied Nissan lever so it is easier to use).

I reckon that when I changed the wheel before my failure I really leaned into the brace, partly because of its funny shape and partly because I thought that the harder I did them up the better.

Are you sure that the rogue wheel does not now have distorted holes? At least three of mine were egg shaped. The wheel made clunking noises causing me to pull up. Apparently once one nut comes loose it only takes a short while before the movement that sets in loosens the others. I had lost one nut/stud by the time I pulled up. All the others were loose. I tightened the remaining five and drove 20KM to a garage. By the time I arrived I had lost the second stud/nut. A few more KM and the wheel would have fallen off.
K

I know Nissan vets this site. It would be interesting for their comments. If they've got the balls (or should that be nuts?), to comment.
Ericm WA.

Gday
A couple of weeks back there was a Nissan Patrol Ute tray top in Gladston rd Nth Dandenong with the right hand back wheel off and the nuts were not undone to get it off. Is there something going on? Is this a conspiricy against Patrol Utes?
I hope that we get to the bottom of this .
I must be off to check my back wheels as i am off to Castlemain on Saturday for a coffee or two mixed with red wine and fine food.

Peter:
I am a mechanical engineer (not a mechanic) and can offer a possible cause of your problem. Overtightening of the wheel nuts could cause overstressing of the alloy around the nuts. This would then cause creep which, over a period of time would cause the wheel nuts to become loose. Once loose, the studs are subjected to all sorts of fatigue loading, causing ultimate failure.

The theory of tightening nuts - any nuts - is to take the tension in the bolt to a point which exceeds the fluctuating loads on the bolt. Although the bolt is at a higher load than the fluctuating loads being applied, it only gets the higher loading once and therefore does not fatigue. This is why a minimum tightening torque is specified. The secret is to get it to a point above the applied loads, but not to the point where it causes permanent deformation of the clamped part. This is where steel wheels would be better than alloys - steel is stronger. Steel also exhibits a 'yield' phenomenon whereas alloys do not - the material creeps slowly under load. Moral of the story is to regularly check the tension in your wheel nuts - which is exactly what I am about to go and do. I had not thought of this problem before, so thank you Peter for alerting me to the potential danger.

Tyre services have a lot to answer for!
They tighten wheel nuts to what seems like about 500 ft lbs. There is absolutely no way that they can be loosened with a standard vehicle wheel wrench.
Just ask Truckster!

HI
Not bagging any make or model, have a look at a landy defender wheel studs and you may see what the problem might be!.

Cheers axle.

Peter thanks to you for starting everyone for there comments on a provoking thread. Its got me thinking. I’ll be checking the Wheel Nuts on the Patrol tomorrow Alloy Wheels on a 91 Ti. Think I’ll get the torque wrench out too, Coming from the old steel wheel and cross brace school, may be its time to go back and check up on old habits.

Jugs