First off a little back story. On October 17th I got brand new 32x11.50 Maxxis Bighorn mud tires installed on my 98 Classic at a local tire shop that I have heard nothing but good things about. They gave me a good deal and I was pretty happy. Since then I have driven my Cherokee about 500 miles approximately 1/3 of which was off road. Nothing heavy duty just some rough mountain dirt roads and a few mud holes. It was mild enough that I did not have to use 4wd.

A couple of days ago I started hearing a knocking sound coming from the rear of the jeep which I at first though was my tail pipe banging on my shackle as a result of my lift. I only heard it when decelerating whether I was braking or not and only below 15 mph or so. Last night I checked everything to make sure nothing had worked lose or was banging around in the interior and all was fine so I started to get a little concerned.

Tonight I pulled the drive shaft and drove around the block on the front wheels and still heard it so I ruled out a U-joint. I pulled the rear diff cover and everything looked clean with no metal shavings and good contact patterns on the gears so I started to look at the rear brakes.

I jacked it up and when I went to take the lug nuts off I realized that all but one of the lug nuts on the left rear had backed almost all the way out. I checked the rest of the wheels and every one had 2 or 3 lug nuts backed way off. Im lucky I did not keep driving it because it could have been real bad. I have changed countless wheels over the years on every make and model of vehicle and not one time has a wheel almost fell off at least not when I did so sober so I am kind of upset with the tire shop about it. Yes it has been a couple of months since they did it but its only been 500 miles. I watched them do the work and I know they used torque sticks on their impact gun so they at least tried to do it right. Personally I dont like torque sticks myself because I am of the opinion if you cant use an impact with out breaking studs you probably should find another line of work.

Should I say something to them or just chalk it up to crap happens. In your opinion is this near miss their fault or do I share equal blame for not checking their work myself sooner. Im of the opinion that if I pay you to fix something I should not have to double check to make sure you did your job right. Right now Im just glad it did not lead to a major accident. Just yesterday morning my wife wanted to use the jeep to drive my two young sons 50 miles round trip to day care and I told her no. Thank god for that.

 

If you have alloy wheels most tire shops have a disclaimer which states that you must re-torque the wheels after a said amount of miles.

 

The lugs should be torqued once in the air and again on the ground,Some do say to torque them again after so many miles.Did you watch them torque your lugs twice?

 

I have had this happen as well, now I just re-torque them myself when I get home. Some tire guys are awesome and some don't care.

 

This. But if you have steel wheels I wouldn't just let it go, nor would I make a huge scene. I'd go back and speak directly with the manager. At the least he'd hopefully make sure it doesn't happen again, or you may possibly get a discount the next time?

 

My tire shop does tq them twice and has always told me to come back in a week to have them checked again. Same shop for over 30 yrs and have no idea how many sets of tires on everything we have owned business and personal.


On my XJ they get checked every time I go off road (steel wheels) along with all the other things that are checked. One of the many things learned here and NAXJA over the years from reading. As they say **** HAPPENS but check to see if you need new studs in the axles if the threads are bad same for the threads in the lug nuts.


At least tell your shop what happened and ask if it was your fault? You may be surprised at what that question to a good tire shop will get you in the way of a decent response.


Good Luck and check them from now on.

 

I ALWAYS check myself now. I have only been to one shop where I physically saw the guy torque properly. I only take my jeep to a place where I can physically watch them haha. I've also watched a tire place air impact a lug on my jeep as tight as they could and call it good.

But I only bring my tires to the shop for a balance now, off the jeep. Then bring them home a rotate and torque myself. It's just easier, and I know it's done correct.

 

Have you noticed the tire shop using a longer ext. of a different color on the impact gun when they run them down tight? Almost every shop is mandated by their insurance companies to use them anymore as that is what adjusts the tq to the lug nuts.

 

I only run steel because when I was in high school I learned about double checking aluminum wheels the hard way. Did not get hurt but did watch a brand new Thornbird go bouncing over a guard rail and down the side of a mountain never to be seen again.

They did not torque them twice or if they did I did not see it. It was a Saturday and they close at noon and they were real busy so I think they were in a bit of a hurry.


I went ahead and called them 5 minutes ago so I could fill yall in on what they said. The manager looked up the invoice and said that the tech which had did the work was a "Retard" and no longer worked for them. He said that I was no the only person who had an issue with work he had performed. He told me to come by in the next few days and he would inspect to make sure nothing was damaged and give me a voucher for a free oil change so yay me for free oil change. I wonder if he knows Ive been thinking about switching to synthetic.

Still kind of disappointed but he took the blame and made an effort to make it right which is about all I can ask.

 

The time I witnessed it, it was just a reg black impact socket, no ext.

Was the last time I brought my jeep there.

 

These are known as torque sticks, and if you see someone using them on your ride, run away from that shop. Complete garbage.

Best way to make sure your lugnuts are torqued to spec? Put an actual torque wrench on them, torque in a star pattern, hand tighten in the air, twice on the ground. Drive for 50-100 miles and torque again. Check periodically.

 

I agree completely when it comes to torque sticks. I never have liked them because everything wears out eventually and who knows when that takes place with a torque stick. I wasnt that worried about it that day because I was all excited to finally have my tires on the XJ. She looked sexy as hell and I just didnt give much thought to the torque sticks.

From now on its check them and then check them again every couple of weeks. I dont care if the Michelin Man himself does the work.

 

I drive a LOT and I rely on my Jeep to get me to/from client sites (network administrator). Rain, sleet, snow, or holidays - servers unfortunately never sleep.

Because of that, I usually do a "preflight" on Sunday afternoons. Takes me about 30 minutes, but it almost completely eliminates any doubt, helps me diagnose issues before they arise, and keeps me on the road so I can make a living.

At the very least, take 30 minutes once a month to do a once over on your rig. Could make the difference between your wheel falling off and getting home safely.

Not the tire stores fault IMO, unless they never told you to check the wheel torque after driving it for a bit.

 

I check them atleast 2-3 times a year. Probably more. Any time I go on a big road trip too.

 

Well they did not tell me to recheck them after a driving it a bit but to be honest I to feel like I should have checked them myself anyway. I know better than to trust anybodies work but my own and I would have checked them soon anyhow.

Like I said in my last response the tire shop is acknowledging their error and is doing more than I expected to make it right so I aint mad about it. Just going to chalk it up to crap happens and make sure I dont get slack when it comes to verifying things are done right in the future.