GU Patrol alloy wheel losses

Hi Peter,

Hasn't happened to me, but I came across an 03 4.8 Nissan Ti with its LH rear wheel missing at Easter. He had been doing ~80km/hr and from the gouge in the road it would have been a fatal accident if anything had been coming the other way (Denmark - Mt Barker Rd).

Anyway, his alloys were aftermarket and he had his tyres balanced and rotated ~400kms earlier. One stud had sheared and the remaining 5 were bent and worn, along with panel damage when the wheel came off. The brake disk had at least a 1cm flat spot and we couldn't find the wheel anywhere!!! There was no 3G phone range, but my NextG had signal and he was able to organise recovery via the RAC.

Interesting that the wheels had been off ~400kms earlier and most likely rattled back on. But whats different than "normal" is that these were aftermarket alloys, not sure if the nuts were originals or matched to the rim. But it was obvious the nuts had come off as 5 of the 6 studs were still present.

Cheers

Captain

I've not had the problem but on an outback trip last year one of our fellow travellers checked the nuts every day on his Patrol and invariable there would be at least a couple that had loosened. Even on days when we were going very slowly across country they loosened!