D22 Alloy Wheel Warp.

[albatross]

G'day everybody!
So a while ago I had a wheel bearing fail on the front left while doing 110km/h down the freeway and this caused alot of heat to build up quick in the Alloy wheel causing the Alloy to expand at a rapid rate as it does breaking the wheel studs and/or popping the wheel nuts off so the wheel came free while taking a gentle right bend in the road (Not fun! Lucky I had a trailer on tow and managed to have enough blood left in my brain to hit the handbreak to control the stop rather then slam the breaks on!)
The end result was just replace the lower control arm and ball joint as well as the break rotor (The rotor took most of the load).

But My question is, will the alloy wheel be safe to use again? I havent used them since as I put my sunny's back on, but I want to go back to standard rims now due to tyre size choise and offset issues with the sunnys.

Has anyone else ever experenced this style of event?

And before anyone asks, yes there was a funny feeling in the steering as the bearing died but it was a bad road and I had just put the trailer on so I figured that was causing the feeling back through the steering. The bearing was fine up untill the trailer went on then it all went south very quickly. didnt even get 10km out of Ballarat! Lesson learned tho, after each trip, at the very least inspect bearings!!!

 

[Dave]

I am not up on metals but someone will know.

Glad you came out alright.

Hope its smooth sailing from now.

 

[albatross]

Cheers mate. Yea was a interesting one. But escaped without too major a drama. I think the worst damage was done to my shorts.
I know that the expansion co-efficiant of Alloy is ver high, ie, it expands alot when heated, but what im not sure of if when it cools does it fully return to shape and does it get more brittle therefor risk cracking easyer?
If so then off to the wreckers we go. Its just hard to find time when you only have 2 weeks a year at home and spend the rest of the time floating around the worlds oceans somewear! Hence if I can re-use that wheel I can get them sent off to get the new tires put on them so when i get home I can have maximum time enjoying them in the bush

 

[Dion]

The effect of the heat on the wheel is not an issue, but I'd expect a fair degree of damage to the inserts and the tapers if not damage from the accident itself. Who diagnosed the cause of the problem? The bit about the wheel expanding and tearing the studs off sounds like bullshit, sounds more like the nuts were not tightened correctly.

 

[albatross]

The Nissan workshop that fixed it all up diagnosed it. Unfortunatly I wasent able to inspect the damage as I had to fly out to Croatia for work early in the morning. The nuts should have been done up correct and had just had a alignment done about 3 weeks before hand. The threads of the nuts/studs were all pulled flat and I tend to belive the heat theory as I have seen some dramatic expansion with alloy components in the different heat climates we experence at work on the ships.
Thats a good point about the inserts, and thinking of that id say it was best to turn it into a garage air hose holder and pick up another one.

Thanks for the help!