Quote:
Originally Posted by Spooler
We just got done working on my good friends son's 1973 VW Super Beetle. Tune up and such. We got in the car to do a midnight run. For some reason, this night, we weren't flying down the road like two crazed idiots that we normally do. Low and behold the left front made a heck of a racket dropping to the pavement while the tire passed us going down road. Yeap, his son forgot to tighten the lugnuts after setting the car on the ground. The looks on our faces were priceless. Needless to say, his son got a new nickname. Lugnuts!!!!!
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Very similar experience here. Years ago driving a '68 Pontiac GTO home from college in the rain. Had a flat on the passenger-side rear. I changed the tire, and the spare went right to the ground as it was flat as well. I figured it was simply out of air rather than punctured, so I jacked the car back up and pulled it off again. Back down the highway I walked in the rain with the wheel to a gas station about 3/4 mile away. Pumped it up and back to the car I headed. Fortunately, a good Samaritan picked me up and dropped me off at my car so I didn't have to walk that distance again.
Put the wheel back on and lowered it to the ground before tightening the lugnuts while on the jackstand--as usual. But then I forgot to tighten the lugs when I got it to the ground. Still raining and I was exhausted. About 20 miles down the road the car started fishtailing. I pulled over to the side of the road, took a look at the wheels, saw nothing, attributed the sloppy handling to the rain and continued my trip.
About 50 miles later the lugs broke at about 70 mph. I still recall the look on the faces of the four people in the oncoming car as we passed--two adults in the front and two kids in the backseat--one with her face pressed against the window watching me fishtail down the highway. My wheel stayed inside the wheelwell, and I pulled over to the side of the road, still raining, and I hitch-hiked the rest of the way home.
As bad as that was, the experience made me much more conscious about details after that.