Yesterday I was on my way to pick up a mentee to go to that kite flying festival. On the highway I noticed my car was making a very weird noise, seemed to be coming from the tire. Now, over the past few weeks my car has made a weird noise when I turned a certain way and I figured it was due to some recent work I had done (new brakes) and was meaning to get it checked but could not find the time to do so. I called Matt and said this noise is persistent and seemed to be way louder than before. He suggested I come back home and switch cars with him. I got off the highway early so I could use side streets to get home as the noise wasn't stopping. I was on the phone with my sister and I said "I'm worried about my car, it sounds like my wheel is going to fall off.." (then it did!) I may have yelled and hung up the phone mid sentence. I was on a pretty busy street but luckily no one was right behind me, I stopped immediately and checked to see what had happened. I expected a flat tire (which my tires are pretty expensive so I was not happy about that) and some other random damage. I move around to the front right corner of my car to find my wheel still in tact (not flat) but it was just hanging by a thread upright against my car. I noticed that there were no lug nuts on (I had pulled over on the highway to find only 2 lug nuts were on my car, I thought that was strange and got off the highway right then). I walked about a block down the road I had just traveled to find one lug nut as evidence that over the last few weeks each one of my lug nuts had broken off! When the Tripple A guy finally came he said the last person to work on my car did not tighten the lug nuts properly. I always forget how nice it is to have a working, running car because the second there is an issue it always seems to be very annoying. However in this instance I am just so glad I followed my instincts, and that this didn't happen on the highway or anything. I have a nice phone call to my old mechanic tomorrow, I hope he will agree to fix it free of charge and then we are in search of a new car place. One more thing to remember... try not to tailgate because this could happen to someone driving in front of you and then you could get involved in a bad way too. Be safe!
Yesterday I was on my way to pick up a mentee to go to that kite flying festival. On the highway I noticed my car was making a very weird noise, seemed to be coming from the tire. Now, over the past few weeks my car has made a weird noise when I turned a certain way and I figured it was due to some recent work I had done (new brakes) and was meaning to get it checked but could not find the time to do so. I called Matt and said this noise is persistent and seemed to be way louder than before. He suggested I come back home and switch cars with him. I got off the highway early so I could use side streets to get home as the noise wasn't stopping. I was on the phone with my sister and I said "I'm worried about my car, it sounds like my wheel is going to fall off.." (then it did!) I may have yelled and hung up the phone mid sentence. I was on a pretty busy street but luckily no one was right behind me, I stopped immediately and checked to see what had happened. I expected a flat tire (which my tires are pretty expensive so I was not happy about that) and some other random damage. I move around to the front right corner of my car to find my wheel still in tact (not flat) but it was just hanging by a thread upright against my car. I noticed that there were no lug nuts on (I had pulled over on the highway to find only 2 lug nuts were on my car, I thought that was strange and got off the highway right then). I walked about a block down the road I had just traveled to find one lug nut as evidence that over the last few weeks each one of my lug nuts had broken off! When the Tripple A guy finally came he said the last person to work on my car did not tighten the lug nuts properly. I always forget how nice it is to have a working, running car because the second there is an issue it always seems to be very annoying. However in this instance I am just so glad I followed my instincts, and that this didn't happen on the highway or anything. I have a nice phone call to my old mechanic tomorrow, I hope he will agree to fix it free of charge and then we are in search of a new car place. One more thing to remember... try not to tailgate because this could happen to someone driving in front of you and then you could get involved in a bad way too. Be safe!
