flick2614
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So the driver side wheel of my 2021 Rubicon came off today, not while sitting in the driveway or on a difficult trail or even slightly fast on a dirt road. On the freeway doing 70 mph, felt like I hit a large pothole, the Jeep dropped, I looked up to see my 37” Nitto Trail Grappler cruising in the lane next to me. Made it to the shoulder on the brake rotor, watched the wheel roll down the highway hoping and praying it didn’t hit anyone. Must have been a sight to see from behind. Wife in the passenger seat screaming, 11 month old baby in the back giggling and smiling.
So speculation on the cause: I took the wheel off months ago to install a fender liner. I know I torqued it, 2k-3k miles since, decent off-road and dirt miles in between. There were some scratches on the brake light bracket on the spare so second possibility is someone got the lug nuts loose and took off before they could steal the wheel.
Question to the forum: is it all common to see lug nuts loosen to the point of this catastrophic of a failure outside of the possible causes listed?USER=13530]@JeepCares[/USER] is this a known issue?
Another possibility: the aftermarket wheels (Methods) are hypothetically not hub-centric: does the combo of non-centric wheels on a hub-centric vehicle result in this failure?
Edit for update: Damage caused is Brake Rotor, Hub, dust guard thingy, Fender and a little bit of buffing where the tire contacted the body and door hinge. Oh yeah, tire and wheel are unrecoverable as well; don’t ask me why.
Total $2500 with the majority being the tow because the insurance company drug their feet and the fender coming from the dealer.
Talked to Method: their weigh in is OEM lug nuts installed on their wheels. Replaced all lug nuts with Methods. Shop and I collaborated on an overall assessment; the wheel that left the chat had a new tire on it. The other 4 tires were about 1/3 through the tread. We surmised that the jeeps wheels are touched about every 2500 miles through either a DIY service or something in the shop. Me having a new born pushed the service interval closer to 4K miles since the wheels have been touched. We assumed the combo of a tire with more tread than the others and the wrong lug nuts combined with an extended service interval caused the problem.
Btw I have Progressive and will be dropping them like an ugly one night stand tomorrow because of their service. Their adjuster no showed on my shop twice, when he did show his lack of knowledge/generally being a jackass almost got him slapped by the service manager, a good friend of mine.
So speculation on the cause: I took the wheel off months ago to install a fender liner. I know I torqued it, 2k-3k miles since, decent off-road and dirt miles in between. There were some scratches on the brake light bracket on the spare so second possibility is someone got the lug nuts loose and took off before they could steal the wheel.
Question to the forum: is it all common to see lug nuts loosen to the point of this catastrophic of a failure outside of the possible causes listed?USER=13530]@JeepCares[/USER] is this a known issue?
Another possibility: the aftermarket wheels (Methods) are hypothetically not hub-centric: does the combo of non-centric wheels on a hub-centric vehicle result in this failure?
Edit for update: Damage caused is Brake Rotor, Hub, dust guard thingy, Fender and a little bit of buffing where the tire contacted the body and door hinge. Oh yeah, tire and wheel are unrecoverable as well; don’t ask me why.
Total $2500 with the majority being the tow because the insurance company drug their feet and the fender coming from the dealer.
Talked to Method: their weigh in is OEM lug nuts installed on their wheels. Replaced all lug nuts with Methods. Shop and I collaborated on an overall assessment; the wheel that left the chat had a new tire on it. The other 4 tires were about 1/3 through the tread. We surmised that the jeeps wheels are touched about every 2500 miles through either a DIY service or something in the shop. Me having a new born pushed the service interval closer to 4K miles since the wheels have been touched. We assumed the combo of a tire with more tread than the others and the wrong lug nuts combined with an extended service interval caused the problem.
Btw I have Progressive and will be dropping them like an ugly one night stand tomorrow because of their service. Their adjuster no showed on my shop twice, when he did show his lack of knowledge/generally being a jackass almost got him slapped by the service manager, a good friend of mine.
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