Had my tyres replaced today at an F1 Autocentre - MPSS all round and alignment done. Before I start, I'll say that the guys in there seemed pretty sound, treated my car with respect and care and I believe that this was a case of somebody making a genuine (but serious) mistake. I waited while they did the work and they certainly did not seem to be rushing (meant in a good way).
Pulled away... felt good...
Entered dual carriageway... fine... Got past 50mph... slight rumble, maybe the road? Got just past 70mph - okay major noise/juddering, coming up through the seat - definitely not the road! Alignment out - no, just been done and got the print out... Flat tyre (brand new!), got out and checked - nope...
Suspect wheel nuts not tightened. Not far from home so managed to crawl back to the driveway (had taken my boot tool kit out of the car last week for the first time in 6 years... in hindsight probably not very sensible) and I could literally take the rear nuts of with my fingers!!! :scare:
Having torqued them up, I actually then drove back to the tyre place to report it - not trying get anything off them, but they need to know it had happened - as a near miss - so it doesn't happen again with worse consequences. To be fair, the boss was extremely apologetic and said that the lad who did the job had recalled not doing them and was genuinely very upset about it. Sort of felt sorry for him as he was a nice lad and had really taken his time with my wheels so as not to damage them and had even checked the correct torque settings for the nuts with me (don't see that very often).
I'll get some vouchers in the post they said, but I probably could've pressed for some moeny back - I'm too laid back for my own good!
What have I learnt from this - carry a tool kit I guess...