Aluminum Wheel failure at 45K miles

[wildbillrn]

Have bee searching different threads in this site and not finding an answer for this one. Wedge, MT, & Joel hope you can weigh in on this one.

Bought my '05 Trailblazer EXT 4WD LS trim with Vortec 4200 in May '05 with just over 16K on it. It had been an Avis rental unit wholesaled back to GM. I was in the market to replace my '94 Voyager and jumped to buy this when I felt the price became right.

Have had problems with chronic slow leaks on orig equip Continental tires.
Car Dealer never did find leaks despite dunk tests x3. Tire shop found leak r/t road hazard (a screw if I recal correctly) which they plugged.

Plugged tire failed at 39-40K miles. Ran on spare. Then another failed at just under 41K miles. Replaced 2 of 4 with Cooper Wild Country (private labeled for this shop and World Tire).

Now at 45,500 mi. 4 of 6 studs snapped of driver's side front wheel hub.
No signs or symptoms of impending failure untill the final 8 miles of a 12.5 mile drive home from work, when a thumping noise as though tire was flat and worsening side to side steering wheel shake developed. Limped home last 3 miles at about 20 mph. Noticed severe tilt out of wheel from vehicle when finally arrived home. Center cap of wheel missing and wheel held on only by 2 adjacent studs. Luckily found damaged hub cover and the 4 snapped studs at foot of driveway.

Tire shop says studs snapped r/t too much lateral and rotational force of wheel slapping against studs over time as evidenced by 3 of 6 elongated holes in wheel. There is wear marks on inner surface of wheel at hub.
2 other tire shops question why did not fail in first 2 weeks after lugs too loose? No one can say why it took ~8 mos. and ~5K miles to fail. Tire shop only folks who have worked on the wheels in this time. Do you need to check lug nut torque every 25-50 miles on car with alum alloy wheels as tire shop says? That would mean me snugging them up after every drive to work and back home each day, that is just crazy!! Open to all comments. Oh, btw, tire shop can find me a used wheel for $225 my pocket not theirs. Not sure if I want the other 2 Cooper Wild Country only available from them if thay won't help with new wheel. Funny thing is the program/customer service mgr for the tire co and I know each other through our kids' school. Who can you trust?...

[MagicRat]

I don't think it took 8 months for it to fail. Chances are, the nuts only started to really loosen up a few miles before you noticed the shaking. It does not take much driving with loose nuts to cause the damage you describe.

The nuts, when installed properly, and torqued to spec in the proper sequence should not loosen up. However, pretty much all tire shops recommend a one time only retorquing of the nuts approx. 50 miles after installation, as a preventive measure against nut looseness due to improper installation. Your tire sales invoice may state this. Chances are, your owners manual does as well. Imo it's your responsibility to do this, not the tire shop. But, they should have told you to do so, imo.

I think that your comment about retightening every 25-50 miles is a misunderstanding of these instructions.

Finally, you have my sympathy about the failure, but it was pretty foolish to continue driving the car when the shaking started. A sudden onset of wheel shake is an obvious sign that you have a serious problem or failure. The prudent thing to do would be to pull over and check out the wheel, and, if you do not recognize the problem, call roadside assistance or a tow truck for help, rather than risk your life and others. If you had done so, chances are, a simple roadside retightening would have avoided much grief.

[jdmccright]

reading this, the title is not consistent with the problem...the wheel didn't fail, the studs did. And I think the tire failures were not part of the problem, especially if they already had 40k miles on them and had been previously patched...likely near the end of their life.

100% with MagicRat...lug nuts on aluminum alloy wheels are to be re-checked for proper torque after 50 miles. All major-chain tire stores and the like have this notice on their invoices. But it may or may not be prominently displayed, printed, or noted by the employee.

Now, sounds like there was about 5k miles between the installation of new tires and the stud failure. If the new tires weren't tight enough or one lug was missed, that may account for the failure. If they were just finger tight, then surely the looseness would have been immediately felt as a clunking noise when you turned or braked. You'd be hard pressed to prove it was the shop's fault. I'd say you were extremely lucky to make it home with the little damage that you sustained. Glad you made it home safe, but next time heed the warnings your truck makes...better to arrive late than to never arrive.

[wildbillrn]

MagicRat and jdmccright, indeed the invoice from tire shop states a recheck of lug nuts at 25-50 miles following tire/wheel install. Would have been appreciated if the shop would have made a bigger issue about this. Clunks and vibrations in this locale are an everyday occurrence r/t poor state of the roadways unless you're the first one through fresh snow or on new paving. Will chalk it up, look for a new wheel, and be more paranoid about noises, shimmies/shakes/rattles/vibrations. Thanks for your expertese

[Speedy_1234]

it sounds like bad luck to me

[jdmccright]

In your defense though, though the softer nature of aluminum merits the need for this re-check, that notice is also placed there to cover the shop's ass in case they missed torquing a lug nut...rare, but it can happen. No one goes back to the shop to have them re-checked.

More often is the opposite extreme where they torque the lugs down so hard they are stripped or cross-threaded, and you don't know about it until you have to remove a flat tire.