Bizarre brake situation, how can this happen?

[unpolire]

Originally Posted by Boxstard

Good luck and I trust that you can correct things on your own and enjoy the car in no time.



I just hate to my gut that the shop is getting away with such horrible job, and this reminds me of how I got into wrenching my cars for over 30 years.



My first car was a 72 Beetle back in 1989, and I had a VW dealership do valve gap adjustment. On my way back home, a rear tire came off of the car in the middle of intersection and I somehow managed to avoid accident. They forgot to torque lug bolts properly and I got one lug bolt lost out of them after argument but no sincere apology for potentially killing me, I was just their inconvenience. It was then that I decided to rather spend money on tools and manuals to handle repairs all myself, and basically I’m maintaining and repairing all of my cars ever since, unless the car is under factory warranty. I just started doing wheel alignment home too, while I still have to let a shop mount tires and balance them, but even then I don’t let a shop touch my 986, only bringing them loose wheels as I have two sets of wheels for summer and winter tires.

My brother took my 1971 914 to a Sears Auto Center for tires or brakes years ago. He pays the bill and pulls onto the freeway and accelerates into traffic. 3 of the 4 wheels and tires fly off of the car, one bouncing directly into the path of an elderly couple, bouncing over their windshield. The car is on the rotors and one wheel still barely attached at the entrance ramp. They had failed to tighten ANY of the wheel bolts! No one died by sheer luck. They paid out thousands in repairs, rental cars, etc.

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[PLP]

Originally Posted by unpolire

They had failed to tighten ANY of the wheel bolts! No one died by sheer luck. They paid out thousands in repairs, rental cars, etc.

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It has never happened to me... yet... but I was wondering.
How in the world one can drive the car long enough and not feel something is wrong with wheels?
I mean, is it possible for the wheel to simply snap off in a fraction of second without any warning? Don't you feel a wobble or something? Noise?
My little brain is unable to comprehend it.

[Boxstard]

Originally Posted by PLP

It has never happened to me... yet... but I was wondering.
How in the world one can drive the car long enough and not feel something is wrong with wheels?
I mean, is it possible for the wheel to simply snap off in a fraction of second without any warning? Don't you feel a wobble or something? Noise?
My little brain is unable to comprehend it.

It can happen fast while you wonder what the heck. In my experience posted earlier, I was just 18 and owned the car for only two months, so freshman when it comes to detecting car issues, but I recall that my rear wheel started to rattle violently and shortly after that the wheel was rolling on its own before I could pull over or anything….

[unpolire]

Originally Posted by PLP

It has never happened to me... yet... but I was wondering.

How in the world one can drive the car long enough and not feel something is wrong with wheels?

I mean, is it possible for the wheel to simply snap off in a fraction of second without any warning? Don't you feel a wobble or something? Noise?

My little brain is unable to comprehend it.

He didn't get even 100 feet! They flew off as he accelerated after pulling out of the service garage. Located right next to the freeway entrance ramp. I found wheel bolts all over the freeway and roadside when I went to retrieve the car with a flatbed.

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[Boxstard]

Originally Posted by unpolire

I found wheel bolts all over the freeway and roadside when I went to retrieve the car with a flatbed.

When that happened on my VW bug, I found 3 lug bolts still captured behind the hub cap but one escaped and could not find it on the road…

[old911doc]

Before you order your bearings, be aware that the S version uses a different bearing, and half shaft, than the standard model Box.

What a mess of a situation you had. I would think that a diligent mechanic would wiggle the hub to check for bearing play, sort of reflexively, while replacing discs and pads. That simple brake service is the first thing that instructors have novices do, well before letting a novice get hold of a spark plug socket.
And, to my mind, a Boxster is a relatively easy car to care for. Lemme tellya about a Lotus Elan…

[old911doc]

Oh, and one last thing, PLP is right, the little setscrews are more a convenience than a necessity, but I would suggest you should indeed use them, so that before you put the tire on you can rotate the disc to check that it is indeed not warped, and so you can check the bearing integrity (!!!). That said, they can certainly cause unnecessary grief by rusting in place, getting the head stripped, etc. So, use them, but with plenty of anti-seize paste, and tighten just ‘finger tight’. The heavy forces of braking are taken by the wheel lug bolts, or on studs ( in the case of…old 911’s…).

[Boxstard]

Originally Posted by old911doc

Oh, and one last thing, PLP is right, the little setscrews are more a convenience than a necessity, but I would suggest you should indeed use them, so that before you put the tire on you can rotate the disc to check that it is indeed not warped, and so you can check the bearing integrity (!!!). That said, they can certainly cause unnecessary grief by rusting in place, getting the head stripped, etc. So, use them, but with plenty of anti-seize paste, and tighten just ‘finger tight’. The heavy forces of braking are taken by the wheel lug bolts, or on studs ( in the case of…old 911’s…).

My impact driver is used almost exclusively for removing those little rotor set screws, works every time even when they got frozen. As noted already, they don’t bear much load so no need to be super tight and if you use anti-seize you will not have issue removing them. That said, they should not be omitted and obviously a shop who does such cannot be professional enough and trustworthy.

[Boxstard]

Originally Posted by unpolire

My brother took my 1971 914 to a Sears Auto Center for tires or brakes years ago. He pays the bill and pulls onto the freeway and accelerates into traffic. 3 of the 4 wheels and tires fly off of the car, one bouncing directly into the path of an elderly couple, bouncing over their windshield. The car is on the rotors and one wheel still barely attached at the entrance ramp. They had failed to tighten ANY of the wheel bolts! No one died by sheer luck. They paid out thousands in repairs, rental cars, etc.

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OMG that could have been a lot worse!

Actually 914 was my third car since that incident with my bug, the most memorable incident beside blowing up the engine with a dropped valve was when I snapped the throttle cable 90 miles away from home. I re-routed the cable from engine lid through window into the cabin, with a string attached to the broken end of the cable, and operated throttle with my left hand while shifting gear with my right hand. Using all hands and legs to drive the car back all the way home, it was a great excessive and felt like I was really operating a machine!