Here ye, Here ye, step right up and take your shots at the village idiot!

[tenguzero]

OK, so for the last month or so, I'd been hearing a slight knocking noise coming from the right front wheel area. It wasn't too bad, and I figured that it was just my rotor, since I had been told when I first got the car that the rotor was just slightly warped. I said to myself, "I'll just replace the rotor when I have a little more $. Well, the other day on my way home from school, the noise suddenly got really noticeable, so, after getting under the car, spinning the wheel, etc., I decided that it might be a CV joint or sway bar linkage induced sound (Sounded like clunk, clunk, clunk at lower speeds, then slowly dulled to a whud, whud, whud at faster speeds) I scheduled my car to go into the Honda dealership for a diagnosis tomorrow (Monday), but while I was at work tonight, my stepdad took a look at it. Apparently, as he was backing out of the driveway, my sister said that the wheel was wobbling!! So he got out, checked it, and found that the lug nuts were loose! I didn't even think to check them, because my wheels have covers over the lugs, and I can't see the passenger front wheel from the driver's seat. Some how I didn't notice the wheel wobbling when I'd first checked it a few days ago. Long story short, one of the lug pins ended up getting sheared right off, so I'm without a car for the next two days, until I can get a new wheel hub assembly and put it on. I'm pissed that all of this could have been prevented had I just done something so simple WEEKS AGO like checking the lug nuts. What if it had come off on the highway, at 70 Mph?!

On second thought, maybe the last thing I need right now is any shots taken at me, I've done that enough to cover for everyone here

[b16a3sol]

sorry to hear it. when i was adjusting my coilovers on my old accord, i tightened the lug nuts while the car was still on the jack stands, but forgot to do it again when i put the car on the ground. difference is i figured it out about 10' from my driveway. at least thats the only thing that happened to your car, could have been much worse.

[strodda]

when you said "lug pins" are you talking about the bolt that you tighten the lugs onto to keep the wheel on?? if so, you should just be able to get a new stud(about a buck). i over tightened my lugs once and ripped a stud right off. only bitch is that it cost about $50 for me to have a new one put in.

[wagsaccordsir]

Sorry to hear that, but the import thing is that you know how important it is to check things like that. Now if you do it again; Then I will have to give you a hard time.. Don't worry though as I think most of us have done that atleast once, I know I have... But glad to hear your getting it fixed, and you didnt get hurt going 70mph and suddenly see your tire racing along side you...eek: Laterz

[tenguzero]

After calling a few salvage places, I'd found out that the pins can indeed be replaced, (as I just noticed that Strodda suggested) this was told to me by the man over the phone whom I was consulting about the availability of a wheel hub assembly. This is the way I plan to go, and have rescheduled an appointment at the dealership tomorrow (Wednesday morning) However, as was also noted by Strodda, it is gonna cost me. Only a couple bucks for the pin, but an hour's worth of labor ($60), this is providing that everything goes smoothly for them, and the pins are cooperative, if not, a lot more money. My stepdad and I tried to do it ourselves, with plans to just replace the hub itself ($75 through the salvage yard) but don't have a puller to get the hub off. Oh well.

[4-Door Flunky]

I used a dremel to cut out a little piece of that flimsy tin shield that guards the back side of the hub. Then I used the dremel to grind down a tiny little part of the hub on the back side behind the hole where the stud goes. And then I ground off a tiny little part of the head of the stud.
Now, I whip off that wheel and I can change the stud in about 20 minutes because I don't have to take the whole thing apart, just slip it in the back side! Which is good, because after the first one broke, the other three all broke off one by one in the next year. A little modification and a dremel saved me a ton of hassle (like being without my car while someone else worked on it!).
Flunky
PS-I borrowed my cousin's dremel. Boy, am I cheap!