Was on my way to work this morning, being holliday season freeway was pretty smooth. Was able to do about 75mph, usually its bumper to bumper. Anyways, I notice the car in front of me slowin down and kind of swerving in the lane. All of a sudden his rear wheel came flyin off his car and started boucin' towards my S. I was like oh sh*t it's gonna land on my hood. I slammed on the brake, almost got rear ended. Luckily it missed me by about a foot and bounced over the center divider to the other side of the freeway. Hopefully, it didn't hit any cars.

 

Glad to hear everything turned out good for you.

That story reminds me of the time I just got new rims put on my Jetta. Unfortunately, Discount Tire didn't use the right torque setting and the nuts and lugs just slowly unraveled themselves as I was driving home from Florida to NJ. One tire and rim flew off my car at about 80mph, but fortunately I was able to control the car to the shoulder and was not hurt in the process.

One crazy experience. I'm glad to hear your run-in was more favorable.

--John

 

What happened to the car in front of you after the wheel fell off?

 

njtripface - that's a crazy story... I gotta hear the rest of it.

 

LOL

The funny thing is, I had a friend who got hit on the freeway by a bouncing tire that jumped over the center divider...

You wouldn't happen to have that guys license plate number would you?

 

heh now that would be co-incidence!!

There was a story on the Radio here yesterday about a guy who was stopped by the cops for driving down the road at 70mph with only 3 wheels on his car. he didnt realise it was missing cos he was over the limit!

 

I know the S manual states that 80lbs is the proper torque...but thats when putting on the spare...what is the proper torque for the regular wheel?? The same???

 

It happen this morning around 7:20 on I60 westbound. i didn't get the plates. But a few hundred yards ahead of us there was a CHP officer givin someone a ticket. If it happen just 30 sec. later, his wheel could've hit them. The car seems alright as they were tryin' to pull over. I tried to see if the wheel hit any cars when it flew over the center divider. But I couldn't tell.

 

To be a defensive driver you really have be alert to the slightest hints of trouble. I admit that I'm sometimes not that tuned in and get numb to routine driving. One morning, in darkness, a van that was approaching me at about a hundred yards away moved in his lane ever so slightly. It didn't register. Just thought he was adjusting his radio. As I passed him a deer, that he had struck came spinning out from behind his van into my path. The result was $1500 damage to the front of my pickup. A very prreventable accident had I been paying more attention. From that day on, I always assume the worst and slow way down if I have time.

 

I think the center divider wall should be taller for two reasons...another six feet would help from things flying over as well as help stop the rubber necking when people see an accident on the other side.They could have openings just big enough for a person to crawl through every hundred feet or so for emergency people to use to get to the other side if needed.....your thoughts?