Eldest son was driving along
Reid Hwy 2 days ago, and saw a GQ patrol ute run off the road into the sand and the driver slump over the wheel.
Thinking he might need
first aid or an ambulance maybe - he pulled over to assist - only to find an elderly couple from
Geraldton in a heap of strife.
Their left hand front wheel had parted company with the vehicle and run off up the
embankment into the scrub - not to be found. (Couple hundred meters west of the Alexander street intersection lights).
Worse - the bottom quarter of the steel brake rotor was worn completely away where it had skidded for 250 meters along the highway, before pulling off the road and burying itself into the sand.
Struggle as they may they couldn't get a jack under the vehicle to get it back up off the ground.
Son caled me to go get our trolley jack from bro in laws place and bring it around to help out!
When I got there - a kind tow truck operator with a tilt tray had also stopped and used his tilt tray to lift the front of the vehicle sufficient to get a spare onto the studs - which surprisingly were all still intact - just the wheel nuts missing!
(I've read of many cases of nissans shedding all their wheel studs).
It turns out they had had a flat tyre on their old sunraysia rims and wide tyres and decided to get all "new" tyres and rims from an add in the quokka.
The seller turned out to be a tyre dealership nearbye.
They swapped the 4 rims and tyres over for the buyer - putting the "new" ones on the vehicle and the 4 old ones in the rear tray!
When we got the "spare" back on the front wheel, we checked all the wheel nuts (we had had to rob the 4 nuts off the other 3 wheels to replace those lost) and found the RH front drivers wheel with all nuts loose and hanging on by 3 or 4 turns of thread at most!
Quite clearly - the tyre dealership,who sold them the rims and tyres had forgotten to tighten the wheel nuts on BOTH front wheels at all - they were only put on finger tight to get them started and never hit with the rattle gun to tighten them afterwards.
This accounts for how one front wheel fell off and the other was badly loose.
Damage to the Nissan, was one disc brake rotor destroyed, the steering rod bent a little, the U bolts securing the axel to
the springs half worn thru etc.
One wonders who is then "responsible" for the damage to the vehicle, the missing wheel & tyre etc?
The fact it was a tyre dealership selling "near new" / second hand tyres and rims" in the Quokka magazine.... does that absolve them of any responsibility / liability, for subsequent damage to the vehicle, when the swap job wasn't performed properly?
Interesting incident - turns out the poor old guy was slumped over the wheel saying a prayer of thanksgiving he and his wife werent killed after losing a front steering wheel at 90kph!
It was amazing how much brake rotor was lost - worn away on the road. It will have to be replaced because if he applies the brakes when that part of the missing rotor is aligned with the disc pads they will likely fall clean out!
Guy did
well to control it IMHO
Least it wasn't another case of the dreaded Nissans shedding wheel studs!
Cheers