[jd5051]

So I had my rockstars and nittos put on a few weeks ago. I was driving home the night before last and my front right wheel snapped every stud in the rotor off and fell off while i was doing 50. Luckily with the wide rim my break rotor hit the inside of it instead of the road.

It was pretty much best case scenario for that to have happened as ****ty as it was. I was not injured, the truck has fairly minimal damage as far as I can tell.

I called the shop that put them on and they are saying that there is no way that it is their responsibility. He said the only time he has heard of something like that is if one of the lug nuts was left loose and that there was no way they left it loose and it lasted this long. He said the wheel would have fell off with in a mile.

The fact that every stud is ripped off makes me think that they over torqued them and that lead to the wheel falling off. Am I way off here or do I have a valid argument?

Part of the reason I think it was their fault is the fact that I pulled all 4 tires off since they put them on so that I could put on my mini lift. I am not a small person at 200 lbs but im also not the biggest. However my dad and brother-in-law are both pushing 300 and all 3 of us had problems getting the lug nuts off. I ended up having to use a 4 ft cheater pipe on a 4 way lug wrench and still had to put a lot of *** into it to get em off. When I put them back on I used a torque wrench on all 24 lug nuts and made sure they were at specs.

My plan now is to just have it fixed on my insurance and pay the deductible. I am thinking about looking into hiring an attorney and filing a lawsuit over it though. Do I have a case? I have never sued anyone before and am not sure if I even have a leg to stand on with this one.

 

[bbomar]

Sounds like they over torqued them, and twisted the studs enough to last about a week!!

You are on the right track!!

Good luck!

 

[JAG4AU]

You took the wheels of last, and put them back on. I don't think you have much of a case, but what do I know. You should just be glad you didn't total the T, or get hurt.

 

[crash519]

Unfortunately, I think the fact that you removed the wheels/tires since they had put them on excludes them from the liability. If you hadn't touched it and taken it to the dealer or someone else to verify they were overtightened you MIGHT have had a case.

 

[Riverratt]

How long between the time you installed the wheels and the incident?

 

[Pops]

That sucks!!!! Got any pics?? I've seen places with local news stations that have a "In your corner" type sections that deal with consumer related issues like this and pics would help. I would think you could get farther getting on the local news about it or maybe contact the BBB and post out on Angie's List than with a Lawsuit but I could be wrong. :dunno:

 

[jd5051]

I just sold my camera so I do not have pics. The truck is sitting in my yard though so I can use someone elses. I just got off the phone with the insurance. Their claims adjustor is going to investigate it and find out if they are liable or not.

The thing that gets me about me taking the tires off since they put them on is that I never told them I have taken the tires off. They were just quick to jump on them not being responsible.

Oh well the insurance company will take care of it one way or another.

 

[cp.16]

It sounds just like they put them on with and impact gun. I would still go after them, talk to the manager and explain what happen and that you have other people that witnessed how tight they were. It happen to me with one of my studs, they had crossed threaded one and I snapped it off when I tried to remove my wheels and the shop replaced my studs for free.:teethmast

 

[Riverratt]

You may want to check with the wheel mfg for torque specs.

 

[Megw3788]

I would say it's your fault. If the wheels were fine until you took them off and put them back on, in no way should the tire shop be held responsible. If they would've over torqued them the studs would've snapped right when they did it, or when you took the tires back off or put them back on, not waited until you took the tires off and reinstalled them to fall off. Sorry to say it, but this one rides solely on you buddy, time to man up and take responsibility for your actions. Either you overtightened the wheel or undertightened it and it broke the studs.

 

[adamdude04]

If they did over tighten the lugs, the truck would have been fine, until a tire roation or any other service was required that would have the wheels removed. You took the wheels off breaking that line of them being fine. It was bound to happen. Cool thing is, you may have a case if you can get the truck to the dealership and test out the other 3 wheels. If they did it on one wheel, odds are they did it on the other 3.

Glad you're okay though.

 

[Pops]

Here's a "what if" question.....

What if the shop just cross threaded them when they put them on?? Then they would be hard as hell to take off as described. Then when he went to torque them back on, they could've been close to tight and felt tight because of the threads binding, but actually still been a bit loose to where they'd shimmy off.

I mean, if they really did have to be cheated off then the shop obviously f***ed something up. A question I have though, is how the heck do you use a cheater bar on a 4-way??? I use 4-ways all the time and I cannot see successfully using a cheater bar on one. And, considering that I've already busted one of my 4-way ends with just using my hands, I kinda doubt one could hold up the being cheater cranked on. But, that's just blind speculation.

 

[gadget74]

I think the shop over torqued them which made the studs weak.
I don't think you will have much luck proving it though.
I would do like pops said and report them to the BBB and never take your truck back to them.
You might consider replacing all your studs also. If one wheel can do that from being over torqued then they all can.
Good luck!

 

[loufish]

Bad news all around for you...

After finding the first 2 studs that were overtightened, I'd have taken it back to the shop that installed them, gotten the Manager to watch how the rest of the studs came off...

I also agree that replacing ALL the studs is important, once they have a small fracture(as I believe the one that fell off did) you will have more failures...

With no proof of anything.....you know what I'm going to say...:eyebrow:

 

[Country_Boy2493]

My uncle always said he would drive his car till the wheel's fell of. My aunt told me about 3 year's after he said that he was driving down the road and all 4 fell off. That's irony. :lol: Hope you can get it fixed man.

 

[Blackbeauty]

My uncle always said he would drive his car till the wheel's fell of. My aunt told me about 3 year's after he said that he was driving down the road and all 4 fell off. That's irony. :lol: Hope you can get it fixed man.

:lol: You are so full of

I HAVE to call

on this one....

But I'm beginning to understand how this happened to you....

 

[Country_Boy2493]

:lol: You are so full of

I HAVE to call

on this one....

But I'm beginning to understand how this happened to you....

IDK how true it was but it's kinda hard to ask my uncle when he's dead. :huh: It don't sound very likley to me either but it still make's me laugh when I thank about it.

 

[NBhunter80]

To the OP.

This is why you always have to re-torque your wheels after you have them taken off. The nuts could have worked themselves halfway loose and that allowed enough leverage for the rotating wheel to snap the studs right off. Once one snaps, the rest will not be far behind if you keep driving. And as said before, since that happened after you took the wheels off, it is most likely going to be on you to fix it. If they had damaged the studs when they installed the wheels, then you most likely would have noticed when you took the wheels off. I'm glad you are ok and nothing really bad came out of it. Just make sure next time you have the wheels off that you re-torque the nuts after driving about 50 miles.

 

[Quartz]

I used to use my impact wrench on my Titan but after breaking a few studs I'm back to using a torque wrench. The studs on this truck are crappy.

 

[jd5051]

I had a long piece of chain link fence pipe. I put one of the ends of the 4-way that sticks out to the sides when you have it on your lugnut inside the end of the pipe and lifted the pipe up.

The insurance company is going to get it fixed for me. Got a rental till its done. I am going to tell the adjustor that I want all of the studs on the truck looked at.

To the people saying it is all my fault, I never said it wasn't my fault. The reason I started this thread was to find out if I was to blame or not. I am not a tire and wheel expert, I work in the IT field.

I stated why I thought it was their fault. It should never been that difficult to take lug nuts off.

Either way it is being taken care of. Thanks for the input.