Ok,
So, I finally got my mini last night. Which was awesome.
Then, driving it to my mates house for a bbq the front passenger wheel went flying off. The 3 wheel nuts I could recover and the studs on the drum still had their threads in perfect condition - no stripping at all - so I gave the last owner a call to see if he knew what the caper could be while I was wating for a tow truck. He said that the mechanic who did the safety certificate had to take the wheel off to get the radiator out, and when he picked the car up the mechanic specifically asked his apprentice if the wheel was properly tightened up (I suspect the answer might be "no").
Since the car had that side go from 70km/ hour rolling, to deadstop and dragging along the blacktop, I'm guessing there's probably some issues - it looks like the ball joint is ground down, the drum might well be warped, and from the impact / drag there might also be issues with the driveshafts, tie rods or any other components in that whole region (or more). I can also see that the previously pristine guard is now slightly warped, and the seam cover along that area has lifted (and bent towards the bottom) from the impact of a suddenly free range tire.
So obviously my night went from "awesome" to "not awesome" in the space of like 20 minutes.
Since I'm with Shannons, I understand I get choice of repairer. If anyone could recommend someone they'd trust with their car, that'd be fabulous. I want to make sure that they don't just treat the cosmetic damage, but that they make sure that there's no residual issues with the running gear that pop up in 200k's due to warped parts. So someone thorough.
Cheers guys.
Edit: fixed typos. Damn posting this was hard work - kept getting "Chrome could not find..." errors.
