This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
1996, Windstar experienced numerous broken wheel studs on the left front and right front wheels. Two studs broke on right front wheel on February 15, 2004.
Consumer stated the lug nuts on the front passenger side wheel were sheared off. Consumer stated while driving on the highway at about 50 mph, the vehicle started to shimmy violently almost out of control.
Lugs: Nuts have repeatedly broken off while consumer has driven vehicle. Contacted dealer, and the dealer has already replaced lugs: Bolts four times, but they will continue to break.
Insured called in noticing frequency of losses to other vehicles, while in motion, the front wheel starts to wobble, studs sheer and come off the vehicle, claim 55-S367-002.
The front right wheel sheared off the lugs and caused the wheel to just about fall off while we were driving the car. The dealer replced the lugs (only the broken ones and not all of them). Just over one year later, the exact same thing happened; that is, the right front wheel sheered off the lugs and caused the wheel to almost fall off. A few months prior to the second incident, all 4 tires were changed by an independent tire place. That tire place swears up and down that they properly torqued the bolts and that their standard inspection calls for a second inspection to confirm this. I tend to believe that they did this. I think there is a known defect in the wheel design by which the lug nuts are known to back off during use, causing the wobbly wheel to shear off the other lugs. I have seen this condition reported by others on this site.
We were driving at approx. 45 mph when the front passenger wheel came off and rolled into on coming traffic. My the front passenger side was smashed as the vehicle skidded to a stop. Fortunately no one was injured. The repair technician said that it appeared the bolts had somehow sheared off. We had not had any recent repairs to the wheels and had not changed tires since November 1999. My husband and 2 young children were in the car when the accident occurred. The police drove by and when they saw that no one was injured did not stop to take a report. The accident was reported to our insurance company and we were required to pay our $500 deductible. We contacted Ford motor, however, they denied any similar complaints. This accident occured in March.
While driving the lug nuts on the vehicle broke causing the right front wheel to fall off of the vehicle, loss of control resulted in the vehicle striking the guardrail. (Ohio traffic crash report)
Consumer was traveling on highway doing about 65mph. Vehicle started to shimmer. Consumer pulled over to inspect vehicle to see if the tires had any flats. All tires were fine. When consumer got back in to take off, vehicle wouldn't move, it just rocked back & forth. Right front tire came off. Consumer found out that lugs: Nuts sheared in half. Half of all five were on the road & the others were on the wheel axle. Dealer said they might have been tightened too much. A tork wrench was used to prevent over or under tightening.
Consumer was pulling away from a stop sign at approximately 10 mph when suddenly the passenger's side front wheel came off due to lugs:nuts:bolts coming off. No accident & no injury. Dealer notified and refused to repair without cost to the consumer.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- San Fransisco, CA, USA