Patrol wheel fell off? Pictures.

The best preventive is tight wheel nuts (also the cheapest)
It seems to happen only with the alloy wheels, so tightening them with a torque wrench to the correct specification and re-checking after a run should really fix it.

And you will probably find that Warranty would not cover it as it is the drivers responsibility to check wheel nuts.

Would be ironic if that was the test one from FTG just down the road , and it could be!

My solution Dave is just to check the wheel nuts before each trip, and I stay away from alloy wheels.
It does help that I change the wheels sets often and in the process I do occasionally find a loose wheel nut.

Hi Dave,

I assisted a guy who's Patrol had also lost its RHS rear wheel. It had aftermarket alloys and had been serviced some ~400kms earlier. From what I have seen/read/heard, its due to minuet amounts of dirt/sand/mud between the rim and hub. When the crap works its way out, the nuts are now slightly loose and thus eventually the wheel falls off as the nuts loosen further.

While all vehicles have this issue, the Patrol hub design does seem to be more prone to it. Nothing like a check 50-100kms after a wheel change to minimise the problem.

Cheers

Captain

This can also happen with steel rims after removal and refitting, it does pay to re-torque the wheel nuts after a few ks.
This should be done with an accurate torque wrench.
Ray

Geocacher, you state;

'How many times does this have to happen to people before there's a recall on Patrols?'

Has this happened before?

How can Nissan rectify loose wheel nuts?

I had it happen to a friend near Barcaldine.
Had been to a tyre place and within 200Km he lost the right rear. I do not think they ever found it!

It always seems to involve a tyre place or after a service so I wonder if the centre spigot is too tight , or whether it is easier to "jack" the wheel in place with the surface not fully engaging the hub than in other cars.
Regards Philip A

It is not just Patrols, I had a Cortina with alloy rims where one of the wheels came off left hand rear.
Saw a landcruiser troopie with alloy wheels on the great central road with a rear wheel gone. All his wheel studs were within 2 metres of one another.
Seems to happen more on Patrols for some reason though.
I believe the problem is, and it has been discussed here is, when the wheels get put on with a rattle gun, the holes in the wheels start getting elongated as alloy is a very soft metal.
I do not like to take any vehicles out in those areas with alloys as if you do bend a rim then it can not be repaired easily, where as a steel rim can be hit with a sledge and it is all good.
peter

One would imagine that as the wheel worked loose there would be some sort of vibration happening and that the driver would check it out and not keep driving.
I recall being on a tag-a-long trip when I was a novice and one of the other participants had a "strange noise". So I walked along beside the vehicle and it was a loose rear wheel. That was 20+ years ago but guess what make of vehicle it was - yep Nissan. Probably just co-incidence.
Ever since I've regularly checked my wheel nuts when travelling.
Cheers fom the Moose

Happy to me in our work Patrol. Torque setting has to be right. I believe the series 4 mags now have a steel sleeve inserted in the alloys now to prevent any issues with overtightening. Ours fell off approx 12 months ago and this was an alteration that was going to be made or had been made recently to address it. We still run the 16 inch rims on our new vehicle so I can't check it for you. Might be woth a phonecall to Nissan though,
Ben

i work with a flrrt service mob , sub contract to fit out emegancy vehichles that are changed over at around 50000k's .tyhey have 30+ nissans with the same problem.

gday guys

saw the exact same thing on the side of the pacific hwy @ coffs harbour Friday afternoon.
couldnt see his wheel though,probably still going scrub bound,cheers.
PS.....same model Patrol too. :-(

Okay. I know it's wheel nut related, but it seems that Patrols seem to be over represented in the stats here. If something is over represented statistically there's often another reason for it.

Maybe therefore it's design related.

IF, and I do say IF it's design related then they should be looking at a cause and a recall.

It's far more prevalent than some safety issues with other vehicles that have been recalled, and more dangerous.

Dave

Some interesting additional insight and some bonus solutions...

Happened to a Patrol I rented from Hertz 2 years ago. It had also had a puncture and wheel replaced about 100 kms previously.

Car shed it's tyre at low speed (as they often do due to cf force) part way down a fairly windy and steep gravel road (Majors Creek Mountain Road near Braidwood if you know it).

Hertz sent low-loader with replacement (Ford Courier!) who arrived pretty quickly as it was Australia Day! Drove the low-loader down and swapped them over! Impressive driving.

We had a ball waiting for it to arrive at the Majors Creek pub which had great food, great beer and great staff.

Back to the point...
I have also had it happen in a Mitsy Triton soon after having new tyres.

There is also a thread on the AusJeepForum about it happening v soon after a roadworthy test inc tyre removal.

So for those that believe there is some statistical significance against Nissan in the reports here, they are sadly mistaken. It barely scrapes as a trend for investigation at present. The more obvious correlations seem to be with alloy wheels and recent refit.

Since I know everyone here is about finding a solution and not whinging about the problem ;) the best solutions from looking around the web are:

Use the correct nuts for your wheel type (differs I believe between alloy and steel)
Be more cautious about alloy wheels after refit - check them 50 kms after refit.
Remind yourself / your fitter about under *and* over-torquing which is as bad.
Consider those plastic wheel arrows (or a less obvious marker if you're precious) as seen on larger trucks and buses - you can see if the blighter has moved as it shows you!

As you were,

Tim