Almost wrecked my 1998 last night - thanks to theives

Coming home last night, I noticed a little shimmy in the steering wheel. Almost like a half flat tire. I pulled over and checked, and tire pressure seemed fine… I couldnt see anything obviously wrong, It was dark, so I couldnt see much…

I decided to take the car home so I could get a better look at it in the morning…. I drove real nice not wanting to make the problem worse. I turned a corner and the Passenger side front wheel flew completely OFF THE CAR. I skidded about 30 yards on my rotor alone before I was finally able to come to a stop - right in the middle of the intersection of course.

Got out to look - saw the wheel gone. Looked at the lugs - 1 lug pin missing completely, but the other 4 seemed fine - not stripped. Very odd I thought to myself. I called my Tow truck guy, and gave jibit a call so I could get a ride home. A handful of incredulous cops stopped to gawk.

Went to my mechanic today to explain to him why my car was in his lot. Right away he said it sounded like someone tried to steal my rims. We walked around the car and found a few more lug nuts missing from the driver side.

My guess is that they got to the locking nuts and gave up.

Dont know about damage yet. I do know the fender is shot. The rotor as well. We’ll see what else is screwed up.

Good thing I wasnt doin 40-50 mph. I’d be dead or badly hurt.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 2nd, 2006 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Basic Rants and Raves, My Lincoln Mark VIII. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.