Read the small print

[BC ProfParticipant @bcprof]

Damaged car tyre. Injured back attempting to remove wheel nuts .RAC contractor 6ft plus an at least 17st, .had to use a 1m long pole and all of his strength to undo them , All the RAC would do was fit the spare wheel . In the very small print of the contract it must say that for a medical recovery a doctors certificate is required . Not easy miles from home on a Sunday afternoon . i will not be renewing my membership after 7 yrs !!!

Brian

[BC ProfParticipant @bcprof]

[Brian Baker 2Participant @brianbaker2]

Hi Brian, I also found the RAC unhelpful, and moved away to a LV insurance based scheme, which was very good.

Regards

Another Brian

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

I squashed a disc doing my dads wheels a couple of months ago

Rule 1 from now on is stand on the nut wrench bar, do not lift under any circumstances

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

Can I ask the OP what he expected the RAC to do except fit the spare wheel ?

Roy

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU SEE A MECHANIC OR TYRE FITTER USE A TORQUE WRENCH on a wheel nut or stud ? It is proper practice to do so, and could be considered a legal requirement !!!! A vehicle I have responsibillity for has 64 wheel nuts, all done to torque !! Many supplied wheel nut wrenches would not have taken the load and just bent ! A socket and a long or telescopic breaker bar is worth it's weight in gold for this job.

The OPs vehicle must have been an older model – IT HAD A SPARE WHEEL ! Best wishes Noel

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

 

 

Edited By roy entwistle on 06/09/2021 15:00:20

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

Noel My 3 year old Vauxhall Corsa came with a spare wheel

Roy

Edited By roy entwistle on 06/09/2021 14:59:16

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

[roy entwistleParticipant @royentwistle24699]

Can a Mod remove the two blanks please

Roy

[Anonymous]

Posted by BC Prof on 06/09/2021 12:01:27:

RAC contractor 6ft plus an at least 17st, .had to use a 1m long pole and all of his strength to undo them ,

If the wheel-nuts had been over-torqued to that extent, I wouldn't drive on those wheels again for all the tea in ….. wherever we get tea from these days.

[Harry WilkesParticipant @harrywilkes58467]

Lost the will to read this post

H

[Pete RimmerParticipant @peterimmer30576]

Posted by Harry Wilkes on 06/09/2021 16:46:36:

Lost the will to read this post

H

Your will fell off? Hope you weren't going fast at the time

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

Posted by Harry Wilkes on 06/09/2021 16:46:36:

Lost the will to read this post

H

You had enough will to reply!

[BC ProfParticipant @bcprof]

Roy

Having paid in at least £ 1000 in fees for the recovery option I would have expected the vehicle to be recovered .

Would you have prefered me to do as I was advised , call an ambulance to get me to A &E and be examined just to get a piece of paper ?

Brian

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

The manufacturer may specify a torque but that does not mean that a fitter will use a torque wrench.

The wheel bolts on our daughter's car were visibly necked through overtightening.

Presumably an air impact wrench was quicker than a torque wrench!

Needless to say, any damaged bolt was replaced and torque tightened. Another three lost customers!

I have seen the same thing happen with 7/.8 BSF wheel nuts and studs. And they were supposed tom be tightened to 400 Lb ft. Never happened with a fitter on the end of a 6 foot wheel bar, only with a 3/4 drive air impact gun!

The worst involved fitting all four hubs, six new wheels, and rebuilding the brake gear where the studs had moved inside and done further damage..

A triumph of speed over quality!

Howard

[Pete.Participant @pete-2]

I get nationwide breakdown cover with my insurance, can't remember off the top of my head, but I think about £80ish.

If you're paying £1000, I'd look for an alternative.

Recovery costs around £150, well it was the last time it happened to me, might have gone up since, if they recovered every car with a flat tyre from £100 a year customer, they'd be out of business in a month.

[Ex contributorParticipant @mgnbuk]

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU SEE A MECHANIC OR TYRE FITTER USE A TORQUE WRENCH

Every time I have had tyres fitted at my local National tyres branch for the last several years.

I buy tyres online from Tyreshopper, who give the option of having them fitted at National Tyres branches. They use rechargeable torque guns (have not seen an air gun used for many years) to snug up the nuts, then go round all of them with a click type toque wrench.

How often the much-used torque wrench is calibrated is another matter ! I have never had to struggle to remove a wheel that they have fitted, though, & use my (uncalibrated ! ) torque wrench on re-assembly.

Nigel B.

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

The next time we visit my wife’s daughter in Scotland, should I ring the AA and request a recovery, to home – a distance of some 490 miles – just because I say “I don’t feel well”? I don’t think so.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Even with a torque wrench you can have trouble. Once had a wheel refitted after a wheel rebalance by the mechanic using a digital readout Snap On. Checked it when I got home using my click type torque wrench. No could undo.

Drove back and had to have same mechanic do it again.

It might have a digital readou or click but a gorilla can simply pull it past the set point whatever they use.

[BC ProfParticipant @bcprof]

I would suggest that "not feeling well" is rather different to a severe back strain resulting in me having to be helped into the car by two people one of whom as the mechanic sent out from a local garage . Fortunately being an automatic i was able to drive the vehicle , the seat belt being sufficient to prevent lower torso movement . At present I am unable to stand without assistance , so far from just "not feeling well"

Brian

[Clive FosterParticipant @clivefoster55965]

I thought wheel fitters were supposed to use those colour coded "torque stick" extension bar thingies to limit the impact wrench drive torque to something adequately close to the specifications.

That said I've never seen a set in use.

Although my tyre guys have them.

They use a low set windy gun to spin the bolts / nuts on and finish with a standard torque wrench. But I still loosen and re-do them properly when I get home! Usually pretty close. But on other folks cars I've had to dig out the 6 ft scaffold pole with 3/4 drive welded across the ends to shift them.

I have a set of 1/4 hex to socket square drive adapters to use with my Makita 18 V impact screwdriver. Just the ticket for spinning nuts and bolts into place ready for the torque wrench. Final torque on the Makita is related to rattle time, within limits. I can usually judge the time for 25 ft lb or so pretty well. Which is agood start.

Come to think of it how the heck do those torque limiting extension thingies work to deliver the calibrated torque?

Clive

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

The potential litigation in contemporary times and I'm on the side of the RAC. One pothole or a need to swerve and a partial disc -> paralysis isn't worth the lost customer.. My insurance had to pay out serious money after 4 of us lifted a heavy dog and a staff member had severe back problems 2 days later – likely due to her leisure activities, but we still got burned with claims of staff size disparity etc. Insurance Co determined it was cheaper to settle out of court for a smaller but substantial sum than fight multimillion suits for months.

pgk

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Hi, as far as I'm aware, recovery is only used if they cannot get your vehicle going at the roadside, I've had that once when the oil pump drive sprocket failed and could not be fixed at the roadside, the only other times I've needed them is when my car wouldn't start, although the last time that happened, I was still in my works car park and the guy said that I wasn't technically covered but he did get me started and he said if it happens again, get it pushed out onto the road.

Regards Nick.

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

You also need to read the small print for what is and isn't covered to physically recover the car. Any specialist kit required is chargeable to you, not your provider. So winching it off the kerb that wiped off the NSF wheel is going to cost you. So is getting it out of the multi-storey carpark when somebody stole your keys.

[Author]

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