A few years back I had an XR3i & I took it to this backstreet garage for some tyres fitting. They only used impact gun to tighten the wheel nuts but I thought nothing of it at the time. A few days later I heard a rumbling noise which sounded like a knackered wheel bearing, I took it to a garage nearby who said it was wheel bearing also. I kept driving it around & the noise was getting worse. I was thinking of getting rid of the car or part exchanging for an RS turbo.
One day I took out with my m8 in & we went round a few garages to see what they would offer me part-ex. I was ragging it about a bit that day & the noise was getting louder. Later that day I was driving pretty slowly down this road & the car started wobbling & I slowed right down & when I drove round a corner the wheel flew off, bounced across the road, hit the kerb on the other side of the road & came flying back at the car. It destroyed my door, the front wing & smashed my window
Green flag dude came & had to put the wheel back on to be able to get in on the truck. So he took 1 wheel nut from another wheel to hold it on as temporary measure.
When I got it home I put some more wheel nuts in & decided to drive it to see if it would go, so i could park it in the drive.
The was no noise at all from the wheel. There was nothing wrong with the bearing & the noise had just been from the wheel not put on correctly.
And i was there driving this thing round at speeds of 70+ with the dodgy wheel. If it had come off at them speeds I would have ended up in a bad state & could have died.
So moral of the story is, get your wheel sorted out if it's making a bad noise & don't just think it could be a bearing or whatever. You may regret not getting it sorted out.
