I was driving home from work and felt a rumble in the car, like the tires were out of balance. I checked the tires at a gas station before leaving and all looked fine. The rumbling got worse over the course of the drive down 95 South in Massachusetts, until I got off 95 S and was on the exit ramp for 295 South when I felt and heard what sounded like a tire blow out. I instantly slowed down and got as far to the right as I could. Another motorist had stopped in front of me that had seen the whole thing. He got out made sure I was alright and whether or not I had aaa (which I had) and he told me that my wheel rolled off into the woods. And sure enough I looked at the right front tire and the car was riding on the rotor, with some damage to the wheel well and the passenger door opens with difficulty. Upon inspection of the rotor, all 5 of the studs had sheared off and the lugs were gone. Aaa and the mechanics at meinikee had never seen anything like that. After retrieving the wheel, inspection showed that none of the holes in the rim had been ovaled. I had the right front tire changed by town fair tire two months prior and it was suspected that the lugs were either loose or overtightened, however town fair tire is looking the other way because I had driven 8,000 miles since the tire was changed. Everyone that looked at the wheel thought that it didn't make sense because usually with loose lugs one or two of the lugs linger behind, not in this case. Meinikee was able to salvage the whole wheel and only had to replace the hub assembly costing $311, not including body damage. The whole thing seems suspicious, since there should no way that all 5 of the studs should have sheared off simultaneously without some sort help from either human error on the lugs or a factory defect.

- Warwick, RI, USA