muppco

In the past 10 years, I recall maybe only about 8-10 times seeing cars that had broken down out in the middle of a busy road because a wheel came off.

Well, in the past 3 days, I've seen it twice.... 1st was kid with older rwd cutlass (wheel came off hub, maybe lug nuts weren't all tightened down),.... and 2nd was just a few mintes ago on my way home...a young lady, mid 20's, with an suv, late model blazer (looked like broken tie rod).

Just a reminder to be safe and check your lug bolts and suspension periodically.

Black2001S4

I am starting to see this more and more often :-S

jyoteen

I was driving back home from college in Rochester in my Integra RS, loaded up with computer equipment. The route I took from Rochester was 390 South to 17 (Southern Tier Expwy) through Corning to NYS Thruway.

Anyways, back then, 17 used to run straight through downtown Corning and there was a section that was 25mph and a few traffic lights. Sometime around 10 pm, I happened to be passing through Corning and came up on a red traffic light.

The light turned green and I started to accelerate. The car had barely hit 5mph when I heard a loud bang and the front end of my car hit the pavement and came to an abrupt halt. I got out and looked and the front end of the car was resting on top of my tires and I couldn't move the car.

Well, come to find out that the torsion bar that was holding up the front end and connected with the suspension snapped. Had I been going normal highway speeds, I would have surely done an end over end flip since the front of the car would have stopped suddenly.

Check suspension components!

AlanL

A long time ago (late 60's) I was riding in an Oldsmobile cutlass that came to a similar abrupt halt in a turn. The entire brake/hub assembly broke off from the rest of the car and the wheel with all it's mounting hardware went rolling off across the intersection while the car ground into the pavement. From the broken metal that was exposed, it was quite clear that a fracture has been there for a while given some rust in parts of the exposed surface.

The truely scary part is that this car was used to tow my VW bus (with a chain and me behind the wheel of the bus) almost 60 miles on a freeway the day before at 65-70 mph.

I still shudder at the thought of what could have happened.....

muppco

was during an autocross .... a lowly Solo2 in the early eighties at the Sharonville Ford plant north of Cincy. I watched as an aging TR7 roadster took a tight turn and suddenly flipped completely end over end. Turns out, he was running the original stock stamped steel wheels, and they weren't able to take the stresses caused by the sticky R-compound tires. A front wheel had literally ripped off the car, leaving the lugnuts still tightly secured to the car. Fortunately, a good roll bar saved the driver from serious injuries.

ImolaRocket

Started off with a Red '84 Trams Am, then went to a Black '87 Trams Am GTA. Was the worker chairman for both the Cincy SCCA, and the CSCC.