To not want to go back to the garage?

[Roififfufu]

I’m feeling really shaken today. Yesterday I came home from a holiday four hours away. I drove on the motorway for the first 100 miles, and then thankfully turned off ten miles early to have lunch in the countryside. I then made the decision to come home via country roads instead of rejoining the motorway.

Five minutes after leaving lunch, going 60mph on an A road, the car suddenly swerved into oncoming traffic and I couldn’t get it under control. There was a lorry coming towards me but thankfully, somehow, whether through his actions or mine, we didn’t collide and I finally slowed the car and parked and rang breakdown. I looked at the wheels and one was completely bent out of shape.

When they arrived they took the covers off the wheels and it revealed that two of the four bolts were entirely out, one was very loose and just holding the wheel on, and the fourth had snapped under the pressure of being the only one properly connected, and when it snapped it caused the swerving. I can’t stop thinking about if the car had swerved ten seconds later into the lorry, or if I hadn’t decided to turn off the motorway early.

The tyre of that wheel was changed by the garage as part of the car’s MOT two weeks ago.

Anyway, people are telling me to take it back and that the garage should be providing a new wheel (the metal had contorted under the strain and I drove home with the spare wheel on). I know the garage has taken on a 19ish man who they seem to be training up, and he was the one who told me which tyre had been changed so I assume he did the work. But 1. I think the garage will be arsey and try and deny responsibility and 2. I really don’t trust this garage any more.

The breakdown mechanic said I should tell them so they can get more training. Should I bother taking it back to them? I still feel really shaken by it all.

Behave 😂

It's not trying to absolve themselves of anything, it's literally telling drivers that as the wheel settles on the hub after the first XX miles of driving after being removed, the nuts will need to be retightened for them to be effective.

It's the laws of physics meets engineering. And it's the same for every garage worldwide, regarding every vehicle worldwide. Nothing to do with overriding consumer protection.

Contract law 😂

I have never heard of checking after a wheel change either and my mechanic is very helpful, telling me i should be topping up oil etc so sure he would say. once when i was getting quite a bit of work done when I got car back he phoned me about an hour later telling me not to drive it! Called a few minutes later in a panic cos he couldnt remember if he tightened the wheel nuts! He had thankfully.

I’m sure in the vast majority of cases it makes no difference but obviously may have prevented an accident in this case. When I drove a commercial vehicle you checked the wheel nuts every day. You had little plastic triangles on every nut so could tell at a glance if any had moved.

Just how do you do this though mine have locking wheel nuts on them if that makes a difference

Are you a lawyer @Ledwood85 ?

Nope, just someone who knows what they're talking about and doesn't default to "waaaahh waah consumer rights!" over something that's a well-known and established practice based on engineering and reality.

But, you do you, and keep contributing to the stereotype that women are thick when it comes to cars, something I'm doing my best to try and prove wrong.

Not personally as DH does anything to do with the car. Though what you can actually check on the car is limited as it's an EV and a giant computer basically. Also if there is any problem with the vehicle it tells you itself in no uncertain terms.

I’ll be honest I have never checked this myself but you can get a torquing wrench. I just nip back into the garage that fitted new wheel and say can you check the wheel nuts and they do it for free.

I am a lawyer, so I suggest you don't make yourself look any more stupid than you already have with your ignorant mansplaining.

MOTs are worth the paper they're printed on for the day. You can drive around the corner, something goes and it would have failed the test.

You have a responsibility to ensure your cars safe to drive. Don't you check your car before doing long journeys, especially on a motorway?

You need to phone the garage and tell them however, you have done a good few hundred miles since the test.

You really ought to be making sure your own vehicle is safe on the roads. You cannot leave your car a year between tests.

It clearly isn’t that well known.

Do you seriously take off the wheel caps and check all of the bolts every time you drive your car?

I've never heard of this either, and I've had 4 new tyres in the last year!

I've never been told that. Frightening.

My commute is 200 miles each way. I check them weekly at least.

Sounds very frightening op. I had a similar experience. I had a steering arm changed by a garage, shortly after I had a blow out on the M25 with all my young children in the car. The tyre was only 3 months old. The AA came out and said that they needed another tyre, apart from the spare, as the other tyre was illegal due to the way the car was driving due to wheel alignment. When it was taken to be fixed the garage said they thought that the car had been in an accident 😳 by the way it was looking. They strongly advised me to contact the original garage that did the work. I did ring the garage and let them know but they couldn’t have been less interested. It is a local garage and I always make people aware.

I’ve never tightened bolts, isn’t that what you pay the garage for. DH doesn’t check either. I’d definitely feed it back to the garage OP.

You can suggest whatever you like.

I'm looking forward to seeing the results of your powerhouse lawyer class-action case, where every garage in the land now has to send a mechanic along with every customer that's had a wheel removed, for however long needed until the point where nuts need tightening.
After all, in your legal utopia we cannot have any responsibility placed on the operator of a motor vehicle for its roadworthiness, can we?

Oh, and I'm not a man. I know it must be upsetting to your "I'm a lawyer, I know everything, and I must tell everyone that" ego that someone who is female knows more on a topic than you do. Please don't let it get to you.

So, no then.

That’s terrifying. I hope my garage is more responsive.

Except nuts tightened correctly the first time don’t need to be tightened.

I had absolutely no idea about this!

I really don't understand this sign. Surely the 30 minutes is almost always going to come first? And if it's check after thirty mins, they the garage should do this for you?!

Yes they do it’s one of those things they can come loose after refitting very rare but not impossible
our vehicles at work have yellow triangle things on the wheel nuts that point to each other so you can see it the nuts have become loose that part of the VOSA requirements for daily vehicle checks
every motoring association recommends checking after 30-50 miles

this is from kwik fit home page

Kwik Fit, like most tire professionals, recommends retorquing wheel nuts after a tire change or wheel installation. This is done to ensure the wheel nuts are properly tightened and secure, as they can loosen slightly after initial tightening due to the vehicle's movement and vibration. Kwik Fit typically recommends retorquing after driving a short distance, often within the first 30-50 miles or 50-80 kilometers.

Absolutely they do. As numerous other posters have said even properly torqued nuts can become loose. Rare, but it happens. Plenty of people have been killed due to loose wheel nuts on trucks for example.