Audi woes - new wheel, rotor, front panel

[Kneale Brownson]

If the bolts sheared, the ends would still be in the hub.  That MIGHT
result from overtightening.  Sounds like your bolts were AWOL.  I'd say
that meant they were not torqued.  No way properly torqued bolts come loose
in 50 miles of normal street use.

At 03:42 PM 5/2/2004 -0400, films at crazyralph.com wrote:
>>If they took that wheel off and failed to tighten the bolts (only way it
>could come off in a few miles), they have WAY more of a problem than
>they're letting you understand
>
>The manager at the Wal-Mart Tire & Lube Express was at least courteous
>about it.  The first guy was a jerk.  I was extremely surprised at their
>cavalier attitude toward the whole thing.  They never asked if anyone was
>injured, etc.  While I was upset at the damage, it could have been
>disasterous if we'd have been going faster/been on a busy road.  
>
>I should add that I'm assuming that this was Wal-Mart's fault.  Like I
>said, they rotated the tires last Sunday.  I've put on, maybe 50 miles
>since then.  Today, about 2 miles from the house, the steering wheel began
>to jerk/shudder and less than 30 seconds later was the "bang" and the wheel
>went rolling down the road and my front end slammed down.  I left it come
>to a slow stop, pulling to the side of the road.  We found one lugnut but
>couldn't locate the other three.  The "holes" on the wheel had been worn
>into an almost oval shape and there were metal shavings around them.  The
>tow-truck driver said it looked like they'd been sheared off.
>
>Could anything aside from un-tightened lugnuts cause this?