Missing lug nut

[FloridaJT6MT]

Giving the gladiator a bath this morning

I was just finishing up. One of the last things I do is wipe down any excess brake dust on the wheels. I get to the front passenger side and find this

the locking lug nut is missing, WTF?! Quickly checked all the other wheels and they are fine. I haven’t had this in for service yet. In fact the only place that’s touched it yet is the window tinting place but wtf would they need to take a wheel off for. I’ll call them to double check Monday. I wonder how long I’ve been driving it like this??

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[ThatStinging_Jeep]

Giving the gladiator a bath this morning

I was just finishing up. One of the last things I do is wipe down any excess brake dust on the wheels. I get to the front passenger side and find this

the locking lug nut is missing, WTF?! Quickly checked all the other wheels and they are fine. I haven’t had this in for service yet. In fact the only place that’s touched it yet is the window tinting place but wtf would they need to take a wheel off for. I’ll call them to double check Monday. I wonder how long I’ve been driving it like this??

I mean hey thats good thing atleast since thats weight reduction ? Lol
All jokes aside thats a little bit concerning though,either the dealer didnt install them all or someone possibly tried to jack your wheels and they gave up on the first one ???

 

[FloridaJT6MT]

I mean hey thats good thing atleast since thats weight reduction ? Lol
All jokes aside thats a little bit concerning though,either the dealer didnt install them all or someone possibly tried to jack your wheels and they gave up on the first one ???

Seriously, I thought the same thing! I think it was most likely the dealer. Luckily they provided the key and original lug nuts when I bought it, so I just put one of the originals on for now. But I have a hard time believing it hasn’t been there this whole time. I purchased it 3 months ago. I can’t believe someone tried to steal it because they successfully removed it! So why stop there? Lol

 

[FloridaJT6MT]

I just pulled a photo from a week after I purchased and you can see it there. Is it possible that maybe it wasn’t tightened down all the way and worked itself off on its own??

 

[FloridaJT6MT]

The prior photo was from 3/6. This one is from 3/27 and it’s gone.

so I’m thinking it was loose, and fell off.

 

[Shackleton]

I had a brake job done once right before a vacation and had all lug nuts when I started on my trip. 4 hours later ( I noticed the next day but 4 hours on the highway) and I noticed a lug nut was missing. I figure the guy that did the brakes didn’t install it the right way and it loosened up on the trip.

 

[Munkey Boy]

$10,000 fine if you were a NASCAR crew chief.

Learned a hard lesson when I was 8. Did an oil change on a small Briggs and started it up. It immediately barfed out all the oil out the fill hole, mostly on me. Shut it down and saved the engine, but my dad walked over and said, "Don't put it on if you aren't going to tighten it."

Someone somewhere got distracted or they haven't been listening to my dad. Likely both.

 

[FloridaJT6MT]

$10,000 fine if you were a NASCAR crew chief.

Learned a hard lesson when I was 8. Did an oil change on a small Briggs and started it up. It immediately barfed out all the oil out the fill hole, mostly on me. Shut it down and saved the engine, but my dad walked over and said, "Don't put it on if you aren't going to tighten it."

Someone somewhere got distracted or they haven't been listening to my dad. Likely both.

Good advice, and now it’s one of those things I’ll always check. I did something similar once myself, although I was more like 28 ?, when changing the oil on my Mustang, I didn’t realize the seal from the old oil filter stayed on. So I put the new one on over the old seal. What a mess. Sprayed everywhere and took forever to clean up. Now I always look for the old seal! ?

 

[kevman65]

Yes, if not properly torqued it can and will vibrate loose and fall off.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

$10,000 fine if you were a NASCAR crew chief.

Learned a hard lesson when I was 8. Did an oil change on a small Briggs and started it up. It immediately barfed out all the oil out the fill hole, mostly on me. Shut it down and saved the engine, but my dad walked over and said, "Don't put it on if you aren't going to tighten it."

Someone somewhere got distracted or they haven't been listening to my dad. Likely both.

Try being a mechanic - or anything for that matter - with severe ADHD. I HATED it when I was trying to get something done in my office (IT for the state) and people would constantly just stop by "I just have a simple question" - and 5 minutes later - ok, where the hell was I and what was I doing?
For a normal person, for most people, it's about 5 minutes tops to get back into the groove and pick up where you left off and be back at full speed and attention - for someone like me, that 2 or 5 minute quick question (often stuff they could have emailed me about) cost me 30 minutes and sometimes I never got back into where I was. Boss said "close your door" yeah - right - knock-knock-knock, Bill, knock-knock-knock, Bill, knock-knock-knock, Bill (see if anyone gets the reference) so even that didn't work.

I've always triple-checked my work on anything auto-related, I have a programmable plating rectifier I can set to shut off at a certain time (so I don't walk away and forget it) when stripping zinc off parts to plate I leave something laying in my way out of the shop so I'll be reminded it's in there, torque the head bolts? I do it 3 times at least. Did I or didn't I? Do it again, be sure.

I always torque wheel nuts - always. And I do it in thirds - 1/3 final torque, 2/3 final torque, then final torque, then do it again. I have a set of rare machined aluminum sport wheels for Eagles that someone left the nuts loose on and drove it that way. Shame. They were very nice wheels. My 73 Javelin had the rear mags ruined because some fool didn't properly torque them on (and put on wheels that didn't have the recesses in the back to clear the heads of the bolts that held the brake drums on - what a fool.) Those were nice mags originally. I got the car home on that first day, noted the wheels looked odd somehow, checked the nuts - yikes - good thing I didn't drive it any further than from my brother's house to mine. But my brother had driven it to his place in Des Moines all the way from WI that way.

 

[Munkey Boy]

If you have to ask, you don't have to ask. That goes especially for those of us that are delightfully, easily distracted with a brazillion things on our plates already. Did I tighten that lug? NO! Go check it and take the torque wrench. Did I sign every spot in that refi doc? NO! Go through the infernal stack again. Did I stop at that stop sign in the parking lot? NO! Who cares, they're only suggestions anyways. Squirrel!

Yeah, I think you @ShadowsPapa and I are cut from the same stone. Oooh, pretty stone.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

What was the question again?

 

[sdk131]

This is anectdotal ....but all 4 of my locking lugs were dangerously loose when I picked it up. Only reason I noticed was because I had a set of JLUR takeoffs that I installed the next day when the JT had a total of 70 miles on it from the trip home from the dealer. All four locking lugs were literally only finger tight.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Interesting in that it was the locking lugs - in the case of the missing lug, and sdk131's .............

 

[JT1]

All 4 of my locking lugs were loose (not even finger tight) when I got mine. The regular lugs were all torqued to spec.

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