At least that's what whoever took the other 4 wheel nuts from my front left wheel. I parked in a somewhat sketchy place for approximately 2 hours. Retuned to my car and drove home on the highway.
While on the highway my car slowly became more and more rattly. I thought the bearings or torsion bar was gone. Funny enough the problem felt like it was with the front right wheel. I come off the highway did a quick check on front right wheel and it look ok. Kept going. Car became more unstable. Steering wheel really shaking at this point. Parked, did another check, no problem.
Got home and jacked the car up. Nothing. Went to the left wheel and low and behold. 4 missing nuts.
If you are going to steal a wheel why not just finish off the job. At least I know not to drive the car.
Either that or the dam nuts came loose themselves.

 

I guess that's possible...when was the last time you or anyone else had the wheel off?

 

Eek...I thought this thread was going to be about going fast on a track...glad you made it home safe....I try to check my nuts regularly....even when just driving on the street....especially if you change wheels often for track days

 

I think you are only missing 3

That sucks, but glad that you didn't lose the wheel while driving.. are you running any spacers or anything?

I had a similar issue on my 76 Bronco and the previous owner was running spacers and didn't use extended studs, as a result the lugs were barely threaded on and one by one they came loose...

 

But it does look like 4 empty holes in his pic - even more of a nightmare! You raise a good point about spacers if OP is running spacers but used the standard length bolts.

 

Don't want to sound as if the sky is falling, but did you p!ssed someone and he/she wanted for you to have an accident? Lost front wheel at high speed is more violent than a missing rear.

I would think that if theft was the intent, he would have started with the rears?

 

The more I think about it the less I think it's theft. The wheels were put on about 3 weeks ago for summer tires and the car has probably done about 500 miles since then. I think the damn nuts just came off.
Which leads to a new question. How tight do you guys tighten the wheel nuts? I never use a torque wrench to measure but simply go as tight as my arms can go ( no standing on the wrench). Always worked in the past. But maybe I've been lucky.

And yeah, "only" 3 nuts missing. Lol. No forum worth it's salt is complete without fact checkers. :-)

 

Oh, and no spacers

 

Oh boy.... I hope this does not start to another torque fight.

I do 96ft#.

Let's see if the other "100+ ft#" guys chime in. ����

 

Your owner's manual says 96 ft-lbs (130 Nm). There is reference in a service bulletin to a higher value on newer cars (108 ft-lbs?), and to use that higher number retroactively on the earlier models. I use the original number in the owners manual.

And buy a torque wrench. There are plenty of good ones sub $40.

 

 

23" Sears Craftsman torque wrench at 96#. It seems like every other week my car is going through some kind of "tech" inspection at the local PCA club - so its checked regularly. Get the wrench from Sears - its $40.

 

Only fight in this thread would be whether to use a torque wrench or not - OP says he never uses a torque wrench - maybe now he will. As far as specs, I'd say use what your owner's manual states.

 

I have a torque wrench actually. I'll start using it. Please no torque wrench fight. Did not realize this was a sore point.

 

What type of wrench did you tighten with? If it was a longer breaker bar type and you tightened as much as you could then I doubt the lugs fell off.
I usually use the torque wrench but not always. Never had a problem either way and I don t think a few pounds either way is an issue. After all I doubt those wrenches are that precise. On 100 ft lbs they are about + or- 3 lbs or so. ?? It will tell you in the directions exactly how close the one you buy is. And that s providing you store is right and don t drop it, LOL.
If I had to guess what happened to you I think I d go with the last guy who had the wheels off only put two nuts back on and got distracted.
Hope you solve it for peace of mind.