My wife called me 10 minutes after going shopping this morning. She said that she could hear a stange drubbing sound coming from the front of the car and that steering felt a bit "funny" when she went around the previous roundabout. I asked her to check for flats but she could not see any. so I told her to stay put and jumped on my bike.

 

Upon inspection I noticed straight away that one of the wheel nuts (the locking security nut) was completely missing from the front near-side wheel. I popped the boot open and removed the jack for the very first time (glad that I ordered the spare wheel option). After jacking the front up I found that the remaing 4 wheel nuts were also loose. All apart from one nut were loose enough to be removed by hand. After tightening the wheel (minus one nut) I checked the other wheels. Both off-side wheels were fine, but the rear near-side also had 5 untightened nuts. I could not remove these by hand, but they each needed the merest touch of the wrench to move them.

 

With 4x nuts on the affected wheel I drove carefully home, stopping at a VW Garage on the way. The workshop was closed, but one of the sales guys kindly found a compatible nut that I fitted straight away.

 

My car (VRS) has done 5K miles since new and has never had the wheels removed. My guess is that one side of the car was under-torqued at the factory or during PDI, but I have no way of proving this and 5K miles seems an awful long way to travel on loose nuts. Fortunately there appears to be no damage.

 

I plan to check my nuts on a regular basis from now on.

 

 

 

And didn't we all think that this was about something else.....

 

 

Good advice though.

No where near as bad as yours but I got about a quarter to half turn extra on every wheel nut with the torque wrench on the correct setting when my car was new.

By the way I commend your wife for noticing it... and doing something about it.

Edited 15 November, 201411 yr by Gerrycan

Kids setting up to nick your wheels, only problem they had was unlike you they didn't have a jack as they've not spec'd the spare wheel option in their get away car.

Funny thing is that it was the security nut which was missing. The remaining nuts all had their caps on but were loose underneath them. Taking a guess I would say that whoever fixed the wheels on may have left/forgot to tighten the security nuts on one side, and over time this single loose nut has caused the others to loosen. I have not washed the car for over a month so one nut may have been MIA for ages.

 

edit: I am surprised my wife noticed the problem before the wheel fell off. It must have been making a real racket because normally she is oblivious to flat tyres and such things.

Edited 15 November, 201411 yr by Orville

edit: I am surprised my wife noticed the problem before the wheel fell off. It must have been making a real racket because normally she is oblivious to flat tyres and such things.

 I know you love her but, why do you let her drive your car ?

I know you love her but, why do you let her drive your car ?

Its just a car, and wives are much more expensive to replace.

This used to happen a lot in the hospital carpark. Normally means the low life ****s were disturbed whilst in the act, the fact that the locking nut was missing adds weight to this.

Proballly down to the garage that did the pre-delivery inspection. Even if they don't need to remove the wheels to check or remove any "packaging". They should ensure all wheel nuts are set correctly during this process.

The only one checking my nuts is me. - I am the only one that can drive.

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Many owners and buyers collecting new cars or cars after servicing, or new tyres fitted never check and set tyre pressures, (or reset TPMS)

 

let alone check the cars wheel nuts, 

or even if they can get the wheels off in an emergency at the road side on a dark wet or wintry day or night.

Edited 15 November, 201411 yr by goneoffSKi

If was a PDI fault, I would have thought that it would have been apparent within 1500 miles, my bet would be on attempted theft.

I assume it had no recent garage work? One of our friends drove away after a service and one of her rear wheels fell off. Cost the garage (not a Skoda, nor a main dealer) involved a fortune (they couldn't evade guilt !!!)

This is nothing new. I believe every new car after 5k miles or so needs wheel bolts to be rechecked after everything "settles down".

If was a PDI fault, I would have thought that it would have been apparent within 1500 miles, my bet would be on attempted theft.

My money would be on this too. Having forgot to torque bolts before I can't see them taking so long to come loose.

If I were you I'd take the wheel off and check the bolt holes for damage. The studs may have eaten into the alloy and damaged it.  Could be dangerous.

 

I had this on a Beetle wheel which was refurbished by Lepsons.  They told me that one wheel was not safe to use and I had to sign a disclaimer to state I wouldn't use it on the road. 

This used to happen a lot in the hospital carpark. Normally means the low life ****s were disturbed whilst in the act, the fact that the locking nut was missing adds weight to this.

 

+1, no point in removing the other 4 if you can’t get the locking BOLT off.

 

Trucks need the wheel nuts re-torqued 100kms after the wheels have been removed,

 

sorry but if the car is already on 5K miles then they have not worked loose, some sticky fingered oink fancied your wheels (or more than likely the money after he had eBayed them)

My nuts are nice and tight.

BUT, I had exactly the same thing on my Scirocco, bloody scary!

Think I'll get my torque wrench out tomorrow - though car's only done 320 miles so far!!

 

Is it still 120 Nm for wheel nuts?

Yep 120 for steel or alloy.

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Just checked (a few !) and all correctly tightened.

 

By the way, are those wheel nut caps really necessary? They hardly show and can be a pig to get off.

My dealer says I have the right tool already (a metal ring with a short arm on it, with a small right-angle bend at the end of the arm) for this, but I think there should be a different one, shaped a bit like a pair of tweezers? I'm going by the illustration and description of tools supplied,  in the owners manual. I think the tool he described is for wheel trim removal

If I were you I'd take the wheel off and check the bolt holes for damage. The studs may have eaten into the alloy and damaged it. Could be dangerous.

I had this on a Beetle wheel which was refurbished by Lepsons. They told me that one wheel was not safe to use and I had to sign a disclaimer to state I wouldn't use it on the road.

Most alloy wheels have steel insert in the alloy casting to stop this,but unfortunatley will still elongate the steel due to the force exherted by the torque in the wheel,so cant win really can you,iv experienced alloys on my rs1600i escort coming loose after a refurbed, as the bolt holes had been painted,and when tightened would crack the paint where the bolt shoulders are,and wheel would be loose and knocking after a while once it warmed up,now I make sure bolt holes are not coated on my car restorations

On the other side, I went to put my winters on my Merc today (Skoda on the way).  They'd been overtworqued so much by the garage that did the MoT and tracking that I couldn't undo them with any of my tools.  took it to the garage - who smirked at me for my weakness - then broke my locking wheel nut and their wrench trying to undo them.

Took the wheel off this afternoon and inspected everything. There is some slight wear/edging on the inside of the alloy where it mounts but nothing worth bothering about. Nuts and holes look fine but I need to find another skoda locking nut and cap.

 

The thing which make me belive this was not a theft attempt is the rear n/s wheel having 5x loose nuts yet still having all 5x caps in place. A theif would not replace the caps if disturbed. The other possibility is that someone is trying to knock me off.

 

edit: I also swapped front-to-back wheels today. After 5500 miles the fronts are half-worn but the rears had 80% left. I guess they'll all need replacing soemwhere between 10-12K.

 

Is 30PSI correct for standard 18" VRS wheels?

Edited 16 November, 201411 yr by Orville

Took the wheel off this afternoon and inspected everything. There is some slight wear/edging on the inside of the alloy where it mounts but nothing worth bothering about. Nuts and holes look fine but I need to find another skoda locking nut and cap.

 

The thing which make me belive this was not a theft attempt is the rear n/s wheel having 5x loose nuts yet still having all 5x caps in place. A theif would not replace the caps if disturbed. The other possibility is that someone is trying to knock me off.

 

edit: I also swapped front-to-back wheels today. After 5500 miles the fronts are half-worn but the rears had 80% left. I guess they'll all need replacing soemwhere between 10-12K.

 

Is 30PSI correct for standard 18" VRS wheels?

2.4 bar  (35PSI) it's inside the fuel flap, but varies depending on load etc.

 

Is SWMBO after the life insurance money?