So I was on my way to my brother's place in Jordan yesterday, I noticed an audible vibration possibly from the left rear when turning left at speed.
I had just swapped my wheels last week, as I have my snow tires already mounted on their own set, so I was wondering if I either had a loose wheel or maybe I had the tread separating from a tire.
As I was trying to diagnose that left rear issue, I get blindsided by a much louder vibration, one that I could feel pretty severely in the front. I slow way down, realizing it is no longer safe to drive at speed, so I was down to around 30 in a 55 trying to diagnose this issue, which sounded similar to the issue I was earlier trying to get a read on from the rear. I stopped a couple different times to visually inspect both front wheels and tires, but when I stopped I couldn't see anything wrong. From past experience, you won't see tread separation on a wheel that isn't moving, and I checked the bolt holes and everything looked fine, nothing appeared loose, but without a torque wrench I couldn't be sure.
I was just a few miles from my brother's place, so I limped the car on... now around only 20mph, driving with my flashers on when it reached a point where it was clearly not driveable. This time when I got out to look, it was clear as day that the left front was EXTREMELY loose! In fact, so loose, only a single bolt was actually still holding it on barely. The other 4 were completely unthreaded! I was lucky they were still sitting in the bolt holes on the wheel, they could have fallen out on their own.
Being that highway 21 north into Jordan is a fairly busy road, and I'm on the hill heading right into town, which has virtually no shoulder due to a guard rail on the side, no way was I going to lay down on the driver's side to get a jack under the car when I can just use AAA. They arrived in 20 minutes, remounted the wheel, I was on my way.
Heading home, I noticed the vibration from the left rear was getting louder, and since I now recognized this as the same sound to a lesser degree that the left front made when it got bad, I knew the left rear must also be a bit loose. I didn't feel a vibration, but just knowing what the sound meant, I didn't feel safe at highway speeds, so I averaged between 30-40 from Jordan to Farmington.
All this happening just a week and a half after I swapped my wheels at Discount Tire to get my snow tires on. Obviously they must've been loose from that placement.
I brought the S4 in right away this morning, told them what happened, also let them know it sounded like possibly the left rear might be loose as well. I also showed them the hub ring that was torn up and couldn't be put back on with the rim when AAA remounted it.
They immediately apologized and bumped my car ahead of those who had scheduled appointments, took off all the wheels again, inspecting them all for possible damage, they noticed one of the bolt holes was very "slightly" ovaled out (I'll be honest, when they showed me, I wouldn't have even noticed with out it being pointed out) on the wheel that almost came off. They are ordering a replacement rim to replace that one free of charge. After all the others were checked out as being fine, they remounted all of them and torqued the bolts an extra 5lbs to assure the same won't happen again.
I was all set to be very angry with them this morning, but they stepped up to make this right. The audible vibration from the rear is clearly gone, so I felt safe again driving at speed. Obviously I'll be extra sensitive for that sound again now that I know what it means if I hear it.
Hopefully, it's something I'll not have to deal with again though. I've been going to this Discount Tire location for years (since 2006) and this is the first issue I've ever had. With how they're handling this, they will continue to get my business. The TSW wheels my snow tires are mounted on, I bought from them at the same time I purchased the snow tires, so the replacement order they put in is seamless, as it's already in their system.
All in all, everything is good.