Pro tip: check your wheel torque after a tire rotation

Last month I got new tires put on my Ford F-150 at a shop in Austin and drove about 200 miles before I heard a clunking sound. Pulled over and found three lug nuts on the passenger rear were barely finger-tight. Could've lost the whole wheel doing 70 on I-35. Has anyone else had a shop leave their wheels loose like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

garcia.casey10d ago

Yeah that checks out. Nobody double checks anything anymore, it's all rush rush rush.

samward9d ago

Started off thinking shops had it covered, no way they'd mess up something that basic. Then same thing happened to me with my Tacoma at a Discount Tire in San Antonio. Found two lugs on the front driver side barely holding on after a rotation. Now I always hit every lug with a torque wrench before I even pull out of the lot. Sucks that we gotta double check paid professionals but it's a 5 minute save versus a totaled truck.

evangarcia6d ago

How often are wheels actually flying off though? I get that loose lugs are bad but it feels like one of those things that gets blown out of proportion because everyone has a story about it. I've been letting tire shops do rotations for over a decade and never had a wheel fall off or even felt a wobble. Maybe I'm just lucky but the odds of catastrophic failure have gotta be pretty low.