I am an idiot. I screwed up somewhere and am lucky to have not died/killed someone/crashed.

[NotBudule2]

Thank those last 2 lug nuts for holding on ! Not sure I would trust any of those studs now ? though...

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[got3fords]

Glad to hear that it all finished well for you.

As they say, "Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgement."
Thanks for sharing your bad judgement so that others can also learn from it. It takes courage and integrity to admit a mistake like that so publicly.

And possibly keep someone from the same or worse fate.

 

[21Blackout]

Glad nothing resulted from it, but another tip torque your lug nuts then drive about 20-25 miles and retorque. I once did not retorque and had the wheel come off @60mph scared the crap out of me

 

[carnut122]

BLUF: I changed my brakes due to a noise problem and a month later arrived home with 2/6 lug nuts and 3/6 wheel studs left on my front passenger side wheel. Nearly f***ing died or killed someone else without even knowing it. This is almost certainly a "novice is an idiot" situation.

So around 3-4 months ago my brakes start making noise. I thought it was weird given I was only at low 40k miles. It kept up despite me being able to see through the wheels and see that the pads should be fine as far as what was left. Not knowing what was wrong and being only on the powertrain warranty, I arranged to use a friend's well stocked and flat garage and flat neighborhood roads to change out all my pads and try to spot the problem.

Changed out the brake pads on all wheels; none of the old ones were near the squealer tab. I did ended up finding some odd rust on the back passenger brake pads. Caliper and rotor appeared fine, so I assumed it was a factory defect or some such since I'm In Texas and we don't salt the roads. And no, this was not where I messed up. I have full memory of doing it, however I must be mistaken and forgot to tighten the front-passenger wheel, did it incorrectly, or forgot to re-tighten it a week later with the others. No, I did not use a torque wrench. I assumed hand tightened with the stock lug wrench was enough. This could also be my problem, but the other 3 wheels are all fine and were treated the exact same.

I was pulling into my neighborhood today and out of nowhere started to hear a rhythmic impact noise. I had JUST passed a construction crew so I assumed I picked up something in a tire and kept heading to my house to take care of it there...

I was missing 4 lug nuts and three wheel studs on the front passenger-side wheel. I just drove around 20 miles at highway speeds to get home. No impacts or potholes, no issues driving TO work that morning whatsoever.

Lucky to have not died on the highway or killed someone else. I screwed up, not making the same mistake again.

I have plenty of PTO and was able to take some for the rest of the week at the last minute. I ordered the parts to replace the wheel lug studs and lug nuts (and a proper torque wrench, jack stands). They are getting here sometime tomorrow. I will be finding out if I screwed up anything else tomorrow or Wednesday depending on delivery time. Going to check the other 3 wheels after I replace the studs on the first, however a quick wheel-on examination shows no signs of problems. I must have forgotten something with the front right wheel.

I'm an idiot, make jokes at my expense. Glad I'm not dead or killed anyone else or totaled on the site of the road.

I bet it hurt to share, but if it saves somebody else, you've done well.

 

[ztbird]

Thank those last 2 lug nuts for holding on ! Not sure I would trust any of those studs now ? though...

I'm replacing all of them on that wheel and checking all the other wheels.

New wheel studs and a torque wrench arrived from Amazon today. Waiting on the lug nuts and jack stands now.

Edit:

I got all the deliveries in time to change out the (all six) lug studs and get the wheel back on before it got dark/storms started to drench my area. I checked the torque on the other 3 wheels (proper star pattern on all 4, no looseness with the other 3) and drove it about 5 miles without a problem. Going to check the other lug studs visually tomorrow morning and assuming they are all good return to regular driving on Thursday. And yes, I will re-tighten/check with the torque wrench - both tomorrow and Likely at each destination for the next couple days. I'm leaving the torque wrench in the truck for now.

If anyone else has to replace theirs for any reason, make sure you use a good sized/weighted hammer to get them out. I had to use a metal 3 pound cross pein hammer (flat side) to get them loose enough to remove. Regular hammer and a screw driver was NOT enough.


Also sizes for the caliper bolts for anyone who needs them since this thread may trigger some search engines on specific searches. FRONT ONLY, rear are different:

Outer brake caliper piece (the one that has the pistons and brake line on it) that attaches it to the inner caliper: 15 MM

Inner brake caliper piece that attaches it to the wheel hub: 18 MM

 

[FM AZ]

Wow! Glad you got home OK. Your story just convinced me to take my torque wrench in my tool kit on Tuesday. I’m heading from Tucson to Portland to pick up my Super Pacific pop-up tent camper. Just got new tires and don’t want them to go off by themselves. Thanks.

 

[JHC14]

Glad there were no major catastrophes for you.
Don't automatically assume you were the idiot. Unfortunately, today, people do mean and stupid things. It is possible someone loosened them to cause you a problem. It could be someone you pissed off or someone who thought you were the guy they were mad at so they loosened them.
We were building a house and apparently, someone was mad at the electrician. As soon as he finished wiring the house, they cut 4-5 feet out of every wiring run. They left it on the ground so they were not stealing the copper. He had to re-wire the entire house. He lost 3-4 days of work and had to re-purchase all the wire. We never found out who it was, but it was simply mean and stupid.
You may or may not be at fault.
Now you will sleep good at night ?

 

[Lcr3000]

BLUF: I changed my brakes due to a noise problem and a month later arrived home with 2/6 lug nuts and 3/6 wheel studs left on my front passenger side wheel. Nearly f***ing died or killed someone else without even knowing it. This is almost certainly a "novice is an idiot" situation.

So around 3-4 months ago my brakes start making noise. I thought it was weird given I was only at low 40k miles. It kept up despite me being able to see through the wheels and see that the pads should be fine as far as what was left. Not knowing what was wrong and being only on the powertrain warranty, I arranged to use a friend's well stocked and flat garage and flat neighborhood roads to change out all my pads and try to spot the problem.

Changed out the brake pads on all wheels; none of the old ones were near the squealer tab. I did ended up finding some odd rust on the back passenger brake pads. Caliper and rotor appeared fine, so I assumed it was a factory defect or some such since I'm In Texas and we don't salt the roads. And no, this was not where I messed up. I have full memory of doing it, however I must be mistaken and forgot to tighten the front-passenger wheel, did it incorrectly, or forgot to re-tighten it a week later with the others. No, I did not use a torque wrench. I assumed hand tightened with the stock lug wrench was enough. This could also be my problem, but the other 3 wheels are all fine and were treated the exact same.

I was pulling into my neighborhood today and out of nowhere started to hear a rhythmic impact noise. I had JUST passed a construction crew so I assumed I picked up something in a tire and kept heading to my house to take care of it there...

I was missing 4 lug nuts and three wheel studs on the front passenger-side wheel. I just drove around 20 miles at highway speeds to get home. No impacts or potholes, no issues driving TO work that morning whatsoever.

Lucky to have not died on the highway or killed someone else. I screwed up, not making the same mistake again.

I have plenty of PTO and was able to take some for the rest of the week at the last minute. I ordered the parts to replace the wheel lug studs and lug nuts (and a proper torque wrench, jack stands). They are getting here sometime tomorrow. I will be finding out if I screwed up anything else tomorrow or Wednesday depending on delivery time. Going to check the other 3 wheels after I replace the studs on the first, however a quick wheel-on examination shows no signs of problems. I must have forgotten something with the front right wheel.

I'm an idiot, make jokes at my expense. Glad I'm not dead or killed anyone else or totaled on the site of the road.

Glad you are ok, and nothing happened. I just happened to rotate my own wheels/tires on my truck a week ago while also added 1-inch spacers. This new scenario for me requires torquing two sets of nuts per drum/wheel. I bought a torque wrench and checked the manual for the Tq specs and then as I affixed each spacer and wheel, all nuts were torqued, and then retorqued, to make sure there's no accidental miss. You can buy a torque wrench at a reasonable price online. You don't need a Snap-on one for 300 dollars. Leasons sometimes are learned the hard way. We all know this. Stay safe.

 

[ztbird]

Glad you are ok, and nothing happened. I just happened to rotate my own wheels/tires on my truck a week ago while also added 1-inch spacers. This new scenario for me requires torquing two sets of nuts per drum/wheel. I bought a torque wrench and checked the manual for the Tq specs and then as I affixed each spacer and wheel, all nuts were torqued, and then retorqued, to make sure there's no accidental miss. You can buy a torque wrench at a reasonable price online. You don't need a Snap-on one for 300 dollars. Leasons sometimes are learned the hard way. We all know this. Stay safe.

I was able to get a cheap one for about $70 but I didn't realize it was digital/tone only instead of physical. It's worked for now but I need to shell out a bit more for a proper mechanical one.

 

[5thranger]

No jokes from me. Really glad you caught this and have learned from it.
This is a good reminder to all that do their own wrenching to double check their work.

Amazing how often this happens at tire shops.

 

[5thranger]

Thank those last 2 lug nuts for holding on ! Not sure I would trust any of those studs now ? though...

That is exactly what happened at the tire shop I use to go to.

 

[LaBalbe]

The only problem with a torque wrench is that you can overdo it real easily. I sheared a bolt in half once because I was a little too paranoid about it coming off, and went a little too heavy on the torque wrench. Mind you, I'm no mechanic, so maybe it wasn't even partly the tool's fault, and simply entirely my own, just because I'm learning "on the job" as it were with all of this wrenching stuff.

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