A couple who creates car content reported getting tires from Discount Tire and happening upon a strange situation upon making that purchase.
The video comes from Tyler and Marissa, who run the Out of Fuel account (@outoffuel) on TikTok. The account promises comedy and car-related videos for its more than 91,000 followers. This particular video, posted last Friday, has drawn a little more than 19,000 views since going up.
In it, Marissa shows off tires on her Toyota GR86, boasting that she got them “all for under five hundred bucks,” assessing, “Not too bad. Went to Discount Tire; love that place.”
However, she then had her attention called to something concerning. “The guy at Discount Tire came to me, and he was like, that screw part right there, it was not screwed on correctly, I guess, with this lug nut, and part of the screw came off in here.”
The video shows the tire with only four of the five lug nuts on it as she laments, “So now we gotta get that replaced.”
To conclude, she adds, “He did say that you can drive with just the four, but we’re not going to do that,”
Can you drive with four lug nuts?
Despite what the Discount Tire rep allegedly said, one car expert says it’s inadvisable to do that.
Anthony Harlin, an ASE Certified Master Automobile Technician at CarParts.com, tackled the question in a blog article.
“When all of the lug nuts are properly tightened, each lug should exert an equal amount of pressure onto the wheel,” he shared. “If one of these lug nuts comes off, the remaining lug studs and lug nuts will be under more stress since the wheel will have fewer support points. Since the weight of the vehicle is meant to be evenly distributed among all the lug nut studs, missing lug nuts can cause premature wear on the wheel hub bearings.”
He goes on to say that one missing lug nut can cause more serious issues. These include wheel wobbling, wheel studs breaking off, other lug nuts coming off, and even the wheel coming off, causing considerable damage to the car.
His advice? “If you notice your vehicle’s wheel has a missing lug nut, you should stop as soon as possible. If you’re driving to an auto shop to have it fixed, drive slowly to avoid stressing the remaining lug nuts and lug nut studs. If you can, get a replacement lug nut and fix the issue yourself.”
@outoffuel at least we got a deal 😉 #tires #toyota #gr86 #outoffuel #CapCut ♬ original sound – Tyler & Marissa 🥰
What commenters had to say
Commenters weighed in, with some believing that Discount Tire was responsible for the damaged part.
“They 100% did it,” one contended. “And you absolutely cannot drive with just 4 lugs.”
“I’ve driven with 3 before,” someone boasted in response.
“It’s gonna be the last person who worked on it that messed it up,” another alleged. “I replaced dozens of them already. Lube techs probably.”
Another observed, “Toyota doesn’t normally use those type of lug nuts.” Others argued that the car actually had Subaru lug nuts, and that might have been the issue.
However, another line of thinking had to do with the equipment used.
“They used an impact gun on your lug nuts instead of a torque wrench,” one surmised. “They owe you a new wheel stud on their dime.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to the couple via email and TikTok direct message. It reached out to Discount Tire via email.
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