This morning while driving to Lowes I heard a few thumps in my front end. I slowed down and the noise went away. A mile or two later I heard it again in the front passenger side. Again I slowed down and the noise went away and did not come back when I accelerated. I could see Lowes and then there was a thunk and the rear driver side dropped, I began to slow and then the driver rear side dropped dramatically and my rear driver tire (37x13.5 Toyo) rolled by my front window and across three lanes of traffic. The good news is that no one was hurt, but I was not happy about the whole thing.

So my question is why did this happen??

Here is the background info as it relates to the tire and maintenance

August - I installed my Toyos (with my lift) and black Pro Comp spline lug nuts (to match the black rims). I specifically asked not to get spline lugs because I had heard about the keys breaking, but that's what I was shipped.

October - I was in Pennsylvania (with my 9 month pregnant wife) and my clutch burned up causing me to need to trailer the jeep home 300 miles. In order to trailer it I needed to remove the wheels. 2 Lugs in the key broke (I was really pissed), luckily I had my old lugs and put 2 on and drove over the fenders of the trailer.

December - Bought 2 Spline keys and decided to switch back to the OEM lugs for the winter as I was worried about the Pro Comps rusting, seizing and breaking more spline keys.

Yesterday - I rotated my tires and replaced the spline lugs with the OEM. As always I tightened them down in the air until they were snug. Then lowered the jeep and tightened all of the nuts alternating clockwise until all of them were tight (I'm 6'5" tall and 300#, they were tight).

Today - After putting the runaway tire back on, with the spline lugs because the OEM were gone, I checked all of the other wheels and most of them were loose too. Loose to the point that I could spin them by hand. WTF!! So I went to Lowes (25 yards up the road) and bought a 19mm socket, extension and 1/2" socket driver and tightened all of them down in the parking lot. I drove home slowly, and jacked the jeep up and re-tightened all of the lugs in the air and then again on the ground.

So my question more specifically is: How did 5 lug nuts come loose in less then 10 miles and then catastrophically fail causing my wheel to come off??

Could the Pro Comp lugs have damaged the studs causing the OEM to loosen/slide off? Has anyone else had an issue like this??

Also when the tire came off it broke my rear fender (maybe some ACE tube fenders will be coming in the mail soon)

Thanks for any insight

BP

 

My first thought is vandalism. Someone, for some reason, is tampering with your Jeep. Lug nuts do not magically get loose once they are torqued to PROPER spec. So.. who wants you dead? Who did you piss off? Is your wife wanting insurance money?



My wheels came with instructions to use 85-95 ft/lbs of torque on the lugs, I do an even 100 just to be on the safe side. A torque wrench is a must.

 

Wow! Glad your ok. Ten miles? I usually recheck mine after 50 (one day of going to work) after a tire rotation and they've never loosened. Are your lugs stripped?

Have you over torqued them? Thus stripping the teeth?

 

Same thing happened to a friend of mine years ago with a Chevy Step Side after we lifted it and put on 36's. Being 6'4" & 300# myself, I know the wheels on that Chevy were tight also.
It was about a week later that he found all the lugs either loose or missing. The only conclusion we came to is that someone must've tried to steal the wheels/tires.

On a side note - after re-tightening the wheels, several of the studs broke off. Presumably this was due to the wheels bounding around on them while loose. As a precaution - we ended up replacing all the studs - front & back.

 

Do OEM lugs have the same angle as the ProComps? I mean, are they even compatible w/ aftermarket wheels?

FWIW, my routine is:

- give the stud and lug angled surface a light smear of anti-sieze

- torque in crossing pattern to 100 lb-ft

- after one day of driving, retorque to 96 lb-ft

- after one more day of driving, retorque to 96 lb-ft

BTW, my black spline drives were rusty piles in a year. I'm using Gorilla lifetime lugs now.

One more thing, since my aftermarket wheels aren't hub centric, I try to torque them with them in the air, if practical.

 

All great feedback. I thought vandalism too, with all of them being so loose. We live in a nice area and there was nothing missing this morning. My grille, propane tanks, 5 spare tires stacked behind my jeep, nothing was touched. Not to mention there are motion sensor lights and my 80# Doberman roaming the house that didn't make a noise last night and I know she was sleeping in the back and would have heard something.

The only difference in the routine was that my 1/2" 19mm socket broke so I didn't use the impact wrench. Because of this I made sure I tightened the lugs hard by hand.

The pro comp lugs are JK matched and shouldn't be an issue. I always hand thread them tight before ever using a tool to avoid cross threading and haven't seen any signs of over torquing when I inspected the lugs. I always tighten in the air. The Toyos and rims weigh over 100# so I make sure they seat down before weighting them.

I'm pissed about the damage, but more concerned about why it happened and what to do in the future to avoid this happening again.

Thanks everyone for their feedback.

 

Just a thought. Did you just use an air gun. Because your compressor could have been set wrong or to low. Or even shut off. Not saying your stupid but happened to a friend but his gun was leaking bad and was set low so he didn't even get close to 80ftpounds

 

My 1/2" 19mm socket broke loosening the lugs, so I couldn't use my 1/2" impact wrench. Everything was tightened by hand, but I have had that happen before. Good thought.

 

Wow sorry that happened. I experienced the same thing once on a TJ....only instead if the wheel passing me it was the wheel and axle...anyways I hate to say it but it sounds like vandalism to me as well. The chances of 5 lugs being loose to where they can be moved by hand is VERY unlikely unless you had 5 stripped studs when you installed the tires last...which you would have known. Do you park it in the garage? It would take someone 30 seconds to loosen 5 lugs...

 

No garage, too tall. It was probably someone trying to steal my tires. Just odd that 5 stacked rims and tires 5 ft away weren't touched. Not to mention that almost all of the were loose. Like all 20 of them were loose. Someone put some time into trying to get them off. They probably realized they need a bigger jack to get them off.