Wheel bolts loosened off!!

[Sanyes]

Hi,

My experience starts when I decided to buy a set of 4 new alloy wheels for my T29 van.
Found some Amarok OE alloy wheels 16" and decided to buy them even though, I knew I had to buy some spacers too.
Amarok wheels had 62 ET and wouldn't fit w/o spacers in the front.
Talked to a shop that manufactures wheel spacers and decided to buy 20mm spacers + longer bolts from them.
Bolted everything together and seemed to fit just fine.
The day after that, loaded up the van with some friends and took a road-trip but after 300 miles I heard/felt some strange noise and wobble from my front left wheel.
Stopped and decided to investigate and found out that 2 of my bolts disappeared and a 3rd one was almost gone.

Question is what could be the culprit?
Obvious answer is, they guys at the tyre shop didn't tighten the bolts to the correct torque
OR
The longer bolts aren't suited for Amarok OE wheels? (they don't have the lose collar like the OE bolts have)

 

[dubber36]

It could be that they were not properly torqued. That's why most tyre places put a note on the invoice to check them again after 50 miles or so. Equally, those are not the correct bolts for OEM wheels.

 

[Howzat]

If that shop knew you were using OEM wheels then they should have known they are the wrong bolts. I would say the bolts are the issue here.

 

[Sanyes]

If that shop knew you were using OEM wheels then they should have known they are the wrong bolts. I would say the bolts are the issue here.

Yes, I told them all the details.
Sent them pictures and told what happened too. They said will get back to me on Monday

 

[Salty Spuds]

The reason for the domed washer on the OEM bolts is so that the actual bolt head is tightened against steel rather than alloy. The non-spinning bolt will grab the alloy & prevent the bolt from tightening properly. School boy error.

 

[Sanyes]

The reason for the domed washer on the OEM bolts is so that the actual bolt head is tightened against steel rather than alloy. The non-spinning bolt will grab the alloy & prevent the bolt from tightening properly. School boy error.

Makes sense.
Also they gave me bolts that had 17mm head, instead of the 19mm one.
Had a really great night asking for help

 

[MikeWillmott]

Also check the radius of the dome 12,13 and 14 are available. OEM are 14. I made the mistake of putting in the tapered ones I got with the second hand spacers and realised when I torqued them up that they were wrong ass it didn’t feel right. The I bought some which were 12mm radius and the guy at wheel parts direct said they weren’t an exact match but would work. Torqued up those and undid one to see that the area of grip was just a thin line - ditched those and removed the spacers as I had to drive to Weston Super Mare.
I now have correct radius and length from AKS tuning and will fit those tomorrow. If they feel and look ok on inspection of the land/grip area I’ll go with them for the time being but check regularly.
Ultimately I will change the spacers to 20mm and that will allow use of OEM bolts and peace of mind! Sorry for the epistle!

 

[Andysmee]

Ouch! Only to say, it could be worse. I had the same issue on a car and the wheel came off and bounced into the verge, and I had to ditch the car onto the brake disc on the hard shoulder. The wheel destroyed the wing.

Glad you're okay. Only money lost.

 

[sparkzer]

Ouch! Only to say, it could be worse. I had the same issue on a car and the wheel came off and bounced into the verge, and I had to ditch the car onto the brake disc on the hard shoulder. The wheel destroyed the wing.

Glad you're okay. Only money lost.

Similar thing happened to me years ago, i lost the rear wheel of my Hilux pickup doing about 60mph on the A1. luckily, traffic was light, i was in lane 1 and the wheel overtook me in lane 2 when i found myself looking at the sky! In a freak bit of luck, a recovery truck was about to overtake me, so he just stuck his ambers on and followed my stray wheel until it came to rest some distance up the road, just by a layby. i ended up sticking it in 4WD and limped it in to the layby where the nice recovery driver hooked me up (backwards!) on his spec lift and dropped me off at my mates about 10 miles up the road for beer money. it turned out someone did try and nick my wheels (the truck was lifted with bit offroad tyres worth a few quid) but gave up part way through s must of the nuts were found where it was parked up the night before.