Wheel fell off car on motorway

missile

I am a qualified metallurgist > In my opinion, the fracture in the casting does appear fresh, i.e. there are no indications of an inherent defect or of it being fractured before the incident. The failure is ductile i.e. there is significant evidence of bending which is not consistent with a fatigue failure.


The lower bolts have sheared. It would seem unlikely that these bolts fractured due to this incident, perhaps these bolts may have been broken prior to the incident? I would like to see a photo of the other side of that wheel. I would suggest an impact so severe to cause this failure would have leave evidence i.e. significant impact damage to the wheel.

REDDDRAGGON

missile wrote: »

I am a qualified metallurgist > In my opinion, the fracture in the casting does appear fresh, i.e. there are no indications of an inherent defect or of it being fractured before the incident. The failure is ductile i.e. there is significant evidence of bending which is not consistent with a fatigue failure.

You must be seeing different images to me because all I can is a pixellated mess when you zoom in.

missile

We shall agree to differ. The evidence as presented is not sufficient to determine cause of failure, but I would definitely rule out a fatigue failure of the casting as you have suggested in post No 50.

AdrianC

Still no photo of the outside of the wheel, and of the rear wing.

manc187

neilmcl

Have you made contact with the dealership that sold you the car or Vauxhall yet?

manc187

rear side wing damage picture posted above
Unfortunately at the moment I don't have a picture of the outside of the wheel - as you can probably understand I was a bit shook up at the time and it was one of the photos I neglected to take

manc187

Here is a picture of the front driver side rim

AdrianC

So, yes, that's the corner that hit the barrier, and at top-of-wheel height, too. There's also fairly minimal scraping to the underside of the suspension, from what can be seen, which also suggests the wheel didn't go AWOL at full cruising speed, but when the top was pushed inwards by the barrier impact.

I'm not surprised that the wheel was found a fair way back up the road - it'd have had a fair bit of energy to lose. If it'd come off whilst travelling, it'd have gone in the direction of travel, quite possibly going further than the car.

I really do think everything's pointing towards the suspension damage being a result of the collision, not the cause. The blow-out was probably the cause of loss of control, but what caused that... Damage (probably road debris) really is the most likely suspect.

bigjl

If you look at the other pictures on the link it looks like the cad hit something at some point. Probably the armco barrier.

This would certainly cause the wheel to become detached.

If the car had not hit anything after the blow out I would doubt the wheel and hub would have become detached.

Looks like a claim on you full comp insurance.