Thursday 18 June 2009

YOU NEED NUTS


Nuts are good and not just for scratching, Richard. The other day I found a wheel nut from the Rover on the driveway. On checking the wheels I found that the rear right wheel was only connected by one nut - the locking nut. As I'd just been driving at 100k+ on the motorway this was disconcerting. A few days earlier I had had the brakes checked at our local garage. Maybe they didn't tighten them properly. Years ago in Wellington I had a tyre change done on my Ford Escort before driving up to the Otaki Forks to go tramping. I drove on the highway at 100k+ for some time until turning off to drive on a gravel road to the forks. Halfway along the rear left wheel fell off. I was only going at about 60K but it gave me a hell of a shock. Believe it or not when I walked back to collect the wheel I found the hubcap with all the wheel nuts in it so I was able to put the wheel back on and continue the journey. The tyre change people hadn't tightened the nuts properly. Thankfully the wheel hadn't come off when I was driving on the main road.


re the latest event I went back to the garage to see if they had forgotten to put the nuts on. They assured me that they hadn't taken the wheels off to check the brakes and that someone may have been trying to steal the wheels but were stymied by the locking nut (which requires a special tool to get it off). I'm not sure about that explanation but the thought of some weasel out there trying to steal my wheels and leaving the car unsafe pisses me off. If the wheel had come off on a 4-lane motorway it would have been disastrous and not just for me.


A happy ending to this story is that when I went to Tyre Plus in Grey Lynn to buy some replacement wheel nuts the guy there gave them to me and fitted them for free.

3 comments:

Richard (of RBB) said...

What a great post! I'm looking forward to the one on changing spark plugs.

Anonymous said...

I think it's a great story! What model Rover do you have? (I'm sure you've told me before).

THE CURMUDGEON said...

620 ti