Quote:
Originally Posted by coreseller
P.S. My guess is forgetting to tighten lug nuts...................I've done worse.
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DING DING DING, We have a winner! Ok technically no, but close enough that I'll give it to you. I bought that torque book Jake Raby put out a few months back and torqued everything down to spec when putting my car back together with the 3.4. Even the lug bolts.
Well after almost a week of spirited driving I was feeling a little confident. I had put my car through some high speed turns, 100mph runs down empty highways and even down rough roads(for a boxster with coilovers). The sun was going down and it was the perfect temp for a top down drive. I drove down my street, which is about a mile long before it intersects with a country highway. I pull out on the highway and gun it. In about 5-6 seconds I'm doing the speed limit of 60 and let off the throttle. Instantly it starts to shake, so I immediately let off the gas and try to find some where to pull over. I get about 5-6 seconds of it shaking before my right rear tire passes me. The car comes to a screeching halt halfway on the highway and halfway in the grass. I call a friend to come run me to my shop so I can get five lug bolts and a second jack. The tire that came off was flat so I threw the spare on and limped home. I get home, put the box on the lift and scope out the damage. The car has some small scrapes on the headers and cross brace but otherwise came out great. When the wheel came off it wore away the paint on the wheel well and that was the worst damage to the car itself. It's a different story for the wheel though. It has deep gouges all on the inside and one was so deep it cracked the wheel. There's too much damage to get it tig welded.
The first mistake I did was using some generic wheel spacers & lug bolts I got off another boxster. I needed about 1/4 inch spacer on the rears when I switched over to coilovers. I had those handy and they gave me the perfect fit for my rear wheels. I used some high quality ECS spacers for the front. The biggest mistake I made was not going back after some time to recheck everything. When I went to take off my wheels yesterday, the front lug bolts were still tight. The other rear wheel lug bolts had started to work their way loose too. They were still on but were just barely above finger tight. All things considered, I dodged a HUGE bullet! That could have happen when I was doing 100mph. It could have happen on a two lane road. We have two lane roads here with 70 mph speed limits. The wheel could have killed someone. I could have died had it came off at the wrong time. My motor could have hit something. Someone could have rear ended my car after the accident. Like I said, I dodged a big one and I'm so grateful it wasn't worse.
I have a set of 987 17's I can use but the tires are shot. I was hoping to take it out to Cota this weekend but I don't have time to get good tires put on.