On Tue, 16 Oct 2012 12:10:05 -0700 (PDT), Larry Fishel
wrote:


Yeah, and quite possibly have a thousand dollars in body work to do and maybe a brake disk to replace. Maybe a punctured tire and/or damaged rim.

If you really want to tr this, you could back your lug nuts off a quarter inch and drive until you heard the thump.

I did that too once. I guess I hadn't tightened the wheel, and I was
going 100 miles from NYC to Allentown Pa. 70 miles in it started
thumping, but I jumped to the conclusion it was a bad wheel bearing
and just kept driving (which is a bad idea for a bearing too.)

When I finally got to my desitnation, I looked and the wheel was lose
and I'd damaged the threads on one or two of the studs. Left front
wheel. IIRC I tightened four of them and a couple weeks later, I
punched out the bad stud(s?) and replaced it. The same guy at
Atlantic Wheel and Rim had told me no one uses a press to remove studs
either, even though the shop manual says to do that. They use a
hammer and a punch or a drift.

That would tell you the same thing with relatively little risk to you vehicle.

Good point.