loose front wheel - help !

[timmyr]

Hey all,

First post - hope you might be able to help but please bear with my long rant !

My problems started some months back when I had two new front tyres fitted to my beloved Cooper S (Pirelli run flats)

Almost straight away I noticed that I was loosing air (roughly 4-5 psi) in the front left tyre.
It's some months down the line now and after countless visits to the Tyre shop things seem to be ok...they insisted that it was not the tyre but that air was escaping through the rim of the tyre possibly due to my refurbished alloy.

My last visit was a few weeks back where once again they removed the wheel for what was probably the 5th time and checked things over. They sprayed fairy liquid over the tyre and it was clear to see bubbles appearing in certain areas of the wheel rim - they followed this up by removing the tyre and pasting the rim with a white gunk before fitting the problem tyre back again.

Since then I haven't been losing air which leads me to believe that maybe they were right.

It's been 2 weeks and I've been checking my air - no problems however tonight I take the car for a wash and notice one of my four wheel nuts missing and one loosely hanging out by it's thread !

Each time they have removed the wheel I have watched them replace it using an electric device to tighten the nuts back in - I don't understand how this has happened - I'm pretty mad tbh as I was due to take a long trip on the motorway tomorrow..who knows what might have happened had I not noticed this.

Is it possible that having the wheel taken on and off so many times has now caused the threads to loosen causing this the nuts to loosen and drop out ?

Should the tyre company take responsibility here for this problem and possibly a replacement tyre too ?

Any thoughts much appreciated !

TimmyR

[Fevs]

you havent mentioned that when they tighten the wheel nuts up on replacement of the wheel after they have tightened them with the air gun do they lower the car back down and use a torque wrench to check the wheel nuts for tightness

as this is a requirement if they just tighten them with the air gun you should have a word with them but you are also meant to have them checked again for tightness after about 50 miles driving after removing a wheel

i would try your look with them as they have had the wheel off quite a few times so they might of dropped a clanger

hope this helps

fevs

[DJC]

How about this, try removing the wheel, and then try the studs in the hub and see if they feel OK going into the hub. If you are not 100% happy take it to your dealer to check. My motto is "better safe than sorry" Regards and good luck, Damian.

[Bilbo Baggins]

If the tyre shoppe used an electric or pneumatic tool to remove and tighten the bolts it is entirely possible that they have stripped the threads of either the bolts or the hub. DJC is on the right path. Remove the wheel, then test insert the bolts one at a time into each hole and compare how they feel. Is it possible to wiggle any of them once screwed into the hub? Take off any of the other wheels that has not been off recently and compare the feel of the fit of the bolts in the hub. Are they the same? If the front wheel that lost a bolt feels looser, the culprit is the tyre dealer/installer.

Final torque should always be with a torque wrench, according to the factory. Almost never done outside of the factory.

[timmyr]

Thanks very much for the useful tips guy's !

[andyupnorth]

Alternatively, someone could have had a go nicking one of your wheels and either gave up when they saw the locking wheel nut or were disturbed. That happened to me once.