Kia Soul Runs Directly Into The Tread Of A Rolling Wheel That Fell Off A Pickup, Launches Like A Rocket (UPDATE)

Lug Nut Crash loose wheel Topshot
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If you’re a fan of weird films, you’ve probably heard of Rubber, Quentin Dupieux’s tale of a rampaging tire. It turns out that it’s not too far from a reality of our roadways. Loose wheels have been known to cause serious, shocking crashes on roadways worldwide, and a recent loose wheel incident in Chatsworth, Calif. was picked up by Twitter user Anoop Khatra on his Tesla’s forward-facing camera. Take a look:

In the video, the left front wheel of a GMT900 Chevrolet Silverado makes a break for it in front of a second-generation Kia Soul at point-blank range, leaving the Soul driver with very little time to react. Unsurprisingly, it’s a direct hit. All the energy stored up in that loose wheel and tire launches the poor Kia Soul into the air like a Hollywood nitrogen cannon [Ed note: Actually, what happened is the tire acted like a sort-of “ramp,” with the tread grabbing the front bumper, and the vehicle just rolling right over it. -DT]. The Soul then rotates mid-air before slamming roof-first into the roadway. The hit is hard enough to flip the Soul back onto its wheels before skidding down the highway for a reasonable distance. Adding insult to injury, once the Soul has nearly stopped moving, the tire comes back to hit it on the tailgate.

Despite the sheer amount of destruction, the California Highway Patrol told local news channel ABC 7 that the driver of the Kia suffered only minor injuries. Without modern crash structures and restraint systems, this could’ve been a lot worse.

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Image: Flickr/Jerry Kirkhart

As for cause, CHP claims that the wheel of the truck came loose due to “sheared-off lug nuts,” so let’s touch on what can lead to shearing wheel studs. While it’s possible that inferior quality wheel spacers placed lateral force on the lug nuts, over-stressing the studs, the more likely culprit is improper torqueing of lug nuts. As with any fastener combination, wheel fastening hardware can deform if excessive torque is applied. Over-torque a wheel bolt or a lug and stud combination enough times and it can fail. Likewise, if wheel fastening hardware is under-torqued, a wheel can apply significant shear force to individual fasteners, causing failure.

Improper lug nuts can cause a loose wheel

In addition, aftermarket wheels may be incompatible with factory wheel fasteners due to their lug seat styles and the thickness of their back pads. A washer-seat or ball-seat lug nut won’t be compatible with wheels that use conical seats. Too thick of a back pad, and wheel fasteners may not meet the proper minimum turns of engagement. Oh, and it’s a good idea to pick up hub-centric rings that adapt the center bore of aftermarket wheels down to the bore of your factory hubs. While these often plastic pieces don’t add much in the way of strength, they can help prevent improper wheel installation by centering wheels on the hubs.

Torque lugs properly so you don't end up with a loose wheel

If you look around on Amazon or at Harbor Freight, torque wrenches decent enough for roadside wheel and tire use are dirt cheap, so there’s no excuse not to spend a few bucks on one to keep in your trunk. Likewise, when re-installing a wheel and tire, it’s good practice to torque the fasteners to spec, drive around the block once or twice, re-torque, then re-torque again after 50 miles of driving to correct any further settling. Remember, torque your nuts, or road safety enforcement will torque your other nuts.

Update (March 28, 2023 3PM ET):

The California Highway Patrol has filed an official collision report. Here’s some key information from it:

On 03/23/2023, at approximately 02:05 P.M., officers assigned to the CHP West Valley area received a report of a rollover traffic collision across the eastbound lanes of SR-118, west of De Soto Ave. Preliminary investigation suggests a silver 2011 Chevrolet Silverado was traveling in the #2 lane of eastbound SR-118, west of De Soto Ave. A black 2017 Kia Soul was traveling in the #1 lane of eastbound SR-118, to the left-rear of the Chevrolet.

[…]

A red 2019 Tesla Model 3 was traveling in the #1 lane of the eastbound SR-118, directly behind the Kia. For unknown reasons, the front-left tire and rim detached from the Chevrolet and traveled directly into the path of the Kia, colliding with the front of the Kia and causing it to overturn. When the Kia overturned, it threw up debris that struck the front-end of the Tesla. The Chevrolet drove to the right shoulder and waited for CHP to arrive. The driver of the Kia was able to exit her vehicle and declined to be transported to the hospital. The driver of the Tesla waited for CHP to arrive and provided video of the collision to CHP officers on scene. No other injuries were claimed and the Kia had no other passengers.

The public relations offer did say that the CHP’s initial assessment had to do with some kind of lugnut failure. “Usually the officer will look and see why it fell off,” the representative told me over the phone, indicating that it’s fairly standard to get the responding officer’s assessment of what might have been the issue.

It’s worth noting that a number of folks have pointed out that the rotor appears to still be attached to the wheel via the lug studs, indicating either a bearing failure or detachment of the entire hub assembly from the knuckle. Oddly, the rotor in the screengrab appears to be perfectly round despite having to somehow squeeze its way past the brake-knuckle-mounted brake caliper; I see no caliper in the screengrab, either, though I suppose perhaps it could have flown off after shearing its mounting provisions for the knuckle. This shiny disc could be the back of a failed wheel spacer, though in this video, it looks a bit large. In any case, right now the root cause remains unclear, and we don’t have much to go on. -DT

Screen Shot 2023 03 28 At 1.15.10 Pm

(Photo credits: Anoop Khatra, jkirkhart35 licensed under CC BY 2.0, Gorilla Automotive Products)

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139 thoughts on “Kia Soul Runs Directly Into The Tread Of A Rolling Wheel That Fell Off A Pickup, Launches Like A Rocket (UPDATE)”

  2. Getting my kids to wear their seatbelts is a constant fight. I showed the video to my kids last night, and my wife today reports that my son was extra diligent in making sure everyone was buckled up.

  3. All the energy stored up in that loose wheel and tire launches the poor Kia Soul into the air …

    More like:

    All (much) of the inertia of a poor Kia’s forward motion gets translated into the vertical when the Soul rides up on the errant tire.

    Or sumpin like that.

  4. I see trucks that look like this all over my area. The more I have read and learned about the stress on steering and suspension components with poorly executed mods the more these things scare me. From what I can tell even minor changes in wheel size, weight, offset, and width can have major effects on the remaining OEM components designed to work in tandem with stock wheels. But of course, it would cost more to change these parts to conform to the new geometry and stresses which means Truckbros couldn’t really afford to look cool, could they?
    It may be time to regulate these parts more heavily. Start by banning wheel spacers past acceptable thicknesses. How many cars out there do you want to bet have thick wheel spacers but didn’t bother to upgrade to longer lugs to ensure the nut has enough thread space? Large spacers also increase tension on wheel bearings reducing their life, which has been a topic of discussion and debate in this instance.
    Almost all accidents have multiple contributing factors. I’ll bet that’s true here too, almost all of them are related to the truck driver’s aftermarket wheels and accessories.

  5. I used to live right at the bottom of an exit ramp (18th st. exit off I94 east in Chicago) and twice while I was there a wheel let loose off a car on the highway, rolled down the ramp, crossed the street, and smashed into the front of the house. So, not that uncommon of an event, surprisingly.

    1. Yeah, but this one is fake. A Tesla driver moves out of the left lane for another car that was coming up faster from behind? Both the bro-dozer and the white 4 x signaled before changing lanes? You’ll never convince me that this video is not pure fiction.

  7. This is going back many, many years…

    When I was heading off to college, I had been out for a farewell party the night before, so I was a little hung over or perhaps even still a bit high. As we were driving down Highway 26 on our way out to Eastern Washington, I was sitting in the back of the car watching the pickup truck in the lane next to us. I noticed that the rear wheel was somehow getting closer to us while the rest of the truck was remaining the same distance away, and, thinking I was hallucinating, said, “You’re all seeing this too, right?” to my parents. About 5 seconds after I said that the wheel, bearing, and axle backed out of the hub carrier and the whole thing went full death blossom on the freeway behind us and hit about five cars before spinning off into the median.

    An auspicious beginning to my freshman year of college.

  9. I’ve watched ‘Final Destination’ and ‘Dead Like Me’.
    I can see what really happened here.
    All relevant, intelligent automotive educated guesses and observations aside…
    I see the hidden demons in that clip.

  13. It’s been a couple of years now, but there was a pickup that lost a wheel on a Denver area freeway a few hundred yards ahead of me. The driver did a great job staying in control and getting off the road. The lost wheel got over to the left shoulder and then back right. It was still rolling when I exited the freeway, some distance from where it started. As far as I know, it hit nobody and cause no additional trouble. Scary.

  14. Wonderful… I only commute 100 miles per day on an interstate where ALL you see are trucks with modified track widths from incorrect offsets and/or wheel spacers going 90 mph….

  15. Let me get the checklist out.

    1. Actually a 1500 trying to cosplay as a dually 2500
    2. Cheap, upsized, cast pig-iron aftermarket wheels
    3. Spacers. Like a foot of spacers.
    4. Following too closely while merging
    5. The finest lift kit $50 and eBay can provide

    BRODOZER BINGO!

    1. My seventy three year old mother calls them “show trucks”.
      “Brodozer Bingo” I like that.
      •The bed of the truck has no dents from use.
      • Factory paint intact on the aftermarket trailer hitch ball.
      •Aggressive driver.
      Bingo!

  16. At 0:17 there is a very brief flash that shows up on the flying Kia and on two spots on the road. If it’s the airbags deploying its pretty interesting that they went off well after the initial tire impact but before the car actually hit the ground.

    1. It could be because the car was sensing a rollover (especially the curtain airbags). There were issues with the same systems causing the side airbags to go off on other performance vehicles when they weren’t rolling over but were in off camber or high G situations:

      https://jalopnik.com/chevrolet-colorado-side-curtain-airbags-keep-deploying-1828951213

      https://www.carthrottle.com/post/watch-a-camaro-zl1s-airbags-unexpectedly-deploy-on-track/

    2. So putting on my “there’s a reason I disconnect the inflators when working on ACMs” hat…

      This is actually expected behavior. Airbags are no longer a “you hit something, EVERYBODY PARTY NOW” device. See also Camaros and Corvettes having their side airbags go off at track days despite the drivers not hitting anything.
      I can’t speak to Kia’s specific programming, but delaying airbag detonation based on impact, yaw, and (very literal) roll inputs is extremely normal and why airbags no longer break your face. Or go off with a well place swing of a sledgehammer. Generally speaking, you want the airbags to go off at a point between a hard G-force event and the occupant getting to know the interior far too intimately. (I mean if you wanna kiss your dash, you do you, but with teeth is not recommended.)

      Anyway! Watch the motion of the victim car carefully. It almost immediately launches – a negative-G event.

      If you watch the video, what you see is the airbag system doing EXACTLY what it’s supposed to do. At 16 seconds with the car literally on it’s side, the PASSENGER side airbag goes off. Because the car has detected that, uh, yeah. Not only are we not on the ground, we’re turned 90 degrees, and people are going to fall out. That’s not good.
      In the span of several hundred milliseconds the car now has the ROOF pointing at the ground. “Holy SHIT,” says the ACM, “fire the driver side airbag! Now!” That’s the explosion you see on the video.
      Then there’s another puff at about 0:19 shortly after the car impacts the ground sideways. That’s not parts falling off – that’s the wheel and dash airbags. Those ONLY fire when the ACM determines the ride is coming to an abrupt (and extremely painful) stop. (Or one is in progress, like hitting a wall.) The car already KNOWS that it’s done acrobatics, the system is waiting for the unavoidable and very abrupt end of the ride before it triggers those.

      Remember, it’s not the crash that kills you. It’s that sudden deceleration.

    3. Those are the “Reapers” escaping the scene.
      Thank god they didn’t succeed with their devilish antics.
      The SOUL wins this round.

  20. Another article where the writer shows how little they know, how little they research and then present it as fact. So annoying that I did the stupid current log in process that is pushing me away from commenting and ensures that I just don’t come here as often as I used to.

    On the first watch is was fairly clear that the rotor is still attached to the wheel, going full screen and using the pause function verified my initial observation 100% and didn’t take me any longer than the stupid log in process. So no matter what the CHP spokesperson said this was not a case of wheel stud failure or lug nuts backing off, it was failure of the wheel bearing that caused the wheel to detach.

      1. Certainly the high offset didn’t help the wheel bearing longevity but that doesn’t mean that studs were what caused the wheel to part ways with the truck.

        1. This. There’s a big distinction between saying 6-8 wheel studs failed as opposed to saying the main bearing which supports all of that failed.

    2. Sounds like you should write the blogs, run the website, AND do accident reconstruction work on the side. Thanks for setting us all straight – clearly BIG WHEEL BEARING got to these people first.

      2. (You aren’t wrong – you can see the rotor still attached to the wheel at the end after coming back to try to finish the job – but sheesh. Coming in a bit hot, no?)

    3. Well aren’t you a pleasant human.

      So I watched that video and if you can tell exactly what the inside of that wheel is you have much better eyes and monitor than I do, that could be a spacer, the inside of the wheel mounting face or just the light but OK guy who wasn’t there and hasn’t seen the actual wheel or truck go off…

      1. You can pretty clearly see the rotor still attached to the wheel when it returns for the double-tap. The best chance to see it is to pause as the wheel returns to the frame at about 0:21. It’s much too large to be a spacer or the mounting flange and forms a nice shiny disc with a dark center that looks a lot like a brake rotor.

        I guess you could say it’s all speculation, but I’d rate myself at 99% confident on this one.

    4. I agree. Here’s the best screenshot I could get. That said, one could argue that either wheel spacers or aggressive wheel backspacing (one of which is clearly the case here) could prematurely cause the hub bearing to fail, but I was in internet retail auto parts for 15+ years and I remember selling GMT900 wheel hubs like they were candy, so the hub bearing is problematic even with stock wheels.

      https://tinyurl.com/2p86537m

    5. Why the hostility?

      It’s cool that you noticed that. I went back and saw it too after you pointed it out, but why couldn’t you just offer it up to everyone as more information?
      Why the hostility towards the author, when the CHP, who were presumably standing there actually looking at the truck and the tire, indicated lug bolt issues? Why not rant against a stupid CHP report/spokesman?

    8. Come on now; If an officer on the scene says the issue had to do with lugs, then it’s fine for Thomas — a knowledgable automotive writer — to report that, unless it’s painfully obvious that something else caused this issue.

      I do agree that, if you look closely, you can see what appears to be something shiny (based on the size, it’s almost certainly not the back side of a wheel spacer, but rather the rotor) latched onto that wheel, essentially precluding the lugs from being the root cause (as the lugs are what hold the wheel and rotor together), but still.

      There are lots of questions that remain, like what the heck happened to that caliper that should have done its part to hold that rotor (and thus the wheel) in place. I’m guessing it’s on the highway somewhere.

  22. “If you look around on Amazon or at Harbor Freight, torque wrenches decent enough for roadside wheel and tire use are dirt cheap…” Yep, you can routinely find the HF torque wrenches for $11. Get a set once a year and they’ll be good enough for home garage use.*

    *I used to repair and calibrate torque wrenches. They have a limited life span, regardless of cost; especially if you don’t take care of them properly.

  24. This gave me a chill. Long ago, riding with the family in a Super Beetle, a semi wheel & tire came at us. Screaming and braking started—then it bounced up over us. There wasn’t much at the next exit, but we stopped there a good while anyway

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