Got two new front tyres on Tuesday then the wheel falls off today whilst traveling down the A1.. coincidence or garage at fault?

[Browndoor25]

So I got two new front tyres fitted on Tuesday then on Saturday I noticed a weird noise, like the wind getting under the car and flapping plastic or something, I asked my husband to look and he said some of the plastic is slightly loose but that it’s not anything to worry about. I was going to get in booked in on Monday anyway. I was driving to work today and it was getting worse which I thought was odd then suddenly there’s a bang and the front passenger wheel is off.

Thankfully nobody has been hurt which is the main thing! I’m not car savvy at all but never had any issues with the wheels before in the whole time I’ve had the car. Could it be the garage not fixing the wheel properly when they changed the tyres?

I've generally had to replace 2 tyres a year due to punctures (drive a lot on poorly maintained narrow rural lanes). Im well practised at changing tyres and driven further than50miles when I've put wheels back on.

I've never been advised to get my wheel nuts checked by the garage either. But then, my garage are good at their jobs.

I've never been told this by a garage either. If it's that important, why are they not telling people?

It’s not ridiculous there’s a proven reason why they come loose after fitting correctly
that’s why there’s a big thing about having them re torqued after a few miles because this is a recognised thing

I can’t find the receipt unfortunately. Just to clarify it didn’t start making a weird noise until Saturday, and I was going to bring it in come Monday. I do at least a half hourly commute every day along the motorway so would have done a fair bit of driving in between then and now. My husband checked the car on Saturday evening and couldn’t see anything other than maybe some loose plastic but he’s not a mechanic. I wouldn’t have driven a car making weird noises for five days as someone previously suggested. The recovery man thinks we should phone the garage before we contact insurance. Will let you all know how I get on. Thank goodness nobody hurt! 🙏🏻

dh been driving thirty years and didn’t know this!

When we took our car back after the 50 miles the garage was really surprised as apparently no-one ever does!

We had this issue. Tyres weren't properly screwed on / tightened after fitting.

I know two people this happened to.

One personally and another I witnessed. Both had been to the same garage. Nothing on the paperwork about getting them checked. My friend ended up taking legal action, and I have heard that the lad who had the same problem also had to threaten court.

My friend was driving a campervan with massive wheels and his wheel narrowly missed a woman pushing a pram, it could have killed a kid.

It does depend on whether you were warned to get the nuts checked, my friends case hinged on the fact that it wasnt and wasnt aware that they needed to be.

Did garage accept responsibility?

I've been driving/a car owner for over 40 years. I've never had a garage tell me to take a car back after a tyre change. Nor have I ever read it on paperwork.
Thankfully I've never had a wheel fall off - although I did have one coming towards me on the M4 near Llanelli once many years ago - thankfully the road was quiet at the time.

I'm no expert but I can't think why a wheel would suddenly come loose after 50 miles unless there was shoddy workmanship involved in replacing the wheel nuts. Surely telling you to get them checked again is just covering their arses.

Yes, it would be sensible to check that the wheel nuts are properly tightened after a few days or a few short trips, if only to be sure that they aren't so tight that they can't be moved. BUT if the garage have fitted them so loosely that the bloody wheel falls off after a couple of days then that's negligent and they can't palm that back onto you!

Good news re no one is hurt. Id return to the garage and have a discussion with them about what has happened. It's really hard without the paperwork to know if you had the traditional warning of 30-50 miles and check it. Id go for polite and firm with the garage. Good luck x

There's usually a disclaimer on the invoice to check the tightness after x miles, they won't accept liability. TF was your husband looking at??

Another one who has been driving for several decades, multiple replacement tyres and never once been told to go back for a check within a day of having it done.
As far as I am concerned, this is completely on the garage for not doing their job properly.

They haven't tightened the nuts. I had the same noise but thankfully booked it in to be checked over before they fell off.

You probably won't get much joy off the garage but I'd be giving them holy hell over it. They seem to be immune to complaints.

Can I ask, were all 5 bolts present in the wheel? Was your locking nut (if you had one) still present? In the mounting hold in the alloy, were there any grooves or have the holes widened?

Also, On your last MOT was there anything mentioned about the passenger front track rod end?

Not sure about garages but at home i think you tighten mostly then lower the jack a bit then tighten up??

I work for a garage and I’ve never advised anyone to come back in, neither has any garage I’ve used with my own car

Never in 30 yrs have I been told by a garage to check the bolts after a tire change, or read it in an invoice, surely that is part of their job to do it correctly?! What next, if they change the brake fluid, are you supposed to check the level after a day to check they have done it correctly?

I’d be going back to the garage and asking what they are going to do about it.

I just checked my tyre invoice from monday there and it states wheel nuts must be checked at 50km or 30min (surely the 30mins is a typo!!) Will add that to my to do list for tomorrow then 🤦‍♀️ local independent garage

OP I would be contacting them and asking what they can do though!

I've been driving for 28 years, been a driving instructor for ten years, had quite a few wheels changed (all those learners ramming the car into the kerb), and changed a few wheels myself.

Not once have I been advised to have wheel nut tightness checked within a certain time frame. In order for a wheel to come off, that means that all four or five nuts would have to work loose; and given that they're usually machine tightened so that it's a Herculean effort to undo them with an ordinary spanner, I think it's extremely unlikely that wheels come off on a regular basis.

By asking you to check after 50km they are saying one of two things:

1. We fit them correctly but they can come lose so check them,
2. We are not sure if we always fit them correctly so you need to check we have done our job.

If it's the first, then why don't we check every 50km, because when we check we are checking a correctly fitted tyre, if the garage did their job. We don't because it's nonsense to say a correctly fitted and torqued wheel will come lose. It will only come lose if it hasn't been torqued correctly on fitting. So what we are doing is checking that the garage has done their job correctly. The only reason a wheel will fall off is if it wasn't fitted correctly. If driving loosened it from a correct fitting why doesn't it happent at 200km or 500km or at any distance.

Well, I never knew that about tyres. Interesting.
My exhaust recently fell off on the motorway a couple of months after a service and MOT. The garage we got recovered to said the mechanics who did the service and MOT might not necessarily have realised as exhausts can corrode on the inside or the outside, so it’s not always obvious.
I don’t want to derail the thread but if it helps anyone else in a breakdown situation, my advice is (1) invest in a power bank as my phone died after speaking to police, insurance and rescue service (2), download the whatthreewords app as the rescue company kept asking us for a postcode and motorways don’t appear to have postcodes, (3) don’t attempt to drive without an exhaust as apparently the fumes can come into the car and poison you and (4) it’s always worth being in a rescue service even if, like me, the majority of your journeys are local. Mine was an optional extra with the insurance and only cost a few pounds a month more.
Unfortunately while my car only needed a new exhaust, another car hit my exhaust and that vehicle has been written off due to an oil leak which wrecked the engine! So protecting your no claims discount is worth it too, even if you’re an experienced, careful driver.

The reason they advise you to check after 50 miles is because a properly torqued wheel CAN come loose. It’s the reason truck wheels have to be regularly checked and why you see a lot with the little plastic arrows on the wheel nuts so they can see at a glance if any nuts have started moving.

Retorquing wheels | Continental tyres
YUP 30miles or 50km needs to be retorqued.