Lucky Escape!

Another one broken!

- but soon to be fixed i hope!

Driving through Kings Cross 2 weeks ago my front passenger side wheel decided to leap of my car whilst going round a corner and leaving me coming to screeching halt on the brake disc causing a pretty decent tailback.

Fortunately the police came by and helped as did the AA guy (55 minutes wait), when he arrived, top guy, had seen a few coupes in the past, but had only good things to say

Here's some pics and google link to where it happened and why it was such a nightmare place to have come a croper.



Location of wheel coming off

(ive been told the reason the wheel came off was due to the bolts not being Fiat replacements, and because they're not genuine they're not high tensile which makes them softer unfortunately. So beware of these dodgy replacements, as it was something i was not aware of, but certainly will in the future)

So two weeks passed and today the cars been collected and gone to Joe at Country Cruising.

Im now waiting to hear the news on what need doing in full, nervous times, so fingers crossed there are no hidden gremlins from the accident!

Good luck mate, its going to the right place to be sorted...keep us posted

Good to hear you are ok.

Even with a wheel missing a Coupe looks stunning.

JKD, im sure the designers at Fiat factored in styling when its broken down as it does spend a few days a year in need of AA help at the roadside...

After all it is Italian!

still looks like its doing a ton, even with a wheel missing....great colour for the coupe as well

Wow, that's a very unlucky place for the coupe to pack in - I bet you were popular with the other drivers!

Saw first hand the damage last night as it was coming of the transporter. You were VERY lucky with it being low speed. The possibility for that to have gone south extremely quickly was immense.
Lovely car though, defiantly worth saving! In fact, I was surprised just how little damage there was

Hi Samsite,

Yes i know what you mean about the luck of not being any worse! 5 minutes later i would have been on the Euston road going a lot faster in much busier traffic, and 10 minutes later on the Westway at 50 mph!, so lucky, really!

Yep, i lost my old coupe this time last year, so this one im not letting go, couldnt bear to see another Coupe written off.

Cant wait to see Joe;s hard work and have her back restored, with new le skirts too

and the rest.

Thats a very valid point mate about the wheel bolts..... I bet a lot of us will be cheacking ours now and perhaps buy a complete set (from Fiat) just to be sure.. Good job it did not happen at high speed.. Hope the repair bill is cheap mate..

blimey.. really sorry to see such a thing
did it just come off or was there any noises prior. The only time ive ever seen this is through a wheel not being bolted tight enough, as in the bolts just nipped up. I wonder if anyone else has had this.

I had wheel bolt come loose on me several times.

You must torque them to 98 with a torque wrench - the pathetic bar in the kit in the boot will not do the job.

You will hear a rumbling noise from the wheel (like a bad bearing) when they work loose....

Happened to me about 25 yrs ago in my fiat 126. It's quite surreal watching your rear wheel over take you bouncing down the road, and boy did it bounce.

Nearly took out several people standing at a bus stop and ended up 100's of yards away in a church car park. Truely frightening experience. Not so much losing the back wheel, but watching people dive out of the way, pull people out of te way and others totally oblivious and just lucky they weren't hit.

Don't know why I decided to take the shore road home that day and not the motorway. Damn lucky no one was killed, and god knows what chaos it could have created if I had taken my usual motorway route home.

And retorque them after 50-100 miles or so.

I nearly lost a wheel at Mallory Park recently. It was torqued up correctly first thing in the morning, but in the session just before lunch I noticed a loud rumbling. All the bolts on one wheel had worked themselves loose

The wheel just came off as i went round the corner, no noises prior to it, it was only when i bumped down to the brake disc and saw my wheel i the wing mirror that i new there was trouble!

Im getting a full set of new fiat nuts from Joe, and im going to be checking my car now once a week for usre to make sure that doenst happen again.

Just simply not worth risking again for the cost of a few bolts!

Good news, no hidden gremlins and the car should be back shiny and new in 2 weeks! Will post some pics when i get the car back on here.

All i can say is a big thank you to Joe at Country Cruising for his expert advice and swift work, nice one!

Yes very lucky escape with this one Will, far less damage to repair in comparison to your last Moon Plus

We'll have this back to you in no time

Would someone be kind enough to clarify - did four bolts come undone, did four bolts break, or some combination of the two?

Ta!

The threads on the bolts were pulled clean off the stud, further damage was then done to the flange as the wheel was loose but the issue was with the bolts not the hub.

Will put the old studs in the car and I could see the issue straight away, a grind test showed orange sparks so I'd say they were near on mild steel compound and not the high carbon as required.

Right - so effectively, the bolts just pulled out of the hub when the threads failed. Not good.

thats bad mate after reading this i had to find out what tensile my bolts are and there 10.9. Nice looking coupe hope your back on the road soon

As Joe said he'll have it back to me soon enough, and over the summer will add skirts and lips, and if very lucky i'll get the red calipers so it will look like my old Moon Plus.

Hopefully be back on the road within a couple weeks.

*Please all check your wheel bolts, as a new set is only £40! and for near enough £1500.oo worth of damage it just doesn't make sense to not have the right ones on your Coop, we all spend a lot of cash making our cars look and ride great, so for a small amount, you hopefully wont suffer as i have, even with a lucky escape.

Wise words there Will

On the subject of yours looking like your old Plus, I couldn't temp you to buy some Recaro seats could I

LOL. you could tempt me with much, but its a lack of money that only stops me!

If they were the light tan Recaros I would be really interested, indeed they would probably already be in my car

What about having them recovered in light tan leather Bob

So Joe has been working his magic on the car, and ive also added some LE skirts, as i couldn't not as it was in the shop, just wish i could afford the red calipers and LE lips, but thats for next time!

Pictures when i collect it next week from Joes, might make a road trip movie!

It has become quite common to see coupes with poor fitting aftermarket wheels that have cut down cheap bolts that barely go 3-4 threads into the hub. Shoddy wheel and tyre places are largely responsible.

A lot of people seem to underestimate the importance of high quality wheel bolts or nuts.

Mild steel wheel bolts.

F SHOCKING.

Tell me about it, it is quite a shock to see your wheel bouncing down the street in the wing mirror

So after a few weeks of no Coop, I'm on the train heading from London to see Joe at CC and collect my restored car, very excited and added some LE skirts too! And of course a full set of high tensile Fiat wheel bolts.

Will post some pics up over Easter.

Will

Happy Easter!

So i collected my Coop on Thursday night from Joe after a ridiculous journey involving getting the wrong train from Newport-Gwent, back to Swindon by accident, and then back to Newport-Gwent and up-to Leominster, finally to be collected by Joe at 8pm instead of 5pm if i hand'nt ballsed up on the train! DoH!

So first time meeting Joe and as many others had said, what a top guy, and what a top job on restoring my coop to better than before, with newly refurned wheels, LE Skirts, and a side paint job (passenger side) fixing the panels that were damaged.

So ive had the easter weekend, driving around from Oxford to Wimbledon, and back to N.London and it's so nice to have the car back, and the sun on it, welcome summer and hopefully many great driving days!

Here's are a couple pics, better ones after a full waxing next weekend.





Ps.

Funny as i was getting petrol in Oxford, what should i pull up right next to but my car twin, another Moon Grey 20VT6, i could spot the owner as he was grinning as much as i was.

Funnily he had not heard about the forum, but loved his car, and of course mine, first time either of us had seen one of the same. Weirdly i also passed him the next day on the outskirts of Oxford blasting it down the dual carriage-way.