Well, took the Coop down to Matty at Wallace Performance Aberdeen for a health check. Set off at 6am to beat the traffic. Drat I can hear grinding, stopped three times to check, nothing obvious. Halfway there the bloody front passenger wheel comes off. Holy shoot I say out loud. Thought the Coop was a goner but managed to pull in a farm entrance.

Now the fun begins, trying to get the tools out of the boot. I have a sub box in there, (not any more). Pissing with rain Half an hour later the wheel was back on. The ratchet wasn't working properly either. Lucky I had spare bolts.

Great service from Wallace by the way. Back home two hundred & odd miles later....Seems like it was a dream, the adrenalin kept me going I think. My confidence is well shot at the moment.

I had this happen on my first Coupe about 30-40mph; amazingly no damage apart from one sheared wheel bolt. Mine was passenger wheel as well. A careful drilling out and a helicoil later car was good to go. A scarey experience and something I have been paranoid about ever since...

Reading through other posts on the forum it seems worryingly an all to common occurrence on these cars...

Happened to me, scary as fccuk. Was doing some 100 leptons on the A55 just moments before. Luckily we were doing just 30 at the time. It's all down to the hubs which are made out of chocolate and the threads strip too easily. For a near as dammit 160MPH car, it's not good enough.

So what was the reason for the wheel coming off?
Lucky escape by the way

No I don't agree Matt, it is more down to poor maintainence practices with people overtightening wheel bolts.

Like mario at donnington very very lucky.

I think most of it is down to loose wheel bolts.

Am just double checking mine now lol.

Actually I've done a bit of digging & indeed the over tightening of said bolts can lead to this. My wife who is an avid reader has read about this over tightening as well.
Mmmm food for thought.

Just for the record I was doing about 50mph slowing down all the time. First thoughts was a bearing.

Very Lucky. I had this happen with my old twin axle transit, Went in for a service and a couple of new tyres at a well known nationwide garage. I drove less than 15 miles and as i was passing a local quarry my back wheel merrily rolled past me... The eejit's had torqued the outer wheel onto the inner but the inner wheel to hub bolts were just finger tight. Strangely, i've never taken any of my cars there since.

I had this happen as well.

Was going round a corner when it happened. Passenger wheel went about 250yds into a field. Lol.

I needed to replace my hub flange and my wheel bolts.

Made me feel safe driving the car knowing it had been done.

Ross

Happened to me too though driver side, shortly after an in situ cambelt change, can't prove it but think they didn't tightened the nuts. New flange and nuts.
Was 'lucky' as just pulling out of a junction, the wheel got trapped under the arch so no chance to damage much.

As you know it happend to me at donnington Not a nice thing Replace all your bolts with brand new ones from fiat. For the sake of £45/50 its worth it

Not much point though, if the threads are already stripped in the hub, as the new bolts will still have nothing to thread into.

Sorry to hear what happened jimboy and glad you're ok

Glad this didn't cause any more than your palpitations Jim

is it the front hub flange that go? or does both the front and rear hub flange go?

just thinking after reading up on this and after spending over £300 on suspension parts it might be worth changing theses as well? at only £25 each flange

When you've had the wheel of aren't you meant to re-check the bolts after a undred miles or so?

OK I've a question, I've tried digging but can't find an answer. Can you just change the front hub flange only, or do you need a new bearing as well?

My body & brain both hurt at the moment so can't think properly. Thanks to all that have posted.

I wonder if it would be possible to develop some kind of plastic indicator. Perhaps it could be held in place by the wheel bolt. Then it would change it's position should a bolt work loose. I thought of some kind of green circular thingy but it would be difficult to tell it had changed position oh well back to the drawing board

You can change the hub flange seperately from the bearing.

Ross

why not just buy a good used hub from Joe (CC)?

I would reckon postage plus the part would be £30ish?

Pretty sure brand new flange is £40 delivered (ish) and you get ultimate peace of mind!!

Ross

well, its £42ish for a new hub..

its neither here nor there.

then add a bearing onto it and a carrier..

soon adds up!

Why change the bearing?

Ross

change every thing.
if im correct, the hub face sit into the bearing..

It's only the flange threads that were slightly damaged, amazingly nothing else.

Lucky escape for you (and Coupe). Good luck getting the hub replaced.