Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| WHEELS | |||
| 07/19/2004 | 79000 | 1 | 11/22/1999 |
| I was traveling down rt 33 in pa near near the snydersville exit when the car started shaking uncontrolably. it became very difficult to control the car. i pulled off to the shoulder. i walked around the car & saw that the hub cap was missing. the wheel was barely being held on the car by two posts with none of the nuts on them. three posts had broken off. i learned from the tow truck driver that this is not an unusual problem with aluminum wheels. i mentioned the incident to my cousin and he told me it had happened to him twice. evidentally, what happens with aluminum wheels is if all nuts are not tightened properly the aluminum vibrates losening the other nuts. i was towed to the dealership and they fixed the car for free. the manager of the dealership acknowledged that this does happen and that there's nothing that can be done to prevent this 100% of the time due to human error. he acknowledged that this does not happen with steel wheels. the wheel could have fallen completely off doing much more damage to the undercarriage. the axel could have dug in and i could have flipped. i could have lost control and hit another vehicle causing damage to that vehicle. more vehicles could have been involved. people could have been hurt or killed. the material needs to be changed to eliminate these vibrations or some system of locking the nuts be devisedso they can't unscrew unless it is intended. this happens way too often and from what learned from the dealership and the tow driver. there is no way to see this coming with the way wheels are designed the nuts are covered. something needs to be done here to take out human error or to make more leeway for such error. changing the materials used or the design could accomplish this. i called 911 and dale chan of dc towing, telephone number 570.992.4311 was sent. i don't remember the date of the incident. i think it was july or august. the date i put in was just to get through the required fields. *ak | |||
| 05/17/2002 | 3 | ||
| While driving, consumer heard a loud dragging noise and was later informed that the noise was caused by faulty ball joints, also dealer replaced the front axle shaft to replace the inner tri-pod boot. *slc the passenger front wheel had leaned in at the top, and the engine had an oil leak. the consumer has requested reimbursement for the monies spent on repair. *scc | |||
| WHEELS - CENTER SECTION | |||
| 12/22/2004 | 85076 | 2 | 11/07/1999 |
| For the second time of this vehicle the front wheel assembly on this car needed to be replaced, this time on the other side. somehow, when putting the wheel back on the car not all the nuts were tightened properly both times. according to the tow driver for the first incident, dale chan of dc towing 570.992.4311, the dealership, brown daub in wind gap and for the second incident roberti motors who repaired the wheel assembly the second time. the problem with aluminum wheels is that if not all nuts are tightened properly the material will vibrate and loosen the other nuts. chan said he sees this problem often. after the first front wheel assembly repair about a month later the wheel came almost completely off. all the nuts were gone, 3 of the studs were broken off and the wheel was only hanging on the remaining two studs. the second time, 2-3 weeks after the repair, i caught it a bit earlier. only one nut was missing, one stud was broken off. the other nuts were so loose that i could move them all with my fingers. this also happened to my cousin twice who was a limo driver in chicago. it seems every one in the industry knows about this problem. why is it allowed to continue. why can't we go back to steel wheels where this problem is nonexistent. if we can't why can't it be required that some locking mechanism be designed to keep the nuts from unscrewing as part of the wheel cover? what if the wheel had come off? there could have been much more damage to the undercarriage. i could have gone out of control and involved other vehicles in an accident. the axel could have dug into the road surface and i could have rolled of flipped? people could have been injured or killed. has this already happened? it this what it takes before this problem is addressed? i consider myself to have been lucky.*ak | |||
| WHEELS - LUGS/NUTS/BOLTS | |||
| 1 | |||
| While driving 40 mph vehicle vibrated. consumer pulled over and inspected the vehicle. consumer noticed that all four wheels were coming off. vehicle was towed to the dealer for inspection, and mechanic determined that the bolts needed to be replaced. *ak | |||