Spare tire on 1999 Lincoln Navigator fell off, landing in roadway. Spare and wheel weigh approx. 80 lbs. No injury or damage to other vehicles occured as this transpired on a residential street at low speed. Concern regarding failure at highway speed or in congested area. No prior warning of failure.

- Indialantic, FL, USA

(1) nothing before it happened. (2) I was driving to work at 10:50 pm and as I made a right hand turn into the parking lots at about 5-10 mph, I heard a clank and bump bump. I turned and saw nothing and slowly moved forward where I saw a tire in the road behind me. I turned around and went back and saw it was a good tire and rim about the size I had on my car. I looked under my car and to my suprise my spare was gone. I picked up the tire and metal bracket that held it. I could not find anything else. The next day in daylight I looked under my car and found that the cable that holds the spare tire was broken at the point where it came out of the bracket. (3) I took the car to my local dealer and he didn't look at the car but said he had never heard of this happening before. I asked him to fix it free and pass this info up the ladder as this was a serious accident waiting to kill someone. I told him the day before I had been driving on the interstate @70 mph and if it came off then I was sure I could have killed someone. He said I was lucky, but he couldn't fix it for free and my car was 5 years old. I told him this was a safety issure and the spare tire had never been put on the car. Nothing he could do but gave me an 800 number to call. I did and got nowhere with them either, I did get a reference # 0420083070. I'm almost scared to drive the car, as the spare tire could come off and kill someone.

- Charleston, SC, USA