Never had that happen............

Was working in Lincoln yesterday, 25 miles from home.

My Dodge Grand Caravan began making a kind of rubbing sound in the left front, mostly at slow speed. It would go away when you hit the brakes. It progressed to the point where it made a clicking noise under certain conditions. As it was getting progressively worse, I cut the day short and headed for home. On the way home, I convinced myself it might be the left front hub bearing failing for want of a better diagnosis.

I ruled out the CV axle, 'cause it was smooth and quiet during acceleration and the first sign of a CV axle failing is usually vibration during acceleration.

When I got home, I ran it into my shop, jacked up the LF corner, and began to pull the wheel to see what I could see. In the process, it dawned on me the lug nuts were nowhere near as tight as they should have been. Not sloppy loose, but loose enough that it took no effort to spin them off. I tightened the lug nuts like they should have been and checked the rest. The rest were OK. Road tested and no more noise.

The last time that wheel was off was when I rotated the tires several thousand miles back.

I never had that happen before, but I guess the tire shops know what they're doing when they put a note on their work orders saying that lug nuts on alloy wheels need to be re-torqued after 50 miles.

Has it happened to anyone else?

yea, it happened to me once, every nut was loose except the lock one. some arse tried to steel the wheel but couldn't get the lock one loose.

Lost all 5 nuts on SWMBO's last truck and tire got stuck in fender well 3/8 of a mile from home. Last time that tire had been off was about 3 years and 30,000 miles prior.
The guy that helped us out is a streetrodder and now a friend.

Son lost a wheel on his trailer loaded with a bobcat approx 1 hr after pulling out of a tire shop who just put 4 new tires on the trailer.
All other wheels were also loose.

At least ours was just a lil Ford Ranger

Yep, on my sister's Dodge Stratus with aluminum wheels. I'm the on that changed the tire though and I know I had it tight.

Twice. Once on my chevy 1500. My son tightened them and I had one stud break off. Again on my car and I lost a stud that time to. My fault. Each time it was the front left.

Had it happen several times, once to me and 5-6 times with my older kids cars. Son went so far as to lose a wheel. It never occurred to me the alloy wheels would be part of the issue, but it makes sense.

Actually it is a problem with the vehicle.

My brother is having the same issue with lug nuts loosening on his Dodge Grand Caravan.

We check ours, 95 and 99 GMC every year with a torque wrench, sometimes we find one that is a little under torque,but none have come loose. These are the only 2 vehicles that have alloy type rims. It also gives us a chance to check out steering and tire wear. Thank goodness we never had one come loose.
LOU

Maybe there was a reason I had to use a cheater handle on a breaker bar the first time I removed a wheel from that vehicle after I bought it. As I recall, that was the left front for a slow leak in the tire.

I'll have to check my wife's Chrysler T&C. Only she's at a convention about a hundred miles west of here right now.

A hundred miles? You are gonna need a long extension!!

It is possible for lug nuts to work themselves loose. Happened to me. Stopped by a friends house. Was shooting the gab. He is hard to get away from. We were standing by my 3/4 ton truck still shooting the gab as I was getting ready to leave. He noticed a lug nut loose on the rear wheel. I had the long studs on that truck and the one he seen was quite a little loose. Got the wrench out and sure enough, non of them was as tight as they should of been on that wheel. It had been driven for alot of miles and was torqued to speck when put on.