I was heading to get my front respeed coilovers installed. I swapped out my storage tires… tightened all lug nuts lowered the car and retightened. On the way to the shop I heard a little noise. Pulled over and checked everything and it all looked good. I then proceeded to head to the shop. Didn’t notice anything or hear anything. I went over traintracks going about 15-20 mph. Heard a big clunk and the front felt funny pulled over in the first parking lot (20 feet from the tracks) right when I went in the parking lot entrance this happens…



I was going about 5 mph about 5 feet from parking and slid about 3 feet. The rotor is a little scuffed and the thin metal backing behind the hub is bent. There doesn’t appear to be any underbody damage. The fenders hopefully can be pulled. But she is sitting at the Mazda dealer at the body shop. Hopefully I will have her back in a few weeks…

 

That's a serious bummer. Any sign of where your bolts went?

What did you torque the lug bolts to?

 

WOW, that's scary man!! glad you and the car are ok. sorry to see the damage to the LS, but the good news is that the damage is minimul.

 

crap look like you hade a pretty clean car there .... but have to ask where did you get the clear lens?

 

i did the exact same thing with my rx7 once. the fender looked identical to yours. when i did mine it bent the lower control arm, make sure to check yours out.

 

There was two bolts left in the wheel and the other two dropped out where the wheel came off at. The bolts look fine there was a couple of bent threads but nothing major. They were torqued to 95lbs. I usually go directly to discount and have them check or re-torque them. I’m hoping it’s just some paint and a new fender. I’m waiting for the insurance inspector to come out and then the dealer can start ordering parts and get painting. What worries me is the dealer finding a 79-80 fender. Nothing looked bent from what I could see the only damage besides the fender was the scuffed rotor but the face is good and the dust plate behind the hub.

I bought the clear side markers from Atkins about 4 years ago.

 

That's really weird.

I can't imagine how four bolts torqued to 95 ftlbs could work free together... unless your stock lug bolts aren't long enough with those wheels (or the wheels didn't go flush to the disks), and you only had a thread or two actually in the hole. That would explain the 'couple of bent threads'.

Put a bolt in a hole and measure your protrusion. Should be at least the diameter of the bolt, but preferably the thickness of the brake disk @ the holes.

Oh, and make sure they carefully salvage your side badge from that fender, instead of just breaking the pins and gluing it on the new one.

 

Thanks drivindriver I wouldn't have thought about the side badge. I'll have to remind them. Yeah I keep going thought it and I must have put the wheel on not flush. The lug bolts were were purchased at the same time I bought the wheels. But now I'm going to triple check every time.

 

my brother did that to my Tr3 last summer, that car doesn't like him. it was actually almost the same thing, i had tightened the wire wheel adapters a week or so before, and the left front came off.

i think i may have a new SA left fender, if you need one.

 

if it comes down to you needing a fender, i have a pair of SA fenders in fair shape

 

I don't know how that could happen, either.

Glad you weren't hurt and the car wasn't damaged too badly.

 

expensive. embarrasing. good on you for telling the story! glad you and the SA came out (sort of) OK.
damn.

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

DD brings up a good point about the length of the lugs. They had two different lengths. One for aluminum waffles and a shorter lug for the steel "S" wheels. A general rule of thumb is: whatever the diameter of the bolt, you should have at least that much depth of thread engagement. If you were only catching the first couple of threads, they could have pulled out under that torque/load. One or two threads of engagement are not as strong as five or six. How do the threaded holes in the spindle look? Are they stripped or pulled out at the surface?

 

I didn't look at the spindle holes when it happened. The tow truck slapped the tire on with the same bolts and we were off. I wasn’t thinking when I first replied but maybe Discount tire sold me shorter bolts and something just happened now. I’ll tell the dealer to check it out… my adjuster is coming out today hopefully it will be in the body shop today.

 

here is a thread on the Konigs and lug size

https://www.rx7club.com/showthread.p...inds+lug+bolts

there is some talk of needing longer bolt/stud. I know I bought the longer FB bolts to mount the Konigs on my SA . I needed to buy a thin walled socket to get in the hole to tighten them

 

The adjuster just came by. Found a fender somewhere in Washington and getting it shipped over. They are just doing body work now. After that’s done they will check to see if there is any mechanical damage. This is one expensive fix just for the body work.

Thanks ourxseven! I’ll check that thread.