[ds968]

I was surfing the MBZ forum earlier and noticed a post where the question of safety while temporarily driving with a missing lug nut was brought up .. which remided me of an old joke ( REALLY OLD.. heard it over 40 years ago ! )but still a classic one: A guy had his tires rotated but the shop forgot to torque one of the wheels so while driving on a frontage road the wheel comes off and he loses the lug nuts which rolled into a creek by the side of the road. As he

is sitting there with a look of despair on his face, he notices someone behind the fence of a very close by insane asylum staring at him.. The patient says: - you need help ? The driver replies : yeah, I have no idea what to do now, my phone battery is dead so I can't call a tow truck, and since I lost the lug nuts obviously I can't put the wheel back on, so I'm stuck here for a while. The patient continues: - why don't you remove one lug nut from each of the other wheels, put them on this one and with three lug nuts on every wheel you'll be able to drive perfectly safely until you get to a shop...just watch your speed. The driver exclaims : wow, what a great idea ! Thanks ! But wait, you're a patient in a mental health institution, I thought you're crazy..?! The patient replies: - yes, I am crazy.. but I'm not STUPID ! <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/rolleyes.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />



Ok, back to the lug nuts.. the reply to the MBZ poster by a couple of others was that while ok, for just a few miles, driving more than a half hour, or a bit too fast with a lug nut missing will probably damage the wheel bearing to some extent, as well as possibly cause some warping of the rotors, etc.. <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/unsure.gif" class="smilie" alt="" /> Really ? <img src="/forum/images/smilies/968/blink.gif" class="smilie" alt="" />

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[chudson]

A Nascar team can leave a lug loose and at those speeds and forces (load applied to wheel, hub, etc) it always results in a catastrophic failure. On the other hand I've had customers (cheap customers, mind you) riding around for years missing a lug that some bozo with an impact wrench stripped or broke. They're still riding tens of thousands of miles later with no issues. Recommended? NO, but it's happening somewhere this very second. Your answer? The manufacturer put all them there for a reason. Any reasonable and prudent driver (ESPECIALLY us performance oriented drivers) should see to it that they all remain.

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[flash]

agreed!!!

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