Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

macro wrote:After every time I remove my wheels or have a shop do work, I re-tighten them after a drive. Just for my own piece of mind.

Also, instead of the plastic arrows, just use a bright paint pen and dot the nut and rim where the touch. It won't last forever but it will give you some advanced warning.

That is a g00d idea. I'm on it.

Falco.

This happened to me after I had a couple of tires installed. They torqued them correctly, but two lug nuts still fell off. They had had a similar problem with a previous L300 and were mortified and mystified. They took a close look at the wheel and felt that the likely culprit was the retainer ring for the hubcaps; it doesn't automatically center and if you aren't careful it will shift after you put the wheel on and prevent the wheel from sitting properly on the hub. It's all they could find off with that wheel. They made sure the retainer was perfectly centered, torqued the lugs back up, and no problem ever since.

The wheel nuts on my 99 Chamonix have 5 mm. more thread contact (longer) than my 92 L300 or 95 L400 Delica. The 99 is heavier but I wonder if there have been problems with the old shorter wheel nuts......

I use a dab of never seize on my studs occassionally and tighten the nuts with a 18 inch ratchet. The nuts have never come loose but all these stories cause me to never trust them again. I like the idea of paint marking the nut position.

I bought BFG ATs for my 92 L300 and my present 99 Chamonix. My 95 L400 has Michelin LTXs. The tire buzz is far greater on the BFGs and i wonder if that couldn't contribute to wheel loosening. I'll be checking the wheel nuts frequently till I'm comfortable with these BFGs.

Unlike my signature I will worry for a while.
TLGF

The first time it happened we removed the broken retainer rings. Only the front two were broken so we took them off.

The second time it happened we removed all of the retainer rings. There are no hubcaps left on my van.
The hubs are painted black.

I've put black dots on the lugs and check them every time I'm about to drive. So far, no issues.

Those hubcap rings are a good shout, the recess in the rim for them is literally only big enough to just hold it, and since its spllt, it means it could easily drift outside that, tighten it up, with a bit trapped under the rim proper, it pops into the recess, bosh, instant play and the nuts undo.