NHTSA Complaint #11427168 — 2012 FORD ESCAPE

The contact owns a 2012 Ford Escape. The contact purchased MOOG aftermarket lug nuts, Serial Number: 19112401H, Part Number: LK015 and LK016. The contact was unable to tighten the lug nuts. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. A dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 123,000. Purchased MOOG parts LK015 and LK016 are wheel bearing/knuckle subassemblies which contain wheel lug nuts. Purchased through CARID.com. inspecting the torque of the lug nuts roughly 3,000 miles after install, the lug nuts were not able to be installed; the Wheel Studs had FAILED. My assessment as an aerospace engineer is that the studs had stretched to failure due to defective material used in manufacture of the studs. Luck is the only factor that caused this to be discovered when the vehicle was stopped and not resulting in a wheel falling off at highway speed. Immediate repairs were required at a cost of $575. Receipts available. CARID.com as well as MOOG were contacted and engineering expertise was offered to assist in correcting the issue. MOOG refused to answer my calls. MOOG repeatedly removed product reviews detailing unsafe materials used. CARID refused all solutions except replacement with the same unsafe parts. Multiple reviews removed from the CARID.com website detailing unsafe parts; documentation available. This refusal to address the problem and removal of reviews indicates willful endangerment of human life with unsafe critical components.