Ever Had A Customer’s Wheel Fall Off?

[Joe Marconi]

Ever Had A Customer’s Wheel Fall Off?

 

I was debating whether I should bring this up. I won’t directly ask anyone this question, for obvious reasons. But having a customer's wheel fall off is perhaps every shop owner’s nightmare:

 

I was speaking with someone recently from a national chain and they were telling me that this is a problem, an ever increasing problem.

 

Years back, when “cars were cars” and wheels, disc rotors and hubs were made out of good old American Steel, we would run up the lug nuts with our ½ inch gun and that was it. I never worried about a wheel falling off. But now, with just about all wheels made with soft alloy metals and small wheel hubs, you need to be very careful.

 

We pre-torque all our wheels using torques sticks, then once on the ground the tech re-torques the wheels using a pre-set torque wrench. BUT, the tech must re-toque the wheels in the presence of either another tech or service advisor and chalks the top of the tires with a piece of white chalk. We call it, “Torque and Chalk”. The observer will then sign off on the back of the tech’s work order. It takes a little more time, but it is worth the extra effort.

 

This is our way of quality control. I thought I would share our process with everyone.

[xrac]

Ever had a wheel fall off??? I refuse to answer on the grounds that it might incriminate me. When I was a lot younger and more stupid I actually had the wheel fall off of my car while I was driving because the guy who repaired our flat tire didn't tighten it down properly. No real damage occured but it was very inconvemient since there was 8 inches of snow on the ground and I was in the middlle of no where.

 

Joe that is an excellent QC procedure.

[FROGFINDER]

We center the wheels and install the nuts by hand and then torque the nuts by hand to oem spec with a torque wrench. We repair many stripped lug studs/nuts that were run up with torque sticks.That creates a different problem in which people can't remove the wheels when they need to for a flat or service. Many european models use lug bolts that screw into threaded holes on the hub's that are expensive to replace when the threaded holes are stripped out. I see that on most tire shops invoices it is noted that the serviced vehicle's wheels be retorqued in 50 miles or no warranty whatsoever.

 

Happy Daylight Savings time to all- I feel an hour younger.

Edited November 6, 2011 by FROGFINDER

[CARMandP]

Its not if you have had a tire fall off, its when. I won't say anything other than I have had it happen. Fortunately, no one was hurt and my insurance took care of the repairs. I really think it has to do with how well you take care of the "mistake" All the best processes in the world, can't prevent all accidents. I sent a customer recently to one of the largest tire chains in our area (yes, I didn't have a tire machine so I had no choice). The customer had a tire fall off, causing damage to the car. Fortunately, the customer was turning into a parking spot so it didn't hurt anyone. Even though all the "processes" had been followed it still happened. The manager at this tire store bent over backward and took care of everything. This customer was so impressed, they personally told me so.

[Mario]

I have never had a wheel fall off, but other mistakes occur due to stress, pressure, productivity, and just trying to get things done in general. I think sometimes as owners, managers, mechanics etc... we need to just take a step back, slow down, and recheck our work before it leaves the lot. There is a lot going on in an auto garage, and the pressure from owners, productivity goals, and customers can cause us to over look the most simple things.

 

The fast paced society we live in today contributes to these errors, we just have to learn how to minimize them while staying productive and safe at the same time.

 

 

Joe, I do like your torque method with a coworker in sight. I may consider doing this in my shop when I hire in help.

Edited November 27, 2011 by Mario

[FROGFINDER]

I have never had a wheel fall off, but other mistakes occur due to stress, pressure, productivity, and just trying to get things done in general. I think sometimes as owners, managers, mechanics etc... we need to just take a step back, slow down, and recheck our work before it leaves the lot. There is a lot going on in an auto garage, and the pressure from owners, productivity goals, and customers can cause us to over look the most simple things.

 

The fast paced society we live in today contributes to these errors, we just have to learn how to minimize them while staying productive and safe at the same time.

 

 

Joe, I do like your torque method with a coworker in sight. I may consider doing this in my shop when I hire in help.

 

Asking that wheels be retorqued and then watching it being done helps alot.

[Brianp]

We had an ambulance wheel fall of in our parking lot when it was being brought it. thankfully it had just had brand new tires put on by someone else. That was neat

[Dan Reichow]

We use torque sticks then- hand torque .

We have a stamp that informs the client to come back in 200 miles for retorque and have them intial about 90 % come back.

 

We still have clients complain to tight when they try to remove the tires , but with the o/e equipped or handiman tools it is hard on some.

 

hope this helps

[Biff Tannon]

Torque wheels to spec before and after test drive.

[TheTrustedMechanic]

I have only had one wheel fall off. It was this year on a Volvo XC70. Brilliant me, I was doing brake work and putting her summer tires/rims on. Well one front lug bolt was missing so I decided to be nice and replace it, no charge. So I ordered up another. The bolt had been missing so long the threads were badly rusted and wouldn't take the bolt with out force so I "dressed all the threads in that hub with a rethreading tap, not a thread cutting tap. I ALWAYS install the wheel nuts/bolts with a torque stick and then hand torque them to the manufacturer's recommendation in AllData. She talked to me about a week later. She had driven it about 50 miles before the tire came off. Luckily she was still on a slow back country road. She said her neighbor who was kind of a car guy snagged a lug bolt from each of the other wheels and put the tire back on and TIGHTENED, she emphasized very tight, the wheel bolts. She drove back home and the next day started back to town, a total of about 4 miles and the wheel came loose again. So she stopped, tightened the bolts herself and drove back home to get her truck. So I towed the Volvo in, replaced the wheel bearing/hub assembly, replaced all the missing wheel bolts and the ones that looked damaged and she's been driving it for four months now with no issues. Just another reason I hate eurotrash. I don't really blame the car, but the problem was on a euro car after all.

 

I review all of my work orders with my customers before I have them sign and I put a disclaimer on all work orders where the tires were off,

"Improper, uneven or excessive wheel nut (or lug nut) torque can contribute to brake rotor distortion and eventually brake pulsation. Care must always be taken to properly and evenly tighten wheel nuts when rotating tires or when a tire is removed for any reason.

 

Wheel nut torque MUST be rechecked after approximately 50 miles."

 

I know 50 miles is really soon, but when the average customer comes back, when the remember it, which is typically 100-200 miles later I don't see a problem.

[RobMax]

The commedian Ron White has a great skit on his experience with a wheel falling off after having new tires installed on his van. Here is a link to short Youtube video and article about service failures and what companies should do if it does happen...

 

http://robertmaxim.com/auto-repair-marketing/731-social-networking-is-forever.htm

[EhtRob]

We implemented a system where EVERY wheel is hand torqued, we modified our repair orders to show a line item at the bottom to show wheel torque and

 

the tech writes down the value he torqued the wheel to. At the end of the day I scan each and every repair order so I have a copy of this information. Comes

 

in handy sometimes. I had an old guy last month tell me he was doing his own brake job at home and couldn't get the wheels off. He accused us of

 

tightening his wheels too tight when we installed tires on his car the previous month. I pulled up the scan that showed what the tech torqued them to.

 

Come to find out he was using a tiny 1/2 ratchet.

[FROGFINDER]

In my 45 years of dealing with Gomer And Goober or the very best mechanics that I knew NEVER leave loose lug nuts. Then the phone call and the unexplained wheel fastener failure. I have seem more failures with the Euro cars, customer universal mount wheels, and vehicles parked outside in apartments or townhomes. Thus far no injuries or major property damage thank God.

[Joe Marconi]

I know of a large shop in New York that has two people torque the wheels; the tech on the job and the foreman does it again. I guess this is a bigger problem than most of would have considered. And I do agree, this was not a problem years back, back then you had big heavy steel wheels and you just socked home the lug nuts with your air gun.

[Gonzo]

A wheel fall off...since I've been in business...ah, no...BUT back when I was young and dumb (got thru the young part) I was changing the wheels on a Triumph for a used car lot I was working for and had to take it down to get it aligned next. I left the lot turned onto a busy street and in the middle of the intersection the right front took off down the street leaving me blocking traffic. I managed to get it to the corner and called the boss. He was more concerned about the car, me...I was scared shtttless. LOL

 

These days, it's torque sticks and a torque wrench. Safe instead of sorry...besides, getting stuck in an interescetion isn't high on my list of things I want to do again.

 

[RWI]

We hand torque all wheels, generally the cars we service have center caps so that's a good indicator that they still need to be torqued after its off the lift, another problem I have seen is people torquing them while the car only is park which allows movement that can create an under torque condition, I instruct all techs to leave the lift slightly raised so that there is no movement of the car.

 

I like the chalk idea, I may try that. I do not under the torque stick usage if your hand torquing, We run them up lightly, then hand torque.