Someone tried to kill me (and obviously they failed)

[NuclearNed]

A couple of weeks ago my wife took my truck to the local Toyota dealership. My airbag light has been on, and for safety's sake she wanted to get it fixed. While they have my truck, they gave me a loaner vehicle. She and I had been driving it around for over a week when the following happened.

Saturday she and I parked at a grocery store. As she got out of the vehicle, she noticed a lug nut lying on the ground. She pointed it out to me, and I noted that it was spinning in place as if it had just fallen off a vehicle. We thought to ourselves how strange that seemed, but then shrugged it off and went inside to do our shopping.

When we came back out, my wife noticed that the lug nut (which was still lying on the ground) looked just like the lug nuts on our loaner vehicle. Then (thankfully) she looked a little closer - the rear back wheel just happened to be missing a lug nut. Finally my common sense kicked in and we realized what had happened. I checked all the other wheels. The front passenger wheel was fine. The other three were not. Every last lug nut on them was loose. Counting the one which fell off, there were three which weren't even hand tight. I took the tire iron and tightened with ease every lug nut on those three wheels.

When we got home, I called Toyota. Since it was a Saturday, their service manager was off. I left a non-angry, matter-of-fact voice mail explaining what had happened. He has yet to respond. I assume that he thinks I'm lying in order to get something for free - but I'm not that kind of scumbag. I just wanted someone - anyone - over at Toyota to know that some incompetent idiot in their service department caused a very near miss.

Rate my experience.

 

[nakedfrog]

See what being a well-known internet raconteur gets you?

 

[NuclearNed]

See what being a well-known internet raconteur gets you?

Obviously someone wants to steal all the money this glorious title has gotten for me.

 

[lxskllr]

Had a wheel almost come off a truck once. I noticed when it became wobbly. The holes were egged out on the wheel, and two studs were either missing or useless. Others were damaged, but functional. I was || close to having the wheel fall off at highway speed. I got the holes aligned best I could, and tightened the rest down, and it got me home.

 

[VashHT]

I saw a wheel come off a car once at a really big intersection, guy slowed down to make a right turn and the wheel just kept going, ran into a car going through an intersection. Guessing the dealer just messed up in this case though, I've had plenty of times where they mess things up on my cars.

 

[BoomerD]

Dammit. That dealership owes Earl a refund.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

A couple of weeks ago my wife took my truck to the local Toyota dealership. My airbag light has been on, and for safety's sake she wanted to get it fixed. While they have my truck, they gave me a loaner vehicle. She and I had been driving it around for over a week when the following happened.

Saturday she and I parked at a grocery store. As she got out of the vehicle, she noticed a lug nut lying on the ground. She pointed it out to me, and I noted that it was spinning in place as if it had just fallen off a vehicle. We thought to ourselves how strange that seemed, but then shrugged it off and went inside to do our shopping.

When we came back out, my wife noticed that the lug nut (which was still lying on the ground) looked just like the lug nuts on our loaner vehicle. Then (thankfully) she looked a little closer - the rear back wheel just happened to be missing a lug nut. Finally my common sense kicked in and we realized what had happened. I checked all the other wheels. The front passenger wheel was fine. The other three were not. Every last lug nut on them was loose. Counting the one which fell off, there were three which weren't even hand tight. I took the tire iron and tightened with ease every lug nut on those three wheels.

When we got home, I called Toyota. Since it was a Saturday, their service manager was off. I left a non-angry, matter-of-fact voice mail explaining what had happened. He has yet to respond. I assume that he thinks I'm lying in order to get something for free - but I'm not that kind of scumbag. I just wanted someone - anyone - over at Toyota to know that some incompetent idiot in their service department caused a very near miss.

Rate my experience.

Close, I'll get you next time around.

 

[pmv]

Early on when cycling I had a friend (more experienced cyclist) insist that my handlebars weren't on correctly, so he insisted on removing them and putting them back on. A whole later, while cycling fairly fast down a hill, the entire handlebar-headset assembly came out of the head-tube (because he hadn't secured them back into place properly afterwards). Was left holding the handlebars, that were no longer attached to anything. Somehow managed to slow to a stop without crashing.

 

[Brainonska511]

Early on when cycling I had a friend (more experienced cyclist) insist that my handlebars weren't on correctly, so he insisted on removing them and putting them back on. A whole later, while cycling fairly fast down a hill, the entire handlebar-headset assembly came out of the head-tube (because he hadn't secured them back into place properly afterwards). Was left holding the handlebars, that were no longer attached to anything. Somehow managed to slow to a stop without crashing.

Wow. That also sounds like something straight out of a cartoon. Glad nothing more serious happened.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Malicious compliance is a bitch Ned.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

A couple of weeks ago my wife took my truck to the local Toyota dealership. My airbag light has been on, and for safety's sake she wanted to get it fixed. While they have my truck, they gave me a loaner vehicle. She and I had been driving it around for over a week when the following happened.

Saturday she and I parked at a grocery store. As she got out of the vehicle, she noticed a lug nut lying on the ground. She pointed it out to me, and I noted that it was spinning in place as if it had just fallen off a vehicle. We thought to ourselves how strange that seemed, but then shrugged it off and went inside to do our shopping.

When we came back out, my wife noticed that the lug nut (which was still lying on the ground) looked just like the lug nuts on our loaner vehicle. Then (thankfully) she looked a little closer - the rear back wheel just happened to be missing a lug nut. Finally my common sense kicked in and we realized what had happened. I checked all the other wheels. The front passenger wheel was fine. The other three were not. Every last lug nut on them was loose. Counting the one which fell off, there were three which weren't even hand tight. I took the tire iron and tightened with ease every lug nut on those three wheels.

When we got home, I called Toyota. Since it was a Saturday, their service manager was off. I left a non-angry, matter-of-fact voice mail explaining what had happened. He has yet to respond. I assume that he thinks I'm lying in order to get something for free - but I'm not that kind of scumbag. I just wanted someone - anyone - over at Toyota to know that some incompetent idiot in their service department caused a very near miss.

Rate my experience.

- For a slightly different response, I appreciated how honestly you communicated that your wife was the one that actually caught and followed up on the problem. Would have been easy to leave those details out but you didn't.

OR

Maybe she loosened the bolts and then "caught" the issue just to lord it over you for all time?

The world may never know.

 

[bba_tcg]

Not a wheel, but my daughter and her husband had their oil changed in Colorado and the oil drain plug fell out about 30 miles from their destination in Texas in 2015.

 

[nakedfrog]

Not a wheel, but my daughter and her husband had their oil changed in Colorado and the oil drain plug fell out about 30 miles from their destination in Texas in 2015.

I almost had a similar incident, got the oil changed. Eventually noticed a new leak under the car, checked it out, and saw there was some blue Loctite on the drain plug that hadn't been there before (I usually did my own changes on this car, just had them do it since I was already getting tires mounted) and the drain plug was far enough out that it had threads visible. My best guess is they didn't bother tightening it down thinking the Loctite would hold it?

 

[bba_tcg]

I almost had a similar incident, got the oil changed. Eventually noticed a new leak under the car, checked it out, and saw there was some blue Loctite on the drain plug that hadn't been there before (I usually did my own changes on this car, just had them do it since I was already getting tires mounted) and the drain plug was far enough out that it had threads visible. My best guess is they didn't bother tightening it down thinking the Loctite would hold it?

Maybe. But if they thought that, they need an easier job. I'm pretty sure my "kids" check for loose oil plugs now. Destroyed the engine - company paid to replace it.

 

[balloonshark]

Had a wheel almost come off a truck once. I noticed when it became wobbly. The holes were egged out on the wheel, and two studs were either missing or useless. Others were damaged, but functional. I was || close to having the wheel fall off at highway speed. I got the holes aligned best I could, and tightened the rest down, and it got me home.

I was in a friends on Dodge truck that did the same thing. We were out of town and the wheel started vibrating and making an awful clunking sound. We had to find another wheel because the lug holes were enlarged. It's possible the op has wheel or lug damage.

 

[Iron Woode]

Back in the day (1988) my friend and I parked our respective vehicles in a restaurant parking lot side by side. It was after 9:00 PM and dark out (August). After about and hour or so we came out and went our separate ways. The next evening we were back at that restaurant and he told me his car (1969 Dodge Dart) started shaking violently on his drive home. When he got home he checked his wheels and found the passenger front rim was missing 2 lug nuts and the other 3 we almost off. I decided to check my car (1968 Buick Skylark) and I found 3 of my lug nuts ready to fall off on my passenger front rim as well.

What kind of butthole does that to people?

 

[esquared]

Back in the day (1988) my friend and I parked our respective vehicles in a restaurant parking lot side by side. It was after 9:00 PM and dark out (August). After about and hour or so we came out and went our separate ways. The next evening we were back at that restaurant and he told me his car (1969 Dodge Dart) started shaking violently on his drive home. When he got home he checked his wheels and found the passenger front rim was missing 2 lug nuts and the other 3 we almost off. I decided to check my car (1968 Buick Skylark) and I found 3 of my lug nuts ready to fall off on my passenger front rim as well.

What kind of butthole does that to people?

 

[sandorski]

When I was 5/6 an uncle took me to my grandparents in his 71/72 Nova SS. Going around a corner 1 wheel just kept going straight. The only thing I noticed was he got real nervous real quick and he told me to hold on. Nothing happened, he retrieved the wheel and borrowed some nuts from the other wheels. All I remember of the car was the smell of lavender and losing the wheel. Those were sweet cars, despite being Chevy's....

 

[Red Squirrel]

This thread just reminded me I need to re-torque my wheels.

 

[BoomerD]

In the early 80s, I worked for the cheapest gypo contractor I've ever encountered. He lived from one bad bank loan to another, everything was in hock to several different lenders at the same time. I was driving a 10 wheel dump truck down a fairly busy 2 lane roadway, looked in the side mirror just in time to see one of the wheels from a set of duals trying to pass me and heading toward incoming traffic. I just kind of "leaned" the truck over and nudged it towards the other side of the road...just a minute or so before oncoming traffic got there. I had to walk several hundred yards into a farmer's field to retrieve the wheel...the entire center of the wheel had broken around the lug nuts. This couldn't have happened at a better location. No houses along the road, no oncoming traffic yet...I could have easily killed someone had that wheel hit their car.
Turns out, the fckr, in an attempt to save a few bucks, mixed radials and bias ply tires on each set of duals...the explanation I got from the tire shop was that the shifting weight from the radials put extra stress on the bias ply wheels...and caused the wheels to crack. He had to replace ALL the wheels and tires on the truck before it could be driven again.

 

[Kaido]

Not a wheel, but my daughter and her husband had their oil changed in Colorado and the oil drain plug fell out about 30 miles from their destination in Texas in 2015.

I talked my buddy into a Kia Soul after I got mine & had such a good experience with it. 16k miles in, they forgot the plug at the oil change place & the engine blew on the highway with his family in the car. VERY scary! The shop ended up having to pay for a brand-new engine, so a win overall, I guess?

 

[Quintessa]

Your loaner vehicle nearly became deadly when you discovered multiple loose lug nuts on three wheels, one already fallen off. clear negligence from their service department. it was only by chance you caught it before disaster.