Lug nuts loosened by themselves?

[charger_lady]

I know I haven't been on here in a long time but I need a question answered...PLEASE!!!!

Has anyone ever heard of this happening? 

I had spent last Friday cleaning & polishing the Charger top to bottom. I even polished the lug nuts 
Everything seemed nice & tight.
We took it out that night and had no problems.
The following morning we went about 6 city blocks before we heard a "knocking" under the front end. We slowed down & still heard this knocking sound. After pulling off the road my hubby crawled under to see if he could find the noise. I notice the front drivers tire sitting in an awkward position...I bent down to see all 5 lug nuts loosened off!!!!  I told hubby to get the hell out from under the car cause the tire/rim look like they are ready to fall off!!!  We were lucky there was a garage right there, we jacked it up took the tire off and had it checked out before putting it back on. All the other lug nuts on the other 3 tires are as tight as they should be. There doesn't seem to be any damage,thank god, someone up there was watching out for us...we had our 2 teenage girls in the back seat and almost went out on the Hwy.

I know that we have not had the tires off for months and my hubby usually checks them all to make sure they're tight. Now I'm thinking someone either tried to steal them or it was tampered with. It's been bothering me a lot cause I do believe that it has been tampered with as we do have a problem neighbor.

Any thoughts from fellow Charger owners is GREATLY appreciated PLEASE!!!

[Charger_Fan]

Repair manuals usually reccomend to re-check the lug nut torque after a few miles of driving, anytime you have your tires off the car. It's possible that they weren't torques quite tight enough initially, then once one loosened up, the rest sorta followed.
Glad you pulled over when you did, it really sucks to lose a wheel.

Yes, I've had that happen to me...

[73chgrSE]

happened to me once too, luckily i stopped meer feet before the wheel came completely off. you may have a warped wheel or a irregular tire that causes a wobble.

[charger_lady]

Repair manuals usually reccomend to re-check the lug nut torque after a few miles of driving, anytime you have your tires off the car. It's possible that they weren't torques quite tight enough initially, then once one loosened up, the rest sorta followed.
Glad you pulled over when you did, it really sucks to lose a wheel.

Yes, I've had that happen to me...

Well, we did check the torque after we did all the brake work and drove her for a bit but the tires haven't been off in months!? The torque has been checked a number of times since the tires were off also.
And everything was tight the day before when I cleaned her...just seems really strange how they were tight the Fri. night when we were cruising and the following day they were almost all off 

Hope it doesn't happen again...gonna make sure nobody's messing with her for sure now...VIDEO CAMERAS INSTALLED!!!!!! {and baseball bat beside the bed }

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

I have heard this happens mostly on the left rear wheel at times.....happened to me 2 months after I got my car painted.  Luckily the rim rode the brake drum with no damage to the quarter panel.

[craigandlynda]

this happened to me on a 71 charger...left front wheel....couldn't figure it out....only thing we noticed was on close examination, the holes in the wheel had been slightly enlarged,  guess from some kind of abuse...other wheels holes were OK...

[John_Kunkel]

I had a similar experience with a factory steel wheel, turned out the center of the wheel was slightly bent. When the nuts were tightened to the proper torque there was a small gap between the wheel center and the drum face on a couple of the lugs and this prevented any of the lugs from fully seating. As the wheel center "unbent" from normal strain over time all of the lugs eventually loosened; some more than others.

[Paul 500]

Have you changed your wheel studs to all right hand threads ?  I've been told that front driver side wheel nuts can come undone when they have been changed to R/H threaded studs. Something to do with the stress on them when turning corners. Back drivers side one are ok though

[Steve P.]

This has been a notable problem with chrome wheels and lug nuts. Back in the days of having a shop I saw this rather often. I told all customers about it and suggested they keep a torque wrench and socket set up to do a fast check once a week or so.. It doesn't take long and it's great for the FEELS GOOD part of your mind..

[charger_lady]

Have you changed your wheel studs to all right hand threads ?  I've been told that front driver side wheel nuts can come undone when they have been changed to R/H threaded studs. Something to do with the stress on them when turning corners. Back drivers side one are ok though

Yes we have changed to all rights...that's what we've been hearing from local guys too

This has been a notable problem with chrome wheels and lug nuts. Back in the days of having a shop I saw this rather often. I told all customers about it and suggested they keep a torque wrench and socket set up to do a fast check once a week or so.. It doesn't take long and it's great for the FEELS GOOD part of your mind..

Sounds like the plan now

Thanks for all the replies guys 
I knew i could count on you fellow Charger owners

[Steve P.]

Have you changed your wheel studs to all right hand threads ?  I've been told that front driver side wheel nuts can come undone when they have been changed to R/H threaded studs. Something to do with the stress on them when turning corners. Back drivers side one are ok though

Yes we have changed to all rights...that's what we've been hearing from local guys too

This has been a notable problem with chrome wheels and lug nuts. Back in the days of having a shop I saw this rather often. I told all customers about it and suggested they keep a torque wrench and socket set up to do a fast check once a week or so.. It doesn't take long and it's great for the FEELS GOOD part of your mind..

I knew i could count on you fellow Charger owners

I don't own a Charger, BUT,,, I did see one on TV once....   

[BROCK]

Chrysler used lefthand thread lugs on the left side to prevent loosening at speed.  Engineering quality!!!
Supposedly they stopped because of too many complaints from people that just didn't get it.
The "Magnum" road wheels are unfortunately known for waller-ed out lug holes.  There have also been
cases of the centers being warped by unsuspecting tire service people.

You haven't stated what wheels you are running - but they need a thorow inspection or at least rotate
that wheel to the rear.

As a humorous aside - if indeed it were your neighbor & you had leftthreaded lugs:  they'd be tightening
them for you!

[charger_lady]

Chrysler used lefthand thread lugs on the left side to prevent loosening at speed.  Engineering quality!!!
Supposedly they stopped because of too many complaints from people that just didn't get it.
The "Magnum" road wheels are unfortunately known for waller-ed out lug holes.  There have also been
cases of the centers being warped by unsuspecting tire service people.

You haven't stated what wheels you are running - but they need a thorow inspection or at least rotate
that wheel to the rear.

As a humorous aside - if indeed it were your neighbor & you had leftthreaded lugs:  they'd be tightening
them for you!

When we had the car restored back in 05 we switched to all right hand lugs but this is the 1st time since we changed them that they loosened.
Back in the 80's we had too many problems with shops over tightening the left hand lugs when they tried to remove the tires so we thought we'd save ourselves any BS by changing to rights. I know we'll just keep a REAL close eye on it & check more often than we have been which was usually once a week. Now I have the hubby checking before each cruise...better to be safe than sorry!!

As for my neighbor...he's a real pain in the A...he shot a fire cracker directly at my kids & house about 2 months before this happened to our Charger. He's one of those "neighbors" that is in every neighborhood...the guy that nobody likes!! We just try to ignore him