Ever do something, and tn find out you are an *****?????
Last weekend, I did the front bakes on my 95 GS manual. Everything worked great until this wekend, when started getting this horrible clicking noise.
I figured, CV axle. Got all the parts, jacked it up, and low and behold, what do I find? Loose lug nuts. I forgot, you need to re-torque the lug nuts after about a week. Basic mechanics, and I forgot.
So, look up moron, and there will most likely be a pic of me.

hi moron

Hey you got lucky on that one by catching it on time. When I redid my clutch I had this clicking noise that started after about 3 weeks but it wasnt constant. I looked and looked for what was wrong (without jacking up the car DUH) and couldnt find the issue. The one day on my way to work I found the issue the hard way when I sheared all 5 lugs off and the tire and wheel went flying over a house. Literally.

where's a youtube video for that? :P

Ha ha, at least it was an easy fix.

I've never had to re-torque my lug nuts. I think simple mechanics owned you;)

OUCH! Flying tires over a house, doesn't sound like fun at all! I hope it didn't mess up your car too much.

Yeah, you got it in one Rob. Simple mecanics nailed me big time.
I have this bad habit of overlooking the easy stuff, and going straight the more complicated stuff.
This maks it even worse though. I work, as DRIVER, for the nations largest tire distributor. Yeah. Go figure.
I called up a co-worker after that and told him about my stupidity. He laughed so hard, he dropped the phone and fell off his chair. lol!
I know I am never going to hear the end of it at work, and that's ok. I figure, if you can't laugh at yourself, then you have some issues to work out. hehe

I like how you have the pouch to post this on the world wide internets.

Sorry no youtube video for that. I dont plan on trying to recreate the incident again either. It kinda caught me off guard so even if I thought about it I probably wouldnt have had the time to record it. I will say this though it is kinda interesting to be driving down the road and suddenly your front end dips you look over and see your wheel flying through the air.
As for the damage all I could see other then some scrapes on the bottom of my lower control arms is it messed up my fender. I took it to my mechanic to have it inspected and he couldnt find anything else wrong with it. That was November 2004 and to this day without a front end alignment it still drives fine.

Why would you have to RE-torque them?

It has to do with heating (expansion), cooling (shrinkng), and the wheel properly settling up against the rotor and other parts of the drive train and suspension.
Technically, after you put the wheels back on, you need to check the lug nuts, and re-torque if needed, after 100 miles of driving.
Any good tire shop will generally recomend that, and it's just a good thing to do in general if you are wrenching on your on car.
It's one thing, I will not forget again.

I alwats do it after 25 miles.

retorquing is most important with alloy wheels. steel wheels didn't have this trouble

Hahaha my dad just did that on his 93. He was working on rear brakes and about a week later he was all worried because he heard a rattle and he felt the car shaking. I took it for a ride and was like... "how many times did u tighten down the back wheel lugs..."

Problem solved. If my 61 yr old experienced mechanical engineer father can forget something as simple as that, everyone can.

Like Pwee said its only really for alloy wheels.

You know, I never thought about the difference that steel vs. alloy wheels would make.
On a logical basis, it makes sense though, with steel having a different tensile rating (softer and more pliable) then an alloy wheel with a higher tensile rating.
I think I am going to follow jonbanazza, and re-torque after 25 - 50 miles from now on, just to be on the safe side, especially since I am going to be pulling the fronts of this weekend to do the struts, and maybe the springs too.