"Had one but the wheel fell off"

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LuckyPhil

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WTF new d40 b in July left Rocky 2amthis morn for Brisbane when 2hrs into the trip I felt a little wiggle at the back so started to slow down when the lft rear fell off.
Missing 4 nuts with the 5th stud and nut missing.
Ive never taken the wheels off.
Will try for warranty Monday.

Has any one had similar luck?
Im vey curious as to whether this is a common problem or not.
 
Was common on patrols. Not so much on navaras, but doesn't mean it won't happen. Usually from not checking wheel nut torque with a torque wrench when removing and replacing wheels. The left side is the worst for it as the rotation of thw wheels on that side naturally wants to loosen the nuts off.

For the patrol fix they were checking them and giving out wheel nut indicators to allow a quick visual check to see if nuts were loose.
 
Happens with alloy rims that aren't tightened properly or checked shortly after installation. I'd been told to install the wheel, drive for 100km, then check my nuts.

What holds the vehicle up is not the wheel studs/nuts - it's the clamping force provided by these against the hub. The axle holds the vehicle up. Loosen the nuts, you lose the clamping force and you start to have problems.

On the left side, wheel rotation will spin the nuts straight off and cause separation. On the right side, the nuts won't spin off but you'll shear the studs as they bend up and down trying to carry the weight of the vehicle. Hard left hand turns in a top-heavy vehicle like ours only make this worse.

The solution: as Bods says, use a torque wrench.

Is it common for the Navara? Not that I have read or seen.
 
If the vehicle is relatively new you could certainly try for warrantee. Would of thought checking the wheel nuts would of been part of the pre delivery and or the first service. Which is more of a check for just that type of thing.

As mentioned always use a tension wrench. Torque down progressively and evenly and you'll never have a wheel nut come undone.
 
Hey guys,
What torque should the wheel nuts be done up to? I'm due to rotate the tyres. Cheers
 
In forty years of being around cars, workshops, tyres services ect i have never once seen anyone use a torque wrench on wheels, not one single person.

I also dont ever remember reading or talking to anyone that has had this happen to their NEW car, yes ive heard of it on older cars and especially ones that had just had the wheels off but never a new D40 off the lot.
So to answer one of your questions i dont believe it is a common problem Navara suffer from.

Did you have a vehicle inspection before your trip?
maybe they checked your rear brakes and when they put the rim back on the drum held the wheel out a little until it was driven leaving the wheel loose??
 
In forty years of being around cars, workshops, tyres services ect i have never once seen anyone use a torque wrench on wheels, not one single person.

I also dont ever remember reading or talking to anyone that has had this happen to their NEW car, yes ive heard of it on older cars and especially ones that had just had the wheels off but never a new D40 off the lot.
So to answer one of your questions i dont believe it is a common problem Navara suffer from.

Did you have a vehicle inspection before your trip?
maybe they checked your rear brakes and when they put the rim back on the drum held the wheel out a little until it was driven leaving the wheel loose??
How have you seen them done up though, just lay on the rattle gun til they're tight? Have you at least seen them get a breaker bar and socket to check the tension after using a rattle gun?

As for the torque specs, they will be listed in the owners manual I'd say.
 
Most tyre places these days manually check your wheel nuts after using a rattle gun, seems to be most tyre company policy's, don't know about nissan but it is part of a service at the Mazda dealership the wife uses to rotate the tyres,
 
How have you seen them done up though, just lay on the rattle gun til they're tight? Have you at least seen them get a breaker bar and socket to check the tension after using a rattle gun?

As for the torque specs, they will be listed in the owners manual I'd say.

Yeah they check manually after using a rattle gun but NEVER. Go and get a proper torque wrench then set it to a specific manufacturer torque setting and go around adjusting each nut on each wheel,
It's just not going to happen and totally unnecessary.
Tighten them up in the correct pattern and give them another go round to double check and your good to go.
 
Yeah they check manually after using a rattle gun but NEVER. Go and get a proper torque wrench then set it to a specific manufacturer torque setting and go around adjusting each nut on each wheel,
It's just not going to happen and totally unnecessary.
Tighten them up in the correct pattern and give them another go round to double check and your good to go.
Yeah, could have been someone taking shortcuts, just throw the rattle gun on em and she's good to go... or maybe they forgot to check that wheel, for whatever reason...

Trucks are a different story. They definitely check torque on them with a torque wrench after doing them up with a rattle gun.
 
98-127nm,
73-93ft-lb'
10-12.9kgm'
That's what Nissan manual recommends. I bought a torque wrench and do all of mine to that.
I use to just tighten with a bar but ol monkey hands has a tendency to over do it and I have broken studs this way before...
Nearly all tyre shops are hand torqueing. Id sat it would be to do with insurance and liability more than anything..
 
Yeah they check manually after using a rattle gun but NEVER. Go and get a proper torque wrench then set it to a specific manufacturer torque setting and go around adjusting each nut on each wheel,
It's just not going to happen and totally unnecessary.
Tighten them up in the correct pattern and give them another go round to double check and your good to go.

Used 2 different shops here and both did each wheel nut with torque wrench.
 
I always do the recheck after 50 to 100kms driven to make sure.
Same in the truck. Except for spiders, they may take a bit more to settle.
 
In forty years of being around cars, workshops, tyres services ect i have never once seen anyone use a torque wrench on wheels, not one single person.

We have a tension wrench set aside for wheel nuts only, preset at 110Nm which covers most specs. If a wheel's been removed it's tensioned back up correctly before it leaves the workshop, my staff have it drummed into them that if a wheel departs company the result could be someone's death!
 
We have a tension wrench set aside for wheel nuts only, preset at 110Nm which covers most specs. If a wheel's been removed it's tensioned back up correctly before it leaves the workshop, my staff have it drummed into them that if a wheel departs company the result could be someone's death!

Still havent seen it myself and actually did a little ring around a few tyre services this arvo just out of curiosity and none of them do it, although one bloke made his workers use it if they mucked up using the rattle gun wrong or over doing it.

Im not saying its wrong or wright im just saying i never seen anyone do it, and after all the wheels ive put on all my own cars i have never done it.

Anyway this poor guy's wheel coming off definitely was due to someone stuffing up, which could of been done no matter what method was used, someone forgot the forth wheel when they were checking, or the drum hadnt been seated correctly and gave a false torque setting and once it was driven it popped on leaving the wheel loose? either way it isnt a "common Navara Issue"
its a human error issue
 
One of the problems with replacing a wheel is oxidisation of the mating surface. General rule of thumb: if you see orange on the mating surface, grab the wire brush before you replace the wheel. If you don't, the oxidisation will slowly settle in the clamped area and as the pressure reduces, wheel can start to move.

Rattle guns: are designed to torque nuts up to a certain degree. A rattle gun from say Snap-On has 4 torque settings. They work differently in reverse - from undoing, to "nut busting". I'd imagine that most tyre shops have their rattle guns set to accomodate most vehicles.

So even if you don't apply a manual torque wrench, a rattle gun - also referred to as a windy gun, torque gun or air wrench - is doing the job in a reasonable fashion.

Maybe in the original instance, the mating face had some debris on it, it was torqued correctly and then let go over time? Maybe it was vandalism, which is a new and quite disturbing thought.
 
The problem with rattle guns is the setting varies as the air pressure increases/decreases with the motor kicking in and out. if it was the 4th wheel and the air pressure was down the tightness is dramatically reduced.
All rattle gun bolts should be hand checked for this reason.
 
I use to be a tyre fitter. Rattle gun then always check with torque wrench when car on the ground.
 

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