A Very well built car!!!

About three months ago, I got my hands on a crispy clean set of brand new 2004 Impala SS Rims and tires (17"). The only problem was the way they are spaced. When I put them on my '98 Lumina, they were sitting directly on the brake caliper. I went to a tire shop and got some 1/4" spacers. Still the rim was rubbing on the caliper. Any larger spacers would have made the wheels impossible to mount, so I simply took out my grinder and knocked about 1/8 inch off the brake caliper. This worked perfectly.

So, until Saturday morning I had no problems; the car was riding smoothe as ever with great grip wet or dry. But Saturday morning, my dumb ass went into a newly constructed neighborhood (No houses yet + no cops + brand new roads + nobody for miles = Sweet assed road course) :naughty:

For about 25 minutes, I played with my e-brake, slung around corners, marked up the pavement, hauled ass, etc. I finally found a cul-de-sac I hadn't totally painted with rubber and decided to whip out with a 180. :rolleyes: I came into the thing at about 35-40 mph, cocked the wheel to the right and jammed the e-brake, and got ready to apply acceleration, when suddenly the passenger front quarter of my car tanked. I looked out of the left window just in time to see my purdy aluminum rim and Goodyear Eagle rubber scream down the road, hit the curb, fly at least 50 feet into the air and land far into a field.

At this point I thought I was focked. My car was sitting on it's brake disk and frame, It was about 2:45 am on a Saturday and I didn't feel like explaining to anyone where tread marks matching my rubbers covering the entire neighborhood came from. Anyhow, it appeared impossible to jack the bitch up, considering the frame was quite literally ON the ground. I finally stuck the jack under the back side of the driver's side back door and cranked it to its fullest extension, so that my Lumina was sitting on its two passenger side tires, and one tiny assed jack. I had to pry the donut on the pegs and take one lug from each of the other three rims in order to get rolling again. Then I located my rim (with no damage other than a few minor inside scrapes), threw it in the trunk and drove home on a donut inflated to 15 p.s.i. (should be 60).

The surprising thing is that all that was damaged was the fender. The car still drives perfectly, there was no damage to my brake system, and the same wheel that came off is now (again) securely mounted in the same location, with no balancing neccessary. I expected based on the way the disk hit the pavement, that the brake system was screwed and the ride quality was gone. For a moment I even expected the ride to be totaled.

The moral of this long, long, long, winded thread, boys and girls, it that Chevy makes some hardcore, well built shit!!!

Chances are, this will continue to happen. Spacers and alloy wheels are not a good combo. In fact, spacers aren't a good idea at all. They change the leverage that the wheel has on the hub bearing and spindle, you can expect to see premature wear there.

I hope if you are going to keep using them, you will replace the studs on the one that fell off. Anytime a wheel leaves a car like that, the studs have been hammered on enough that they will allow it to happen again.

I'd be checking all the lugs for correct torque everytime I drove it for at least a week before I'd trust it.

You might want to look into an SCCA event near you. They have Autocross events all around town here, different locations on different weekends. You get to do what you were talking about, on a timed, closed course. You see a lot of cool cars there, and learn a lot about performance driving. It has a science all its own to it. Having a feel for the car as an extension of your own body is part of it, learning how to setup, apex, and exit are another. You learn the proper ways to take advantage of trail-braking, torque steer and acceleration to shoot you through a turn faster than you ever thought possible. And a lot of good advice on chassis set-up and mods for your driving style. Hope we see you out there!

P.S. Make sure you re-torque all the wheels after borrowing lugs from them. The others will loosen just from the loss of one, even after a short drive that way. 100 ft lbs is what you want.

I looked out of the left window just in time to see my purdy aluminum rim and Goodyear Eagle rubber scream down the road, hit the curb, fly at least 50 feet into the air and land far into a field.
And before this happened you didnt notice it shaking as you went around curves? You didnt hear the wheel clunking around on the loose lugs?

wow, that is quite a story, damn, thanks for sharing. I love my lumina to death, and this weekend my brand new factory aluminum rims are coming in, and I'm getting BF Goodrich radial T/A's with the white letters out to go on them. The thing is gonna look awesome. The ones I bought will fit on my lugs without spacers, so I shouldn't have your problem. I made sure of that before I bought them. Althought I dont beat up on my car nearly half as much as you did. he he

My friend just bought a set of 18's and new tires for his 9C1 Caprice, they told him one lug was "weak", and they didn't torque it hard outta fear it would strip. Last weekend, at 85 mph on Hwy 61, the right front took a hike. It went back under the rocker panel while still standing up, lifting the car 2 feet high on that side, then fell on the face of the wheel and dropped, trapping it under the car. He skidded it to a safe stop, but ruined $400 worth of tire and wheel, plus a rocker panel and fender, all for not putting in a $1.15 worth of wheel stud. I've never understood how people choose what to be cheap about. Well at least he's just pissed off and not dead. He's lucky. Blake-you'll like those TA's, that's what the SS had on her. Good tires. These Yokohama AS430's I got a few weeks ago are shaping up to be some grippy MF's. I can't even light up the fronts any more. They just chirp and grip.

And before this happened you didnt notice it shaking as you went around curves? You didnt hear the wheel clunking around on the loose lugs?
Unfortunately, an aluminum wheel is so soft, it doesn't always make enough clunky noise to hear it, especially if you are driving hard. Would suprise me if those lug bores aren't pretty wallowed out though. You usually don't get off that light after something like that.

Had a good friend get killed back in high school when his '65 GTO tossed the left front wheel (unilug-remember those GDSOB's?) at over 100 mph on the highway. He went through a guardrail and 130 ft out, airborne, off a 60 ft drop. Hit so hard, the carberetor snapped off the intake on impact. Driveshaft punched through the back of the tranny. What a mess. Family had a huge lawsuit againt the manufacturer and the installer. I haven't seen a unilug wheel in ages. Hopefully they have been banished to their rightful place in automotive hell.

Unilug? Explain please for us that werent around in 65. I always liked the way cars were made around the 60's and 70's, the right way, out of steel and not shitty fiberglass, and plastic.

Unilug? Explain please for us that werent around in 65. I always liked the way cars were made around the 60's and 70's, the right way, out of steel and not shitty fiberglass, and plastic.

Unilug wheels used an oblong bore that could accomodate a range of stud patterns to fit a range of applications. You'd just slide 'em on, and used the correct set of eccentric washers to center the wheel up on the lugs. If one got loose, it was all over.

New cars are built as impact absorbers. They do a great job of sacrificing themselves to save the occupants. The old cars could take a hit well up to a point, but just transferred all the impact energy to the occupants. You see people walk away unhurt from wrecks now that would have killed 'em in the old body-on-frame style cars.

Still like the old ones better, though. I'm with you.

And before this happened you didnt notice it shaking as you went around curves? You didnt hear the wheel clunking around on the loose lugs?

The lugs weren't actually loose. If anything, I overtightened them. When I first tried to install my donut, I couldn't get the lugs on. It took me a moment to figure it out, but the threads that ripped off the old lugs were still clinging to the studs. So loose lugs weren't the culprits.

I'm not an expert here, but it sounds to me like the threads ripping out of the lug nuts and still being attached to the studs should be a good indicator of the problem here. If you're gonna put 1/4" spacers on your car, you should probably look into installing wheel studs that are atleast a 1/4" longer. It just sounds to me like the lug nuts were barely on and you just happend to put a lot of pressure on the one wheel. I wouldn't be surprized if this happens again during severe driving conditions.