Wheel came off - what may be damaged?

[F00tsie]

Hello, we are newbies here.
Picked up our converted van yesterday and within a mile of leaving the dealer the front ns wheel flew off and the hub gouged the tarmac! (see pic)
Apparently either the bolts had been cross-threaded or the bolts had not been tightened up! There was obvious damage to the front wing and we could see the damage to the hub and disk brake but we are concerned that there may be damage to other internal parts.
Please can anyone advise what other unseen items we should insist are inspected by a VW dealer so that we can ensure safety of the van.
We were so excited at joining this community and introducing ouselves and the van, but it has suddenly turned into a nightmare!

 

[andys]

Jeez! That's awful, did they even put any bolts in at all? Not an expert on that stuff but am gutted for you, hope you get it sorted soon and this hasn't put you off.

 

[F00tsie]

Thank you for your concern andys, yes they put the bolts in and asked us to tighten them after 100 miles. Someone in their garden said he saw them ping off one by one and kindly collected them for us and left his number as a witness if needed.

 

[DaveD]

If you tell the VW dealer what happened they should give the van a full inspection, obviously paying a great deal attention to the underside, I'd have thought it unlikely that anything other than the brake disc has made contact with the road but a full examination is a must. And a check of every other wheel nut, obviously.
I hope your luck improves and I'm glad it didn't happen on lane 3 of the motorway!

 

[VanDamMan]

Hello, we are newbies here.
Picked up our converted van yesterday and within a mile of leaving the dealer the front ns wheel flew off and the hub gouged the tarmac! (see pic)
Apparently either the bolts had been cross-threaded or the bolts had not been tightened up! There was obvious damage to the front wing and we could see the damage to the hub and disk brake but we are concerned that there may be damage to other internal parts.
Please can anyone advise what other unseen items we should insist are inspected by a VW dealer so that we can ensure safety of the van.
We were so excited at joining this community and introducing ouselves and the van, but it has suddenly turned into a nightmare!View attachment 81745

Hi ... feel really sorry for you...Not sure about internals but would certainly have potential to knock back all the suspension components on that side ...lower arm...damper ...drive shaft ( may even damaged oil seals ) ...But you need to get accident investigation or vehicle structural inspection carried out...even at low speed has potential to knock loads of stuff out....Wow that just awful....Hope you are all ok

 

[DXX]

Well glad you’re OK and I hope you name and shame the dealer so we can avoid them.
You don’t mention how fast you were traveling at the time but personally I would request a replacement of the suspension arms, brake disc, complete drive shaft and wheel bearing.....plus the wheel and fasteners. Following that a thorough alignment check with special attention to subframe damage.
IMO best keep the details in emails or record the verbal conversations.

 

[F00tsie]

Thankk you DaveD. Our van was transported back to the conversion dealer. They are a three hour drive from our home! They've told us that they will sort it out and deliver it to us by the end of the week. We are so concerned that we will be delivered an unsafe van! Yes, thank God we never made it to the M6.

 

[Pete C]

Put it back in the hands of the converter and insist that it goes to a VW Garage.
Find out which VW Garage is dealing with it and speak to them directly, checking what they say/do.
It’s up to you if you want to name the converter, but I would give them a chance to sort this for you - a measure of how good a company is, is how well they sort issues such as this.
Feel free to come back here with any questions or issues.

Pete

 

[Spaghetti]

Welcome to the forum and the VW community.

Sorry to hear your news! I do hope the dealer does the right thing and repairs it all satisfactorily and makes it up to you.

Hopefully it doesn’t put you off, and this incident will be a distant memory soon.

 

[Pete C]

Ask them for an itemised list of what was checked and what was replaced.
Also ask for a complete front end alignment check.

Pete

 

[Spaghetti]

Out of curiousity what wheels/wheel bolts are fitted? Standard VW fare or aftermarket?

 

[F00tsie]

Thank you VanDam Man. We were travelling about 20mph. There was a strange sound coming from the wheel and decided to return it to the dealer so going really slow.
We had only done less than 1 mile of a 3 hour journey! Thank you so much for your detailed advice, we will take that all on board.

 

[F00tsie]

Put it back in the hands of the converter and insist that it goes to a VW Garage.
Find out which VW Garage is dealing with it and speak to them directly, checking what they say/do.
It’s up to you if you want to name the converter, but I would give them a chance to sort this for you - a measure of how good a company is, is how well they sort issues such as this.
Feel free to come back here with any questions or issues.

Pete

Thanks Pete, at the moment we are giving them a chance to rectify the situation and it is back with them. We assume it is going back to a VW authorised garage, but we will now email and insist that it does.

 

[F00tsie]

Out of curiousity what wheels/wheel bolts are fitted? Standard VW fare or aftermarket?

Spaghetti, the converters offered us alloy wheels and we chose 18 inch 'turismo' wheels - when we picked the van up we queried the fact that they had fitted 20 inch turismo wheels. They assured us that the ride quality would be as comfortable as 18 inch wheels because they didn't have ultra low profiles on. With regard to wheel bolts - no idea as we haven't got the technical knowledge, but the bloke in his garden who kindly picked them up for us said they had been sheared off!

 

[Spaghetti]

Worth getting a 2nd opinion on the quality of the bolts used then. When you say ‘sheared’ off, I presume they were therefore damaged and therefore could not be re-used? Had they been over tightened?

Such a shame that this is your introduction to the VW world.

 

[F00tsie]

Well glad you’re OK and I hope you name and shame the dealer so we can avoid them.
You don’t mention how fast you were traveling at the time but personally I would request a replacement of the suspension arms, brake disc, complete drive shaft and wheel bearing.....plus the wheel and fasteners. Following that a thorough alignment check with special attention to subframe damage.
IMO best keep the details in emails or record the verbal conversations.

DXX, thank you for tht information. We were travelling at no more than 20 mph becauese we were cincerned that the wheel was making a noise and we were heading bck to the converter, no more than a mile away. Regards naming and shaming.... we are absolutely gutted but feel we should give them the opportunity to rectify this - but watch this space!

 

[Bruntonpasty]

I would firstly question the compatibility of the wheel bolts for those wheels but most likely they've not been tightened up.. The hub should be changed as there may well be thread wear/damage. A bad experience for sure...

 

[Teesix]

When I got my 18" wheels I had to get longer wheel bolts as the existing ones (for 16" steel wheels) would have been too short. The effect would have been to rip them out of their threads as soon as the tyre came under load, such as turning.

Whoever put your wheels on either didn't use the correct length of bolts, or, they failed to tighten them properly. Wheel bolts don't have a tendency to spontaneously undo themselves.

 

[rover220]

Did they use the original vw wheel bolts!? Mistake if they did so as aftermarket wheels usually have taper seats and vw bolts are radius.

 

[Daffy]

Hmm, not enough info to really comment, but..

Wheel bolts do not shear without reason, as the witness said they were snapped it sounds like they were overtightened as its unlikely that running them loose would cause them to snap that quickly.

I would want that wheel, brake disc and anything else that has touched the floor replacing or independently inspecting for damage/serviceability, you should also insist that all other wheel bolts are replaced as a matter of course and the wheels are inspected at the bolt holes and spigot as you don’t want it to happen again on another wheel sometime soon.

As already said, have the converter get a VW dealer give it the once over and confirm that alls well, this isn’t too much to ask as the converter has caused the problem and will be covering the cost of the repair and want to keep their costs down.