Life is always a struggle with a DSM as your daily driver. But I always try to keep up with my maintenance so I can keep it my DD without having to worry about something going wrong.
But the other day I was going home for the weekend to help the parents around the house I noticed a strange vibration in my wheel, knowing something was obviously wrong I pulled over at a gas station to see if i could eye-ball the problem. Which i thought it was my brake caliper being loose. not having any tools and only being ten miles from home I kept going. The vibration got to the point where my car was shaking. Bad.
Once again I go to pull over on the side of the road to check things out, and happen to look out my drivers window to see my front drivers tire go rolling off in the ditch. My first thought was "F$%k". My car then nose dived into the pavement and then It veered off onto the shoulder of the road and just dug in the dirt.
I was pretty shaken to see my tire had rolled over 100 yards from my car, and to see the shop that had done my alignment over torqued the lugs and broke off some of my studs that caused my tire to fall off.
So now to the point of my car, I looked at it. About cried thinking what could all be wrong with it. She had her front end caked with dirt.. I got it home. replaced the studs, and then went to turn the key. She started fine. Drove fine. Only thing that came out of the whole thing was a broken brake rotor, which I had another one laying around.

So I guess Im just thankful that my car is ok and that I didnt go into the 20 foot ditch that was right next to the road.

Im just thankful the man upstairs was watching out for me this time

Heh, you're REALLY lucky. I already knew the story was going to involve a wheel falling off/lug nuts loose or missing.

My buddy from the Auto Body program here just got hired on at my workplace. He also just recently bought a 95 GST. He drove it about 3 hours back from where he bought it, drove a few more days of DD'ing and then started doing deliveries. I was on a ride-along with him and all of a sudden the car shakes really bad. He looks at me and says "Something isn't right.." and right afterwards his cars SLAMS into the ground and the driver's front wheel goes flying off, into oncoming traffic (who did an awesome job of weaving around it), over a lawn and into a dentist's parking lot where it found itself slamming into the door of a brand new 2012 Camry. He dragged the car about 120 feet trying to get out of traffic's way. Needs a new fender, side skirt, and bumper.

Fast forward to two days ago. I get a text from him with a picture of

(Note: this wasn't the picture, but the exact angle and tire placement)

His balljoint separated and busted the axle, but luckily just at a very, very slow speed out in a field near his hometown. Don't ask me what he was doing there because I don't know. Anyways the car won't be running until Wednesday, and you can guess the boss is pissed since he needs it to deliver.

That's one reason I never trust shops that don't have a friend working in them to properly torque lug nuts. They either forget to or overtorque with their air impacts.

Glad to hear you didn't have any major damage though.

I always hate seeing ball joints fail, which usually cause more damage (as shown above).

I'm honestly surprised nothing broke. Like not even my oil pan was scratched

ouch, ya you got seriously lucky.

Crazyness!

LUCKY ya kind hard to check lugs/bearing with car on the ground

^^ That's what happens when we live in a time where everybody knows everything... *sarcasm*Shops need to stop paying crappy pay, and hire people with degrees and high GPA's. This I cant find a job, I don't even own a car, yet I work as a crappy mechanic needs to stop.\

People know specs range from 70-120ish ft lbs... so why do they go full out with like 780...

I know guys. I can't express how lucky I am. If something serious would've happened to the car then I probably would've been forced to sell it. Being in college funds aren't all there. This just showed me that I'm going to have to check the work I get done to it, since you honestly can't rely on any shops to do quality work around here.

Hopefully you called the shop and gave them an ear full....I would have.

hizzle said:

Hopefully you called the shop and gave them an ear full....I would have.

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hell I'd have demanded they pay for the damage! show them the pictures and the broken studs and be like "You guys totally messed my car up"

Tell them your a made man, and that paulie is going to be down in a bit to "talk to them".

The thing is, i dont know what i would really have the shop fix. I went to the local napa and got new studs for 7 bucks and pressed them in. And the car is running good. Very good. Except the rear diff i think went out the other day