UPDATE:

The fit is back up and rolling again. I think I am the only Fit to have these wheels. Please correct me if I am wrong.









ORIGINAL POST:

So this week has been rather unlucky for me.

I was driving to the DMV to re-register my car. I had a slight fender bender with another car on the way there. No visible damage, I was at a stop light.

On the way there I noticed a knocking sound when I coast the car it is an 07 Manual sport. No sound when accelerating or braking.

When I leave the DMV the noise is much more prominent. I had an inkling that my wheel bearing was bad for a while. Loud road noise at speed on hwy.

Anyway the noise get progressivley worse and it sounds like I have no wheel bearing in my front driver side.

I pull over and call a friend for advice if it is ok to hobble home, 7 miles away. He says no. I had assumed that it was a bad bearing.

I get out and see this,



Two studs snapped off. The third was removed earlier to patch a slow leak and it stripped on its way out, couldn't get it back on. The last lug nut was all that was holding the wheel on.

So the dealership said I needed a new hub, bearing and wheel studs. But due to my "aftermarket alloy wheel" setup I need factory wheels. I clarified with them that these are 1998 HX Civic wheels. Base model Fits came with 14 inch steel wheels so these are fine. But because of my 8mm spacer to clear the calipers, they can't put those wheels back on as those are the reason for the damage. Uh possibly a contributor but not the source. I told them I have a full set of 15x7s sitting at home. But they need tires. They wanted to sell me two new wheels with tires. $500 bucks a pop for factory wheels. Um no thank you. I can now rock my SSR Firenzes that have been collecting dust on my balcony.

Anyway this repair is now costing me almost $2k. They wanted me to buy another hub for the right side. I said no. The only problem is the driver's side. They try to tell me that due to the wheel spacer on the front right, it might have been damaged too. I told them no it wasn't and unless the mechanic can tell me that my car cannot drive with the current hub they can go shove their lies. By declining the right hub and crap I saved $500 so now it is only $1450. ouch.

As if karma isnt taking a huge one on me already. I missed work yesterday and rented a car for today. Enterprise calls me in the morning and says they won't have a car until noon!!! ARGHHHH. Oh yeah and my wife is away for work until Friday, and her car is at the airport parking.


Will update you guys.



EDIT: Two of the holes have been made out of round.



and I think this is the one that had one lugnut left.

 

Thats why i hate going to the dealer for repairs.

 

True. However if anything goes wrong, from their repair I can take it back to them. I was sort of stranded and needed someplace to take it. I don't know of any reputable repair shops around here. I figured might as well take it to them it will be on their records etc.

 

WHOA! Can you hit 'Reset' and start your day all over again? Sorry, definitely no laughing matter. Why the dealer (expensive) and not a tire shop (more reasonable)? Did you just have your tire/wheel serviced recently?

Reason I ask is I had a similar experience a while back in my younger days with another car. Took it to a tire shop for 4 new tires. Paid the bill and drove off with new tires on the car. Clunk clunk clunk at the light almost right in front of the tire shop. Made a U turn and took it back... to find out that all my lugs were loose...

In hindsight and tucked into my Best Practices file - always double-check the work done even if it's just as simple as an oil change. In retrospect, I could've owned the store... if all 4 wheels fell off. I should've raised a heck of a stink. I didn't. I was much younger and dumber ahhhh less experienced then...

I feel your predicament bud! Good luck.

 

Ive had the front right wheel fall off completely my first car, 1988 prelude. Went to my local mechanic. He had to replace the axle rotors cv joint etc. I was sure id face 1000+ inrepairs but he charged me less than $500. Now he's my mechanic since i know he wont try to rape me with extra charges

 

Has happened to me too. They even tried to charge me for a stud they broke off.

 

I heard the noise the day before and checked my three lugnuts. They were tight. I think the bearing destroyed itself and the wobbling just stressed the wheel studs even more. Having a spacer and only three lugnuts does not help. The tires they are selling me are the stock dunlops. They are only $132 a piece. Not terribly marked up. Also my wife is away on business and wont be back til Friday. Her car is at the airport long term parking. So I was stranded. I couldnt take my wheels to a tire shop.

 

Well I wouldn't put those wheels back on for you with 8mm spacers and stock studs either if I worked at a dealership. I HATE dealerships but I will defend them on that.

Lessons learned:

1. Don't run on 3 lugnuts
2. Don't use more than 5mm spacers (none if possible) on stock studs
3. Don't ignore wheel bearing sounds, even a suspicion warrants an inspection. Failed bearings are dangerous.

If you would have done all of the above you'd just have to replace the bearing.

Sorry for the shi**y day.

 

Yep lesson learned. I cant recall if the spacers are 8mm. That was just a number i pulled out of my head. I think they are less than a 1/4 inch though. Anyway, I look at this as an investment to increasing the longevity of my FIT. It has been needing an alignment for a while too. So that will get done. Also this is a good excuse to get new tires for my tireless SSRs that I have never put on my Fit.

 

I run 3mm shims on the rear axle

 

You can not blame them for refusing to install out of OEM spec parts. They do not want the liability. I'm not sure what caused your problems. I strongly suspect running on only 3 bolts contributed to or probably caused the majority of your problems.

I at one time ran a 5 bolt wheel with only 4 bolts. Within a week I broke a second one adjacent to the first broken one. That caused the wheel to start to wobble and I caught it before a 3rd one broke. I'm not against spacers but you do need to have a few threads left over on the stud after installing a standard open nut on the stud. I realize you probably can not see the end of the open end of the nut if you are using the acorn type covered nuts.

Good luck on your repairs.

 

Wow. That looks dangerous, man. Good thing you're ok and this didn't come off while you were on the highway.

But yeah, taking this to the dealership they will surely put a big hole in your pocket. I used to work for one before and knowing how things work in there, I am not going to do my services there.

Maybe after this repair, I suggest you go look for a personal mechanic, or a reputable shop that is known not to screw customers, or better yet learn to DIY or get knowledgeable friends to help out.

And as for the spacers, I have read somewhere that if you're using anything more than 5mm, use extended studs or spacers with studs.

 

1. Having only 3 lug nuts on should not have been a problem. I'm going out on a limb here but in my other cars the lugs keep the wheel clamped onto the hub but don't take shear (up and down) loads from the wheels. There's a counterbore in the wheel that the hub boss mates to that takes those vertical loads. Not sure if that's the same on a Fit.

2. It looks like the lugs might have been over torqued?

3. Spacers are always a bad idea. A "small" spacer is probably ok but no one will be able to tell you what size "small" is. It could be 5mm or it could be 1mm. Spacers change the load centerline on a wheel bearing. When you shift the load centerline you impart a moment into the bearings which is reacted by the bearings in manner they weren't designed or expected to react. Even if you run fine with spacers you are adding additional stress and possibly reducing bearing life. I found a picture at this web site that shows what I'm talking about:

http://www.fleetequipmentmag.com/Ite...g_choices.aspx

Scroll down the to the middle and you'll see a cross section. That upper arrow is your wheel load. When you add spacers you shift that arrow left or right. Depending on how close the two bottom arrows are you could be overstressing one of the bearings. Bottom line is that the upper arrow should always be half way in between the two lower arrows to get the bearings to share the load.

 

wow lucky that some scary shsss

 

If there's no hub centering on the wheel I don't think this still applies. Many aftermarket wheels have a center bore that's larger than the center spigot on the wheel hub assembly, the diameter of which is around 58mm on most Hondas.

Without a hub centering ring the wheels are effectively centered on the hub using the lugnuts.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

even with a centering ring... it's still "lug centric." the ring is only needed during the mounting process to make it easier to line up and as some have said, so the wheels aren't resting directly on the threads of the stud.

They have to be lug centric, otherwise each nut would be applying slightly unbalanced force within the seat... which in turn would eventually fatigue a stud, causing it to snap off.

This is why, when I put my wheels back on my Fit, I constantly hit the tires with one hand as I am hand tightening the nuts. I try to be as even as possible with all four nuts (doing each little by little before coming back to the first).

 

Fit is back on the road. I need to replace the wheel bearing on the passenger side now it has a loud moan. But that is a much more affordable repair. I just need ti buy the part and find a place to press it in.

 

Took a pic of the Fit wearing my SSR Firenzes after spending all that money to get her back up and rolling.

 

Lookin' pretty sharp! A lot better than the old ones.
4 lugs on - CHECK!

 

I had this exact thing happen to me driving through the mountains. Lucky for me, I found a turnout before the last stud ripped off and I went off the side. I had to get towed about an hour before I could find a shop that could do the work. The closest Honda dealership denied having any studs nor being able to source them for me for atleast 3 days (it was a saturday). The shop I went to was real nice and got the parts from a NAPA and did everything for about $500. They suspected it had something to do with the aluminum lug nuts I was running may have been overtorqued or the wheels being severely out of balance.