When something falls off

[RobFrost]

You know when you're driving along and you hear that clunk on the floor or wheel arch, hear something metallic bouncing down the road, and wonder what fell off. Does that happen to other people too, or just me? If so, do you stop and look what it might have been?

[Ian Comerford]

Wow, both fell of at the same time, was that a pit stop error?

[jb]

I once had an early vw beetle with hubcaps and after I had changed a wheel I heard an odd noise to two and stopped to check and a couple of the wheel nuts had come off and were in the hubcap.

[32FlatSix]

I built a beach buggy before I had a licence and my dad took it out for the first time with myself in the passenger seat and a large mechanic in the back. As we drove ( somewhere in the Black country , I can't remember exactly where ) we saw a wheel come past us and realised it was one of ours from the rear. The buggy was travelling reasonably level still because the high weight mechanic happened to be on the opposite side to that from which the rear wheel came! I bought a torque wrench soon after that.

[Bootsy]

I did something similar in an old Cal Look Beetle I built. Did a bit of pre MOT work, drove to MOT appointment only to lose a wheel on route on one of the busiest routes in Norwich at rush hour.

Blagged a jack and brace from a nearby pub (who used to have a Beach Buggy parked in the car park) and borrowed a wheel bolt from each wheel to pop the wheel back on, drive directly to somewhere where I knew they'd sell them, pop them on and still made the MOT appointment

[Lightweight_911]

.

There seems to be a common 'Beetle' link here !!

My first ever car was a '55 Beetle bought for £30 just after I'd passed my test when I was 17.

Somebody persuaded me that it would be a good idea to 'reverse' the rear wheels - ie mount them with the outer face against the brake drums thus giving greater offset

Needless to say, with a dangerously marginal contact area between the wheel & drum, the wheelnuts didn't tighten properly resulting in one of the rear wheels coming off & overtaking me going down a long local hill ...

I spent half an hour retrieving the wheel & searching unsuccessfully for the missing nuts so had to take one nut from each of the other 3 wheels, put both wheels back on the correct way round & drive very slowly home ...

/

.

[fcd911]

I had a Hillman Imp Van back in the day, I used it as a small rally support barge and daily driver. On a right hand bend the back nearside wheel came off complete with Brake Drum. The back near side was on the ground and hence the front offside was in the air, so no brakes (missing brake drum) and no steering, I was a passenger. Incredibly it eventually came to a halt on the grass verge. I found the wheel and drum in the nearby field. The only damage was the brake back plate which was flat spotted from dragged down the road.

John

[Jonny Hart]

Maybe its a Cal-Look problem? Yep, lost a wheel in my Cal-Look Saab V4. After having painted the wheels and applied the 'spatter finish' ( remember that? ) a mate called in and asked what I was doing. I hung one on the hub to show him, bashed the hub cap on and called it a day.

Next day, put the other 3 wheels on properly and ventured out. Everything seemed ok until I braked slightly and the wheel went off in the ditch. Car went ok until pirouetting and stopping in the middle of the road. A passing Land Rover stopped and between 3 blokes we put the wheel back on without a jack. A lesson in not getting distracted when half way through a job.

Also recently returned my house to find a very nice little 60's Fiat 500 in my driveway - minus a wheel. Note on it read 'Looking for wheel - back soon, Barney'. Turned out to be another mate just bought the car and the wheel nuts were loose. Another lesson there.

[Timo]

I’ve definitely experienced this and it’s almost always been in an old Volkswagen

I’ve had a couple of wheel bolts rattle off my old 67 beetle after re fitting a wheel but luckily stopped and picked up the bolts before losing the wheel.

My most memorable experience however was during a spirited drive to work one morning (in the same old beetle), I turned a left hand corner at speed and heard that familiar tinkling sound as if something metallic had fallen off and bounced it’s way across the road, hoping it was somebody else’s road shrapnel that I’d run over and sent bouncing across the road I initially carried on driving only to discover a short way down the road that I now had 360 degrees of play in both directions on my steering wheel. I did manage to nurse it to work before having a look to see what had occurred. It turns out the bolt that should have been holding the steering box to the axle had decided to sheer off and take a little tumble into the nearest verge!

Sadly no amount of cable ties could fix this one, unlike most beetle breakdowns

[ghia70]

Yep - had this happen on my Karmann Ghia, front wheel came loose on a dual carriageway joining the A2, wheel lodged up into the wheel arch. Couldn't get the jack under the car to raise high enough - walked back down the road an found three of the wheel nuts. police stopped as i was in a dangerous position but would not lend me their trolley jack as it was against health & safety rules. in the end i got them to lift the car enough so i could slip a bottle jack under the front beam (they gripped the towel rail bumpers )

Was all down to me rushing to put the front wheel on after checking brake pads - must of forgot to tighten the bolts.

Bit lucky really as was on a fast road, nearly dark with no hard shoulder

[rhd racer]

Ha, continuation of the theme!

71 cal look beetle, Reading bypass, 3 up on the way to work. The back of the car collapsed in a ‘Mansell blow out’ fashion, wrestled the car to a stop as the rear wheel rolled past us and fell over next to the carriageway, The AA had to dig the backing plate out of the verge (what was left of it)

Unsure the cause, but had a hot bearing, no thread on the driveshaft, no hub nut or split pin ever recovered though they were both on and tight for the several thousand previous miles…..

Luckily manage to borrow a 63 to get me the thirty miles to work, which was way cooler….

[hot66]

not to feel left out .. my vw 1966 Karmann Beetle, had been messing around swapping different wheels onto it , roof down I drove out of my parents place and then about 200m up the road and heard the tinkling of metal on the tarmac. Stopped , got out and saw missing wheel bolts from my brm reps. No tools with me , so managed to get the car back to my parents without loosing the wheels . Quick walk up the road to retrieve the missing bolts . Lesson learnt that day

[chris68]

Mine was on an early mini cooper, my first car. I'd spotted it abandoned on someone's front drive, struck a deal and got it pulled home. With help from my dad, got it road worthy and dropped a 1275cc engine in it (twin su's, lcb manifold, high compression, ...). Could spin the wheels in first and second, happy days! Had been tooling around with it on the drive one day and forgot to torque up the wheel nuts. Fortunately heard something wasn't right before I got too far and managed to limp home. Wheel was shafted though. Still, very true when they say we learn more from failure than we do success.

[wildtexas]

This is why I had "tighten your wheel nuts" tattooed on the inside of my eye lids.

MIne was a type3 fastback I bought from a total t*sser in Wigan.

He had taken 8 wheel bolts from it for his beach buggy leaving 2 per wheel under the hubcaps.

When I got the tinkle tinkle crunch noise and an instant lowering job is when I discovered that particular act of disgrace.

I still remember his name to this day.

[RobFrost]

This is why I had "tighten your wheel nuts" tattooed on the inside of my eye lids.

MIne was a type3 fastback I bought from a total t*sser in Wigan.

He had taken 8 wheel bolts from it for his beach buggy leaving 2 per wheel under the hubcaps.

When I got the tinkle tinkle crunch noise and an instant lowering job is when I discovered that particular act of disgrace.

I still remember his name to this day.

Not the guy who converted my navy blue NAB916K into a beach buggy, was it? Circa 1991. I loved that car and was gutted it got turned into a buggy. Ironically, I felt the ride go lumpy on way to an MOT, checked the rear left wheel and all the nuts were half an inch out - but nothing fell off on that occasion. Scrounged a brace from a nearby homeowner to tighten them. There must be something about those VW nuts that makes them work loose if not fully tightened. I do remember they needed massive torque. Big fat bolts with a wide thread pitch if I remember correctly.