Need Help On Daughter's Camery.

Well...we had about 5" of snow today. Daughter is driving to our house. She pulls over..calls me just about panicked say she cannot hardly keep the car on the road. She just had a few miles to go...told her to take it easy...take her time...she'll be ok....but call me back if anything goes wrong.
She got to the house and I told her I will drive her on to school(where she works)...in her car.
GOOD LORD!!!!!!!! I could hardly keep it on the road!!!! Roads were slushy and that car was wondering all over the place...I mean the roads were pretty hairy BUT Man...felt like I was driving on a LAKE OF ICE....had me pretty nervous and I do have experience on slick roads. I pulled over to check if she had any tires down. That was ok. Got her to work drove her car home just figuring to car was terrible on slick roads....then I noticed there was a lug nut missing on the front passenger WHEEL!!!!!!! The dealer where they bought the car done some service work. Oil change and of course rotated the tires!! This was two weeks ago.
I took it to the dealer...they put on the lug nut and re-torqued all the lug nuts( at least they said they did). While driving the car home....still did not feel right!! Just wondering and weaving...Never had a car handle like this.

Sorry for the long story....But...could the wheel be messed up? Driving around with a missing lug nut for a couple weeks???
The wheel is aluminum alloy.
Son-in law is going to get a hold of them and will probably have a fight on his hands....
It's a 2005 Camery
Thanks guys

 

I'm just guessing....maybe the rim got bent due to being imporperly torqued. The lug could just be a coincidence, but it could be something wrong with the steering...bad rack/pinion, loose or broken tie rod, sway bar or links, etc.

 

Yes...could be...but they never had a issue before they got the tires rotated

Thanks for the reply...

 

Bent rim would make the car shake. I've seen plenty of people driving around with one missing lug nut. I personally know of one person who has driven 500 miles with finger tight lug nuts. Only symptom was shaking at highway speeds and there were no lasting effects afterwards. I think they changed all the lug studs just to be safe.

So I guess my question would be: does the car drive okay when the road isn't icy? That might be hard to answer with the weather ya'll are having over there.

Definitely talk to someone high on the food chain at the dealership, but I kinda doubt the lug nuts have anything to do with what you're describing.

Edit: Just thought of something else. I had a tire shift a radial belt once. Car drove fine when the messed up tire was on the back but pulled hard to the right when the tires were rotated. Not sure what it would feel like on an icy road.

 

doesnt sound like a lug prob. I would have the front end aligned

 

Thanks guys...I will pass info here to my son-in-law before he takes it in. While taking my daughter home...I did not want her driving it....the roads were better...Slush and snow melted on interstate. Like I said....the car was still wondering around some....still uncomfortable to drive! Weird!! Just never had a car handle like that....Let the dealer take a look see.
Thanks again!!

Oh...the car does not shake and no shimmie (or steering wheel shake)

 

It's tough to diagnose with the weather, since Camrys suck in the snow anyway (It's okay to admit, they're great at most other things.). Poor road feel through the steering wheel, and not enough weight over those front wheels.

I think you'll only get to the bottom of it by:

1. Torquing all those lug nuts to spec and checking if they hold torque after 100mi.
2. Checking tie rods (remember inner as well as outer), ball joints, and wheel bearings, rim integrity, and check tires for signs of impending treat separation.
3. Then drive it on some dry pavement.

 

perhaps you had a broken belt or something in the tire and when they rotated the tires to the front it made the problem more pronounced. Just guessing of course.

 

i agree with this. find out if it is driving the same way on dry pavement. maybe its just the car sucks in the snow.

 

Yep...see what you guys mean.
That's what I told my daughter...really hard to tell with the roads so bad. It's a great little car...I always enjoyed driving it....until today!!

 

If his daughter has the 4 cyl Camry, it has a timing chain and those are bullet proof.
What im guessing it's coming from the hub, rotor, wheel bearing (one or all of them) being damaged due to a missing lug nut causing uneven forces being applied to them. She could of hit a pot hole with this missing lug and that could of done it who knows, but that's what prob damaged.

 

O.k. perhaps your just not a tire guy. But I will give you a bit of information. A tire has a steel BELT. Its is not terribly common, but they can break and separate and cause abnormal handling characteristics. Also I have been working on cars for 10 years and I doubt 1 missing lug nut is going to cause any type of damage. I am going to bet it is a tire issue that just got more pronounced when the front and rear tires were rotated.

 

Hey TRDKenE.....how much snow did you get over there at Richmond today??

 

How are the tires? Start simple, if the tires are shot, or not meant for snow/slush it's going to suck in the snow. Otherwise I agree with others here, drive it on dry or wet pavement and see if it pulls and if so, is it consistantly to one side or not.

 

I agree with you guys...I drove it today on wet/dry pavement...seemed ok. I did noticed at low speed...15/25mph...I let go of the steering wheel and it had some wobble...just a little.
Daughter got it scheduled in to the dealer this Tues...and I told her to tell them give everything a gone over...ck front end....rotate tires...ck alignment. Yea ...may need new tires....We'll see
Thanks guys for everything

 

I see you're from WV also, roads sure were bad around here yesterday, eh?

 

Oh yea ...pretty bad Did not have time to go out and play in my Taco
I feel bad for these guys in the midwest and northern States....puttin up with this crap much more than us....

 

You say "roads were slushy", there are all degrees of slushiness, I have had a difficult time driving on deep, fairly hard slush even with 4x4, I mean the kind of slush that almost will support the vehicle, but not quite, soon as you get on top of it it gives way, that stuff can be very difficult to drive on, don't see that type of slush very often, so were you driving on regular old soft slush, or that harder much-more-difficult-to-drive-on stuff?

 

blackbox....it was the soft slush.