Someone had a bad day today, I saw a damaged 71-73 on highway 580 (San Fransisco East Bay)

[Bentworker]

Saw a damaged 71-73 today.

Westbound on 580 near Dublin / Livermore CA someone lost their drivers side front wheel.  Looked like the fender was destroyed- probably more.  I was on a mission in my commuter car to get the hell out of the Bay Area before traffic got any worse.  Hence I didn’t stop, it was hammer down time to travel 300+ miles home.  Curious if it belongs to someone on the forum.  Couldn’t tell the exact color, but it was dark blue or black.

 

[ponypastor]

Lost their driver side front wheel. Wonder how that happened? Stud failure?

 

[73MustangCoupe]

Maybe someone forgot the cotter key whey put the rotor on, and the wheel came off with the rotor.  Regardless, whoever it was, they defintitely had a bad day. 

 

[Bentworker]

Looked like the rotor was still on the hub.  I bet it was a wild ride to lose a wheel and safely pull off the side of a busy freeway.

 

[Don C]

It's been my observation that most of the time when a wheel departs a vehicle it's due to improperly tightened or incorrect lug nuts.

 

[Spike Morelli]

I was a passenger in a friend's 69 Camaro when, on the freeway, the right rear wheel came off. The cause was that he was missing one or two lug nuts, possibly broken studs. My friend had been driving the car this way and didn't think it mattered. The moral of this story to ALL of you, is don't drive if you are missing any lug nuts or have a broken stud. Fix it, or get it fixed. You will save money in the end, and maybe even save a life.

 

[droptop73]

I saw a car on Power Tour in 2011 or 2012 break a spindle. That was an odd failure and resulted in a very bad day. It was good no one was hurt. 

 

[computercarguy]

I had a neighbor have a spindle break off his El Camino at a stop sign (fortunately for him). Apparently the inner bearing can go bad, seize up and lead to that failure.

 

[droptop73]

I cooked an outer wheel bearing on I-40 in Knoxville TN. It shook the car pretty hard before I got it off the road. It didn't hurt the spindle much but was pretty fun to fix in a hotel parking lot. 

 

[mjlan]

I had a spindle break on me. I was cruising around on some country roads and when I was slowly crawling through the gas station parking lot the spindle snapped between the inner and outer races. Not fun to try and get the car moving again with the rotor wedged into the caliper in the middle of a gas station parking lot but could have been a lot worse...

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

My 85 SVO was bad to break front studs. I always use a torque wrench when putting the lugs on. If wheel was loose you would think they would feel the shake. I overloaded my 1969 ford van so much one time it pushed the axles out of the bearings and tires would hit the fenders. I would stop jack up and kick the axle back into the bearing. Also overloaded it another time and the lugs stated breaking by time I got stopped only two left. Had to get a service truck out to put lugs in I had to show him how to do it. He wanted to take back to shop to use a press.
Another thing that will get you on studs is having wheels that do not fit the center hub on the spindle and axle. They are there to carry the weight and the lugs just hold the wheel on. I would not run Magnum 500 wheels for that reason.