Problems with my wheel(s)?

[thrawnis]

As I posted some time ago, I got some new TSW Cadwell wheels (as shown in my sig). They were installed about a month ago. A few days after I got them put in, I got an alignment. About 4 days (and ~200 miles since I got the wheels/tires) later, I heard a clinking type of noise when driving through my work parking garage with my windows down. I looked around and didn't see any problems. After driving another couple miles, I pulled over again just before getting onto the freeway. After a quick walk-around, I noticed that the rear-passenger wheel was missing 3 of its five lug nuts!! They were completely gone with no damage to the wheels that I could tell and only two adjacent lugs will still holding the wheel on the hub! The exposed 3 posts (that the lugs screw onto) looked totally fine, as if they were undamaged. I'm glad I pulled over and didn't get on the freeway going 80mph for 30 miles!!!

After towing my car to the tire/wheel shop where I got the wheels installed and that I have gone to for many years and trust, they claimed that there was a rubber grommet on the hub/brake rotor part that maybe wasn't allowing the wheel to sit flush onto the car. They inspected everything and all the posts, the wheels, etc. all looked completely fine so they put new lugs on and removed and re-torqued down all the lug nuts for all 4 wheels.

Now, about 3 weeks later, the same wheel had ANOTHER lug nut pop off. Again, there is no trace of damage to anything and I checked the lugs to make sure they are all torqued down to the proper specs, and they are. But that same wheel is now missing one lug while all the other four are just fine!

Do you guys have any thoughts on what could be causing this problem? Do the posts (or whatever they are called) that the lugs attached to need replacement? Could the wheel itself be damaged due to poor quality control or something and cause this problem?

As a side note: With the stock wheels, I had zero problems with steering wheel vibration, balancing, alignment issues. But now, when I get to freeway speeds around 65mph or above, the steering wheel shakes like I have warped rotors, but even when I am not hitting the brakes. This tells me that it might be a balancing issue, but I thought I would mention this.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide!

[ebumdude]

wow man, that sucks!

the only thing i can chime in on is your last comment about vibration at highway speeds without touching the brakes. you are correct, it sounds like to me a balancing issue. i only know that from a prev. vehicle i owned.

hopefully you can get your probs taken care of.

[Pawel062]

sounds to me like the lugs are slowly becoming unscrewed. the vibration is 100% balancing. had this once on my 07. i would try replacing the studs and maybe even the lugs.

[Redline_Me]

I think the vibration is causing it or the wheel might be bent. Mine vibrates at around 65-70mph and then around 80mph. But i have never had anything come off. Do you have hub rings?

[njerald]

Are you using the correct lug nuts???????????????

[CamrySExxx]

I glanced through ... I didnt notice if you mentioned hub centric rings?

ps. You should be using 12x1.5mm tuner lugs.

[lammydi]

Originally Posted by njerald

Are you using the correct lug nuts???????????????

+1

Originally Posted by CamrySExxx

I glanced through ... I didnt notice if you mentioned hub centric rings?

ps. You should be using 12x1.5mm tuner lugs.

+1 The first thing I would check is to make sure you are using the correct lug nuts!
The second thing is you should use the hub centric rings to see if the vibration goes away. If the vibration is still there after you have the hub centric rings installed then have your wheel/tires rebalance. I good tire shop can tell you whether it's the tires or the wheels is slight bend.
My guess is you are not using the correct lug nuts because even if you have vibration, you still don't just keep losing lug nuts.
Btw, you are not using wheel spacers, are you? If you are using anything thicker than 5mm spacers then you should replace wheel studs to extended studs. Also, are you using the hand torque wrench set at atleast 77 ft/lbs?
I set mine at 80 ft/bls but that is just my preference.

[thrawnis]

To answer the questions above:

- I do have the hub-centric rings. When they removed the wheels from the car the last time I took it in, I saw the white rings there and I saw them put the rings back on before they put the wheels on.
- TSW included, in the box for each wheel, a set of brand new lug nuts. I personally know nothing about lug nuts, but I would hope that TSW would and that what they included would be the correct versions for my car.
- All the lugs were torqued to 80 ft/lbs (even though the manual says 76 ft/lbs).
- I am not running any spacers right now.

As lammydi mentioned, I was also thinking that the wheel could be bent, but the wheel that is having all these problems is the rear-right. Theoretically, I would imagine that any vibration issues would be felt throughout the whole car and not just the steering wheel in this case.

I will be taking my car to my tire shop again and ask them to hang on to the car until they can fully figure this out. I drive a little aggressively (but not unsafely) so I don't want any types of problems when taking a hard turn or something.

Any other ideas?

[CamrySExxx]

Originally Posted by thrawnis

To answer the questions above:

- I do have the hub-centric rings. When they removed the wheels from the car the last time I took it in, I saw the white rings there and I saw them put the rings back on before they put the wheels on.
- TSW included, in the box for each wheel, a set of brand new lug nuts. I personally know nothing about lug nuts, but I would hope that TSW would and that what they included would be the correct versions for my car.
- All the lugs were torqued to 80 ft/lbs (even though the manual says 76 ft/lbs).
- I am not running any spacers right now.

As lammydi mentioned, I was also thinking that the wheel could be bent, but the wheel that is having all these problems is the rear-right. Theoretically, I would imagine that any vibration issues would be felt throughout the whole car and not just the steering wheel in this case.

I will be taking my car to my tire shop again and ask them to hang on to the car until they can fully figure this out. I drive a little aggressively (but not unsafely) so I don't want any types of problems when taking a hard turn or something.

Any other ideas?

Did you specially order them from tsw and give them your info?
Try taking a lug off and see if they have the info/size of the lugs stamped on it. I know my tuner lugs do.

[bridges1]

Try to rotate the tire to the other side and see what happens.

[SE_2007]

only 3 possible causes;
1- your rims
2- you lugs
3- your tires

[thrawnis]

Originally Posted by CamrySExxx

Did you specially order them from tsw and give them your info?
Try taking a lug off and see if they have the info/size of the lugs stamped on it. I know my tuner lugs do.

I bought the wheels/tires from my local auto shop (Tucker Tires in Laguna Niguel, CA) and they ordered them from Wheel Warehouse (around the Anaheim, CA area). The boxes were completely sealed when they were delivered to Tucker and when they opened the box, I saw the lug nuts in a plastic wrapped package. The other boxes also probably were packaged the same way.

Originally Posted by bridges1

Try to rotate the tire to the other side and see what happens.

I may just to have to rotate front to back to try and figure this out. These are directional tires so I don't think I can swap the passenger-side tires to the driver-side safely.

[Zonsolo]

I find it suspicious only one wheel is having this problem.

Do you park the car outside? (possible vandals who get scared away?)

[CamrySExxx]

Originally Posted by thrawnis

I bought the wheels/tires from my local auto shop (Tucker Tires in Laguna Niguel, CA) and they ordered them from Wheel Warehouse (around the Anaheim, CA area). The boxes were completely sealed when they were delivered to Tucker and when they opened the box, I saw the lug nuts in a plastic wrapped package. The other boxes also probably were packaged the same way.




I may just to have to rotate front to back to try and figure this out. These are directional tires so I don't think I can swap the passenger-side tires to the driver-side safely.

I'm not sure why they would send lugs with it ... since different cars have different sizes etc.

Try swapping your lugs around... so take a few from the front and put it to the rear or something. Cuz it might be highly unlikely but your studs could be messed up some how. You gotta try out every variable.
ps. do you have a security lug nut?

[thrawnis]

Originally Posted by Zonsolo

I find it suspicious only one wheel is having this problem.

Do you park the car outside? (possible vandals who get scared away?)

My car is parked on a secondary street (not high traffic) a couple blocks from my house. It could be malicious, but I don't think it is.

Originally Posted by CamrySExxx

I'm not sure why they would send lugs with it ... since different cars have different sizes etc.

Try swapping your lugs around... so take a few from the front and put it to the rear or something. Cuz it might be highly unlikely but your studs could be messed up some how. You gotta try out every variable.
ps. do you have a security lug nut?

I stuck with the standard, non-locking lugs for now and will be getting locking ones in the next few months.

By the way, since that one lug nut came off, my steering wheel has been shaking FAR less than it was when the lug nut was on. Maybe the wheel is tweaked now.

Since so many of you guys mentioned the size of the lug nuts being such a big deal, I will be sure to ask the shop about this when I drop by there tomorrow morning. Thanks everyone. I will give post an update afterwards!