Trying to help out some friends, one company are car traders who sold a car which came back to them for some warranty work. Second company is another friend of mine, his workshop replaced auto gearbox, front pads, discs and other miscellaneous work.
Apparently trader collected car and drove for 2 days and found no fault. Went on test drive with owner and had no issue, 72 miles later while car is back with owner front left wheel falls off on motorway.
First reaction is that workshop must have made error as owner would have to be insane to loosen wheel bolts then drive on motorway.
However all of us are suspicious as workshop that performed the work are slow and careful, not normal rushing to beat book times type place. Also emails from the owner make it look like he is using the situation to blackmail the trader and owner is suggesting police want to speak to trader but owner is willing to not pass details to police in return for payment.
None of this is proof of anything, but one thing I found strange - we were sent pictures of the 4 bolts that came out (were held in by plastic cover).
The locking nut shows sign of thread damage as would be expected after a wheel separation, and one bolt hole on wheel is elongated.
However other 3 bolts/holes look totally perfect. This got all of us thinking, even if these bolts has spun off first and the wheel was only left held by the lock nut, there would have been significant damage to the end of the thread on the 3 bolts, as the plastic cover would have held the bolts pressed against the hub.
The other strange bit is how the photo evidence seem to show the lock nut was the only bolt that was holding on the wheel. I know the workshop well and know they normally slightly overtighten all the bolts except locking nut which will be done to exact torque spec to avoid damaging the locking nut.
Workshop had immediately offered to pay for another local workshop to remedy the damage, but when the trader showed me the blackmailing emails asking for further compensation I thought I would try to help them.
If I look online I can find American services to perform forensic analysis of wheel bolts, but I can't find any UK services. Does anyone know of any?
![[Image: Revo-Uninstaller-Pro.png]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jK55bkmZBCc/VekPpJ32ibI/AAAAAAAAAbE/jwAXpXw0Y08/s1600/Revo-Uninstaller-Pro.png)
