Dodged a bullet

Heard a slight knocking when out saturday afternoon, it got worse quite quickly whilst I was thinking about limping home.
Decided not to when it started graunching.
Fearing the worst,I parked it safely and decided I couldn't be bothered to wait a couple of hours for Green Flag so went for a pint in a local pub just down the road and got a taxi home.
Phoned green Flag Sunday morning , the wife dropped me off, ten minutes later he turned up and all it was was loose wheel nuts on the front nearside. No damage done thank god.
I can't remember who had the wheel off last, so bit of an odd one really.

I had it happen to me, hard to describe the noise it makes, mine came off as i was pulling out onto a busy road thankfully the wheel went sideways and the body just rolled onto it. Just sheared off the bolts but no real harm.

Close call!,

Glad it was sorted quickly, easily and safely.

I'll just re-check mine this weekend...

Regards

MM

Close call there,I always check every 3 months with the torque wrench,
You never know.

I check mine very regularly, had one come loose and didn't understand why. Then it was happening regularly but that seemed to be with a particular set of wheels which were powder coated and nice and smooth - so regularly that when competing with the car at the hillclimb I needed to tighten them after every run (less than a mile), particularly if I'd run over the kerb. Changed to a different set of wheels and much less issue now. I do have a stud conversion kit which I got from Joe at FCSS which should cure the issue fully when I have chance to fit them.

i had one come off at donnington a few years back.... turned to go around a corner.... wheel went one way....the car went the other way

I wouldn't have thought that it would. It's the head/seat interaction of the bolt that holds it tight, not the thread. I'd check that the fasteners are the correct length as that can cause havoc. I'd also check that the hub face is clean and flat. Lastly, you might just have a thermally driven creep.

What I have is a set of wheel bolts that have done over 200k miles! Pretty sure it must have been the head/seat interaction as the problem has basically gone away with a different set of wheels, although the wear on the bolts is probably part of the problem. New nuts with the stud conversion should sort that.

Hopefully they do fix it entirely. But wheel bolts don't wear as such. They work or they fail, there's not really a middle ground. Replacing 200k bolts can only be a good thing, but I do think you need to consider what I've said. The fact that they can still come loose and you haven't snapped a bolt suggests that there's more to investigate.

As I said initially, with a different set of wheels I haven't had an issue but I do still check them regularly! The wheels have been on and off a lot - quite apart from 200k miles the hillclimbing means regular changes and I used to have a set with winter tyres so probably a lot more changes than most cars have. The seats do look slightly polished on the bolts so possibly part of the issue I had with very slippery finish on a set of wheels.