Well,

I had my four year old daughter today and decided to take her on a 20 mile trip to see and old friend who has a 1952 Ford F1 with a flathead 6 that I want to buy. I almost turned out of the drive and got on the interstate, but at the last minute decided to go through the country.

As I neared his house, I crossed a rough rail road track about 600 yards from his drive. All of the sudden the car became difficult to drive and the brake pedal went to the floor.

Before I left, we jacked up the front end. I thought a caliper had frozen. A month ago the local MB mechanic put on new front shocks, rotors and pads on the front. The front passenger wheel was ok. We dropped that side and jacked up the other and the wheel fell loose. When the tire was removed, the dust cap, spindle nut and outer bearing race fell into my hands.

I immediately was thankful for my life that I had not driven on the interstate. We checked the bearing and repacked it. No damage to the spindle. No thread damage on the spindle or the nut. It threaded right back on and the allen screw tightened. It was not stripped. LOGIC tells me the mechanic put the nut on but did not tighten the allen screw and put my wheel back on.

I called the mechanic and he denied any responsibility of course. He said he had been doing this for 30 years and had never had that happen.

There is a first time for everything. And this is the last time I let him ever touch my car. If you are ever in Rocky Mount, NC do not let Mike Viverette of Viverettes garage touch your car.

Thankful for my life and taking the back country road.

__________________
1982 300SD Light Blue
2002 Honda Accord SE
1974 Toro Wheel Horse Tractor
2000 Toyota Tundra Pickup

..........another good reason to do the work yourself.

Glad nobody was injured.

I am glad that nobody was hurt. Don't you wish that everyone drove like their first priorty was making sure everyone got home safe that night?

People make mistakes, nobody is perfect. Nobody is excepted from this unfortunate reality. Take little steps to improve your chances.

When I get out of my car I often feel tire temperatures and hub temperatures. When I walk past a tire I put my foot on top of it and attempt to shake the whole car with it. These little things are just a couple of my roadside tests that I view as an extension of checking gauges, fluid levels, etc, and can give early warning of some common failures.

There is always plenty of blame to go around and I agree that the mechanic was at fault but you are ultimately responsible for the safety of any vehicle that you operate.

He has been in business for 30 years. If he left a nut loose on every car, he would be on the street corner by now.

People make mistakes. Sometimes big ones like yours. It's nature.

Should be thankful for more than just one life!

See, people do make mistakes.......

Knad-busting aside, glad yall were OK!

__________________
Jimmy L.
'05 Acura TL 6MT
2001 ML430 My Spare

Gone:
'95 E300 188K "Batmobile" Texas Unfriendly Black
'85 300TD 235K "The Wagon" Texas Friendly White
'80 240D 154K "China" Scar engine installed
'81 300TD 240K "Smash"
'80 240D 230K "The Squash"
'81 240D 293K"Scar" Rear ended harder than Elton John

Hmmm,

I take it you inspected your car before bringing it to him and then again afterwards? As for "risking your life" thats a bit dramatic. I have lost a wheel in traffic and while embarrasing and somewhat difficult to deal with it did not kill me.

Mechanics are people and people make mistakes. Trying to destroy someone's livelyhood without having another trained mechanic or engineer inspect the damage is just being mean spirited. It is possible your 20 something year old car broke by itself.

We have run a business for 25 years and mistakes have been made,,, some serious ones. None were intentional and no one ever got hurt. We try our very best, but someone will get distracted and the job isn't finished properly. I have lost sleep over this and carry the best insurance money can buy.

__________________
95 SL500 Smoke Silver, Parchment 64K
07 E350 4matic Station Wagon White 34K
02 E320 4Matic Silver/grey 80K
05 F150 Silver 44K

Thats a great business ethic. Its just really a shame that people don't undertand that mechanics are human beings. Im really greatful that there are people like you out there that will will get dirty and get involved with some complicated engineering gone bad so I don't have to.

Its also a shame that people overreact to issues and bad mouth people behind their backs. On a 20+ year old car EVERY part is questionable in my opinion. To automatically assume someone made a mistake with no research into what caused the failure is something a lot of owners do. Because of people like this the cost of doing business goes up for the mechanics and goes up for people like myself as well. Insurance companies find its easier just to pay people off than to do the forensic research to determine what exactly happened to the car. Higher insurance costs mean higher costs when its time to pay the repair bill.

The only way someone would be "killed" loosing a wheel is if they threw their hands off the wheel and started screaming like an idiot as they crossed the center line into a semi.

Clearly if the car had new rotors put in recently and now the spindle nut was found to have come off it was the tech's fault that he didn't tighten the allen screw when he was setting the bearing play. Could he possibly deny that he had removed the spindle nut when he performed this work? If the SD is like the 123 you need to remove the rotor/hub assembly to separate them in order to replace the rotors so you have to remove the nut. On the later models the rotors will come off without removing the hub so, in that case, he could claim he didn't touch the nut...but on your car me thinks he had to.

OK, it's one thing to make a mistake, it happens, but to deny you could possibly have made it when clearly it was your fault is pretty lame. The old "I've been doing this 30 years and it never happened before" is not a good response. He knows he had to have been at fault. Those nuts will not come loose if they are properly set, period.

The only defense is that admission of guilt would open him to liability. Most insurance companies will tell their clients never admit anything and especially don't advertise you have insurance - that's an invitation to being sued. Maybe he's been sued before and learned this lesson the hard way.

Sadly, in our litigious society there is a justifiable fear of owning up to one's mistakes - no good deed goes unpunished. It goes along with a general lack of personal responsibility...like one other poster said...it's a great reason to want to do the work yourself...

Every time I watched a tech work on one of my cars I concluded that they rarely knew more than me about them, often less, and never did things the way I would have done them...that's why I bought my own lift and tools and only use "pros" for state mandated safety inspections now. I am lucky in that I have a friend who is a dealership tech who can help me out if I get in over my head...but hey, this isn't brain surgery. For the most part, auto repairs are pretty straightforward for mechanically inclined people.

__________________
Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

People make mistakes, however its somewhat irresponsible to draw conclusions and make accusations against a professional in a public forum without some kind of backing. Perhaps if the original poster had been a bit more diplomatic about the situation rather than "oh my god you almost killed me" his car would have been repaired for free???

Most automobile mechanics don't go into business to become multimillionares however they do have to protect themselves. They enjoy working on cars and helping their customers keep their old cars on the road. When faced with an angry customer making unfounded or even founded accusations its in their best interest to globally deny guilt. The customer has already made up their mind about the mechanic and likely won't be back anyway. Admitting guilt only costs you money on top of loosing a customer. If people were more understanding about mistakes businesses would not have to be so "cut throat" in the way that they deal with customers.

Being confrontational and making accusations does not really help you in the long run. Posting nasty stuff on a message board about a mechanic does not help either. Even in the best of shops mistakes are made.

Since I've also been wrenching on cars for 30 years too, and done more than a few front brake jobs on early MB models, I can say from my own experience that the only reasonable explaination for what happened was tech error, sorry, but anyone who thinks there is another explanation is going into the realm of "reasonable doubt" rather than "preponderance of the evidence" as to the level of surety. The evidence is overwhelming that it was his fault...ask 9 out of 10 people who know these cars and they will say the same thing.

Now, maybe WILLREV's attitude did enter into the equation when he confronted the tech, but that's what separates a "professional" from a hack, in my opinion. A pro would have insisted that the customer either bring the car in if it was driveable or sent a tow truck out to retrieve the car if it wasn't and "make it right", suck it up and admit he may have been at fault - in other words turn a liability into an asset by showing the customer you are not only concerned but want to make sure the car is OK after the incident. If he had done this, I am sure WILLREV's post would have been different.

These techs generally don't want their customers to know anything about cars, and frankly most techs will tell you the WORST customer to have is one who knows about cars. They want their customers to be clueless and agreeable and don't want you in the shop when they are working on your car.

Personally I'd be more upset about the tech's handling of the problem than the error itself...that showed his lack of professionalism more than forgetting to tighten the set-screw did.

__________________
Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz

I took the car to two professionals I trust yesterday and both said that the nut did not fail in any way. It had to be the fault of the mechanic who left it loose.

No - it is not my responsibility when I pay someone good hard earned money to have to go behind them and remove a wheel and dust cap to make sure they tightened a bolt that I paid them contractually to do.

If it had caused damage to my car or myself and my daughter on the interstate you better believe I would have let my attorney sue the hell out of this guy for negligence on his part.

I will be driving the 50 mile trip to Raleigh, NC to the dealer from now on when I do not have time to repair it myself. At least they stand behind their work and guarantee it. Being a working professional, I do not always have time to do it myself since I drive this car daily. When I pay someone, I expect it to be right the first time or for their mistake to be corrected at THEIR EXPENSE not at mine. Too many so called professionals will not stand behind their work any more. Yes - people make mistakes, but they need to admit it when they do, suck it up and make it right for the PAYING CUSTOMER. This guy has a rollback but would not come and get the car. He claimed he did the work over a month ago and so it could not have been his fault. No one has touched the car since he did.

As far as my attitude, I was upset - yes, but I did not verbally abuse or act ugly to the mechanic. I just called him to inform him of his mistake so it would not happen to anyone else. He uses a mechanic's helper and does not do all the repairs himself. It may have been his helper. He was the one who brushed me off saying that it could not have been his mistake. Logic says - nut did not fail, so someone left it loose. He was last one to work on the front end - IE it was his mistake.

If I had lost that wheel at 70mph on interstate 95 it would have caused major damage - maybe not my life, but the way people drive out there you can't get out of the way fast enough. I'm just thankful it happened when and where it did. I believe in divine intervention and believe it happened yesterday for me. Just thankful.

__________________
1982 300SD Light Blue
2002 Honda Accord SE
1974 Toro Wheel Horse Tractor
2000 Toyota Tundra Pickup

If I were you, I would check the nut on the passenger side, anyway. One the left side, wheel rotation will loosen an unsecured spindle nut; on the right side the nut will be tightened. The fact that the right side wheel has not fallen off does not guarantee that the job was done any more correctly there than it was on the left side.

Excellent point. I'd be pulling that right side dust cap before I loaded up my daughter again.

And I would have to agree with everyone else's assessment of negligence. As sure as gravity pulls to the center of the earth, there is only one reason that nut came off of the spindle. The allen screw was not secured. End of story.

__________________
1982 300CD Petrol/Black Leather

The thing is with these guys they have too many hats on at once. I've seen a tech try to work on a car, answer the phone, sign for a parts order and handle walk-in customers all at the same time. He probably was in the middle of adjusting the bearing play when something distracted him - when he came back he probably thought he had already completed the task having done the other side first and replaced the dust cap. It's the kind of mistake that can happen when these guys are distracted and doing too many things at once. Not an excuse by any means, but I bet it is likely what happened.

__________________
Marty D.

2013 C300 4Matic
1984 BMW 733i
2013 Lincoln MKz