Bugger.....3 wheels on my wagon.

[Metters]

what would ahve been the cause of the lost wheel? broken studs, loose wheel nuts,

and would they have broken cos of over tighten the nuts?

That is a good question Peter and I hope Bazz is able to find out.  It is just not logical to say it is a "Nissan thing".  If the car had a design fault then Nisan would have fixed it years ago and recalled all affected models.  No manufacturer could afford to ignore a problem that caused wheels to fall off.

I spent 19 years working in the motor industry in my younger days starting at a time when 4wds were a rare sight on the roads.  I replaced plenty of broken wheel studs all through those years.  I think it comes down to two things: over tightening and over loading. Over tightening has always been with us but excessive weight in the pre 4wd days was not all that common.  It is a major issue today with 4wds being the main offenders.  When you over load the rear end, no amount of heavier springs, shocks or air bags are going to strengthen the standard wheel studs or the axle housing for that matter.  I have seen a few of those either cracked or broken in half.

I would like to see statistics that compare wheel losses between cars towing with weight distributing hitches and those without them.  These hitches lift weight off the rear wheels and transfer it to the front wheels.  The owner's handbook in my Hilux 4X4 says I must use one if I put more than 90 kg on the tow ball but if I did, and towed a camper through erosion ditches or creeks, the thing would be bent at such an angle that it would go close to ripping the tow bar off.

For this reason you rarely see them on campers but many of them have huge ball weights that are way over the limit for my car and I suspect many other makes.  When you combine that with a couple of spare wheels hanging off the back of the car, plus a loaded roof rack and whatever is inside the back of the car, you have a hell of a lot of force banging down onto those little wheel studs.  On top of that you have the forces generated when the car runs over cattle grids and corrugations.  They increase by the square of the speed of the car.

I would not be surprised if this was the primary reason why many 4wds break wheel studs with over tightening a reason as well but running a distant second.

[D4D]

If the car had a design fault then Nisan would have fixed it years ago and recalled all affected models.  No manufacturer could afford to ignore a problem that caused wheels to fall off.

Nissan have a recall for the fault whereby they supply tension indicators as previously posted.

[GeoffA]

Nissan have a recall for the fault whereby they supply tension indicators as previously posted.

Yep. Fixed......

[Brumbypt]

I have heard for a while now that over tightening causes them to break..

I had a go at my mate earlier this year when I was working on his rig. It was all I could do to undo his nuts, even with the breaker bar.. they were way too tight.




Peter,
iPad with IOS 7.0.3 using Tapatalk HD

[TOPNDR]

It is just not logical to say it is a "Nissan thing". 

Sorry Metters but it is a Nissan thing.  Just like cracking on the larger of the two barn doors is not an isolated incident.  Both somehow don't seem to warrant an official recall. But both very definitely plague many a nissan owner. 

Nissan's approach to these two issues alone, are why I'll NEVER own another.

[Metters]

Nissan have a recall for the fault whereby they supply tension indicators as previously posted.

Do these indicators still show the nuts working loose even after they have been tightened to the correct tension with a tension wrench that is accurate?  If they no longer come loose then there was no problem in the first place, just a lot of people not tightening them correctly.

Cracks have occured in many cars over the years with some being design faults and others caused by extreme use.  II have a book that contains an interview with one of the GM engineers who was on the design team for the 48 215 model Holden in 1948.  He said they were engineered to last for 35000 miles or around 56000 ks.  That was in normal family use.  The Holdens in the famous Redex trials of 1953, '54 and '55 were plagued with body and subframe cracks.  They were not overloaded but were pushed to the limit on unsealed roads.  It did not happen in normal street use so there was no need to redesign the car.

Some EH Holdens at Bathurst in October 1963 tore the centres out of their wheels.  The race was for standard cars over 500 miles on a good public road yet sustained high speed was too much for the wheels.  Once again ther were no problems on the street.

I have seen cracked rear doors on Landcruisers while working for three Toyota dealers.  They all had oversize and heavier aftermarket wheels mounted on them so they were outside their design limits.

We had a lot of trouble with French alloy wheels buckling on new 505 Peugeots.  It was not a design fault because it did not happen in Europe.  The issue was they did not suit Australian conditions so they were all replaced without question with a locally made wheel.  That was a genuine fault and the manufacturer fixed it immediately.

There is always a lot more than meets the eye in many of these cases.  I have had enough to do with dealers, warranty problems, State distributors and manufacturers to know that if there is a problem that must be fixed then they will fix it. If they don't then the litigation lawyers will soon sort them out.

There is a few link below on wheel problems.  Over or under tightening are major causes of failures as is overloading and that is one area where 4wd are right up at the top of the list. 

Note the warning about lubricating studs in some of them.  Never do it unless the manufacturer says so and I have yet to find one that recommends it. 


http://www.normarkindustries.com/CausesEffects.htm

http://www.crashforensics.com/wheelandhubfailures.cfm

http://www.boltscience.com/pages/failure4.htm

http://www.caravanandmotorhomebooks.com/articles/why_wheels_fall_off.html

[GGV8Cruza]

I carry a torque wrench in the GU for this exact reason, after anyone removes a wheel I check them and then again after a bit of driving. It only takes 5 minutes with the wrench to make sure all the nuts are up tight.

Like all cars they have their problems, for the Patrol its wheel nuts, cracked barn doors, bubbly dashes and the 3.0l grenade.

GG