CHECK YOUR NUTS !!!!

It seems like a regular thing, loose wheel nuts after servicing / work. I always check mine once I get home. In their defense though, it sounds like they didn't give you any grief about making things right. Saw a front wheel fall off a Fairlane once while being test driven in a carpark by a brake repairer.

A quick trip around Australia with paid fuel might be the go.

Unbelievable, glad to see everyone was all right Steve.I bet it half gave you a fright. The old nerves would have been shot for the rest of the day. I prefer small workshops where you know who is working on your car. Most likly went to morning tea half way though job, and forgot to finish it of.
Cheers Pete

I am glad no one was hurt I have heard horror stories of dealer servicing no oil or water replaced bolts left undone and faults not fixed.


Many many years ago we towed a largish tinny from Canberra to Brisbane. We stopped for lunch in a small country town and drove on up the Newell highway after lunch.

Just outside Dubbo late on a saturday afternoon we saw a wheel come past the car at high speed.

We soon realized it was the wheel from our trailer as we slewed to a stop beside the road.

From inspection and deduction someone had attempted to steal our anunger mag wheels off the trailer while we had lunch. they could not undo the lock nuts so they had left the wheel on the trailer.

Several hundred KM down the road the bolts has worn through and one wheel came adrift.

The odd part of the whole incident was that Anunger mags use specific nuts to hold them in place we had lost most of our wheel nuts thanks to the attempted theft.

The first person to stop to help went to his tool box and pulled out 6 new anunger nuts that he had been carrying for several years for no reason at all!

The next coincidence was we drove into dubbo late on Saturday night on sunday morning we drove past a trailer repair shop that was open they had come down to do some work on sunday morning so could supply us with replacement bolts for the ones that had sheared off and let us use their tools to replace the bolts.

This allowed us to resume our trip the same day.

The chances of this happening were just amazingly remote.

We blew a motor in the heritage listed paj up in the barossa and were towed to a holden dealership in a larger town by the RAA. Since it was there we got them to install the new motor.

The first pick up only lasted 5km down the road when there was a loud bang under the bonnet followed by a choof choof choof sound. We lifted the bonned to see number 3 plug hanging from it's lead. It turned out that the apprentice had been pressure testing the pots and left the conical adapter in number 3 then wound the spark plug into that - it was only holding by a thread.

The following week we tried again. On the way back to Adelaide we noticed it was hunting on idle. Back home I checked for a loose cable connection and found that not one bolt or nut was done up tight under the bonnet - mounting bolts, belt tensioners, cables, accessories etc. All were on only finger tight.

The third time we picked it up it went straight to my regular mechanic for a full check up and finally this time it was done right - well it hasn't fallen out in the last 4 years anyway.

Pete

Gday. We can sympathise. Years ago wife had a Cortina in for service. Next day she drove it 20k to work and the oil light came on on the way home. Thats right no oil. The mechanic WAS a mate of mine. Denied responsibility, said the apprentice MIGHT have done it. Now do ALL my own servicing. Crook when you cant trust the professionals and/or your mates.

Stephen M

While on my way home one day recently, I crested a rise to be confronted by two wayward wheels and a white sedan fishtailing its way across the road in front of me.
The sedan ended up backwards of my side of the road.
The lady driver had just had her car serviced and had just pulled onto the road.
No injuries or major damage that goodness.

I believe this might have been said before but YOU MUST check EVERYTHING (fluids, nuts, filters, pressures, etc) whenever you have your vehicle serviced by someone that YOU don't know. Despite the fact that there are some service centres that have reasonably well trained and enthusiastic staff who know their stuff, unfortunately there are just to many of the opposite who either don't care or just don't know.
You should be able to place enough trust in the staff (and their supervisor) at workshops so that you don't have the slightest doubt as to the standard(s) of their workmanship.
I have experienced similar when picking up a vehicle from dealer after service. NO oil whatsoever in the sump. Luckily I checked it before driving off. Something that I always do after every service.

Hi Steve,
Very lucky not to be more serious.
I know we all make mistakes, but come on when it comes to things like this, some one has to be held responsible. They do have a duty of care. I bet it was an apprentice unsupervised.
Happened to a mates Suburban at a tyre shop. Travelled 40km's home only to find the nuts were finger tight on all four rims. The shop denied any wrong doing. $1600 worth of tyres and they say it not their fault. As you'd expect he does not deal with them, nor do I and we will tell anybody who cares to listen.
And there is nothing you can do about.
Just glad to hear nobody was hurt.

Even the so called prestige end of the market has problems. Local Porsche dealer responsible for a mate's engine seizing due to oil leaking out after service, and my back wheel nearly falling off after picking it up from service. I've never gone back.

Locking tabs on hubs not replaced after Lexus service resulted in front wheel nearly coming adrift.

Its not as if these people are pressured by costs etc - they charge top dollar- it should be perfect.

The dealership must be passing around the brown trou wondering about being sued etc. Good to come out of it uninjured though.
I have always struck the overtightened mode - where two heavy adults jumping on an extreme wheelbrace can't budge them because the service guy (not a mechanic by any definition) used his Super V8 nut rattler to wind them on. Mazda have only done this to me once, and never again after I threatened to take a rattle gun around their staff carpark and attend to their vehicles nuts.
Considering that having wheels staying attached to a vehicle is a major safety issue, there is absolutely no excuse. It's easy for us strong hairy types (well skip the hairy in my case) to check when we get home, but not an easy task for a woman only half our size and weight.
cheers
T.R.

My tale in this vein was that having decided to go with a local tag along tour company, who also work in close with a 4WD service mob, we elected to have the 40,000 K service done by them on our 2004 TD6 (which at that stage was just over than 2 years old) so we would all know the thing was in good nick; which it most assuredly was.

After picking up the TD6, and handing over the $, I swung out onto the road and made my way towards the traffic lights. An application of the brakes resulted in nothing more than my foot and the brake pedal finding the bulkhead and the TD6 sailed majestically through the lights; only to be stopped some 100 or so metres down the road by my riding it along the gutter and finding a small tree that I could lean the thing on to stop forward progress. As you’d expect, I sat for a while contemplating all that had occurred in that space of time, and the damage that more than 2 tonnes of metal could do had I not been at the front of the queue. When I had recovered and put my heart back in, I put it into 1st and went across the road and the median strip thing and made my way back to the service mob. Conclusion? The three mechanics prescribed failed master cylinder!

I doubted this as the TD6 was in mint condition, so elected to roll it gingerly to the Nissan dealer a couple of buildings down the road. A very helpful service manager, who could see the stressed state I was in, immediately sent out a search party for strong coffee and the TD6 was promptly rolled away, only to be returned in less than ½ an hour with the news that the brakes had been bled and the truck was right as rain! Apparently caused during wheel bearing re-pack it seems.

I was in no mood to drive the truck in peak hour traffic, and asked them to look over the thing with the 40,000 service in mind. They came back with a list of things that clearly had not been done and showed me all of it at some length. I left it with them, and made my way VERY gently to work in the loaned Nissan they insisted I take.

On picking up the TD6 later that day, I forked out a very little amount of money for the considerable work they did, and walked back to the other mob up the road with the written report from Nissan. They said little, beyond a comment that they firmly believed it to be an issue with the master cylinder but refunded the money and we parted company. It may not surprise members to learn that my wife and I did not go on the tag along tour, but did a similar trip on our own in the TD6 and had an absolute ball in the process.

Moral of my story? I am happy to continue taking the TD6 back to the Nissan dealer who looked after me so well and the relationship with them remains very good. They appear to me anyway to go to some lengths to make sure the truck is well looked after. I have no problem at all with paying for the good consistent service from them. Eighteen months later, the truck has 67,000 on it and they still remember me whenever I go there to have oil change or services. I should add that the original brakes are still on the truck. Not all dealers can be tarred with the same brush, and bouquets are in many cases not provided when due!

Regards…..Len

Our son started a apprenticeship at a dealer workshop and he was instructed on his first day to do the car services. His instruction was to fill the engine oil to the minimum mark only as this saved just over a litre of oil on each service. With 40 a day it added to the bottom line of the company. Needless to say he quit there after a week and advised TAFE of the reason and was relocated to another more honest dealership.

is it a Mitsi?

Pays to check your nuts after getting a service !!!!!!. Regards Steve M

I always check mine, the prices they charge I am lucky to get out of the shop with them intact.

The problem is the poor apprentice will get blamed for this!

Many years ago when I did my electrical apprenticeship, it was common place for the tradesman to check eveything the apprentices did until trust was established.
Having worked in the RAAF for almost 23 years, there is no way a trainee or in fact a tradie can perform work without an in inependent inspection being done. I thought this was the place of the service manager and/or foreman in a workshop so, ultimately, any of these servicing issues (including no oil, brakes, etc) should be blamed on the quality management of the workshop.
Before I bought my TD Prado I used to do all my own servicing. I took it to Toyota a couple of times but now have a reliable local mechanic. Small local business, 3 tradies and a reputation they want to keep. I get good, honest service at a reasonable price. Many dealerships are about quantity, not quality and make their money thorugh the (misguided) customer belief that a dealer must service your car when it is under warranty.

Know how you feel a few years back we had some new tyres fitted to our beloved HSV and when travelling along the hwy we heard a terrible noise coming from the front of the car when we pulled over the front right hand wheel nuts had all come loose. After checking all the wheel nuts on all the wheels we noted that they were all loose. we were a little fortunate than you that the wheel didn't actually come off.
We went back to the tyre dealer and insisted that the stud bolts and the wheel nuts be replaced and a crack detection done on all the mag wheels.
When we got it back we checked it again, low and behold the wheel nuts were still loose (what does it take these days to get a decent service on your valuable Goods)
Cheers Viv