FocusCanada Forums

so ... i've had a pretty s***ty day all together .. it all started on the drive to work;

i was cruising through wasaga on my way to work, when i started to feel a vibration in the steering wheel .. then 30 seconds later ... i see my LF wheel go flying down the road and nearly miss a house. I'm just glad there were no other cars around at the time.

You ask why did the wheel come off? well on saturday when i went to buffalo to pick up my new tires and have them installed. So from what i can figure out, when they put the rims back on my car, the LF wheel was missing the hub-centreing ring on the inside of the rim. After driving home from buffalo like this, then to work this morning it finally managed to work itself loose after wiggling around on the hub

in total i ended up breaking 4 wheel studs, damaging a rotor and LF fender, and am probably gonna need a new rim too, if the bolt holes can't be fixed

This finally gave me the chance to put my new rotors and pads on that i've been putting off using in hopes of getting darkpuppets big brake kit

i guess the only brightside to this happening today was that when i got home and went to pull into my driveway and there was a massive tree that got dropped in the tornado-like storm that went through stayner/collingwood/wasaga/elmvale tonight ... if i would have been home 45mins sooner, my car would be under that tree :)



and pics of the damage



and my new vs old brake pads


now i just gotta fight with the shop in buffalo to get them to fork up the cash for atleast some of the damage they caused

Jeezzus f'n christopher....

Are they going to pay for that mishap?

I hope so. Sorry about your luck. :(

yah, i'm gonna be going after them to pay for it all, or atleast the major stuff.... the flatbed toe alone cost me$120 for a 10 min drive

if they won't own up to this .. then i'll start going further up the corporate ladder of the Goodyear tire and auto service chain of command

What company did you go to? I'll see if there is any magic I can work here. PM me your name and stuff so I have some info to go on.

insane!

glad you're alright.. hope you can get it all sorted out man...

:blink:

Im REALLY glad your alright, that could have been much, much worse.

Wow, you were lucky, that could have ended really badly for you.

Good luck trying to get anything out of that shop at this stage. They'll blather on about how you drove like that since Saturday, that you have done something yourself after the car left the shop, how it passed muster with their "tire tech" etc., etc.

But look on the bright side, as you said, had you been home at your regular time you would be picking wood splinters out of your Focus instead <_<

NefCanuck

WOW, i've wondered what would happen if I didn't use my hub centric rings sometimes!

Yeah man it could have been allot worse, like what if this happened in a busy area where people walk on the streets, etc....a flying tire could kill someone.

Those "tire experts" should have never let your car on the road without that ring!

Let me know if Mike is doing anything for you. I haven't had a chance to call at all today, this place has been an unending nightmare all day. If you can't get anywhere I'll try to stop into the shop and see whats up.

Hey Kevin, what ring are you talking about? :ph34r:

torradan ... he's being more then helpfull .. there pretty much gonna repay me for all the damge and bills .. i just have to get a couple quotes together for my rim and fender then we shall go from there ... thanks for the help with that

Flo .. its a ring that fits inside the center of your rim that changes the size of the center of your rim to match your hub size

ah, so would stock wheels have this?

I just want to make sure. :ph34r:

no, stocks shouldn't as they are designed for the proper hub size ... and not all aftermarket wheels have it either .. its just a way of adapting the rims to your hub to make them fit properly

Funny I just read a thread on the Subaru forum about the same thing. Except he caught it before the wheel came off, one nut left. The shop had only put them on finger tight....

schade,Aug 3 2006, 04:04 PM Wrote:torradan ... he's being more then helpfull .. there pretty much gonna repay me for all the damge and bills .. i just have to get a couple quotes together for my rim and fender then we shall go from there ... thanks for the help with that

Flo .. its a ring that fits inside the center of your rim that changes the size of the center of your rim to match your hub size
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Excellent news! I'm glad he's helping you out with everything. Saves me the trouble of heading over there and punching him in the nose :)

Oh the story gets better .... I took my damaged rim into a tire shop in barrie to have the bolt holes looked at, and apperantly when BC Auto and Design built my car a few years ago, they simply drilled out the bolt holes on the rim then put a sleeve in them to get the proper bolt pattern

So now i have to go after BC Auto and Design to replace all four of my rims as this is a HIGHly unsafe practice ..... f***in hack jobs

I guess i'll be rockin the steelies and winter tires for the next little bit .. Fun

Really the ring had nothing to do with the wheel coming off. It was because the nuts were left loose or overtightened to the point of stretching the studs. Those plastic rings are really only there to help keep the rim and hub true. There are lots of cars running around from the factory that do not have wheels that fit tightly over the hub. If you have conical lug nuts that is. Lugs with washers like on F-150's need wheels that fit snugly over the hub.

holy sh!t. that's crazy. glad you are alright!!

Glad to hear they're paying for their mistakes, they technically should be giving you more cash than needed for the repair though, all that trouble they caused you... what a pain in the ass. I bet you were pretty shaken too.

schade,Aug 4 2006, 07:03 PM Wrote:I guess i'll be rockin the steelies and winter tires for the next little bit .. Fun
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the true rally look ;) ..

hope you get it all sorted out soon...