§393.205 sets the wheel/rim and fastener requirements: wheels and rims must not be cracked or broken; stud or bolt holes must not be worn out of round; nuts and bolts must not be missing or insufficiently tightened. The fastener prong is the most-cited element — missing or under-torqued lug nuts.
OOS criteria
The NAS Out-of-Service Criteria places the vehicle OOS for wheel/rim findings when:
- A crack in the rim or wheel extends across the rim contour
- Three or more loose or missing fasteners on any wheel position
- One missing fastener on a steer-axle wheel
- A wheel position with two adjacent fasteners missing
Severity
Severity weight 3 in the Vehicle Maintenance BASIC. Wheel failures are catastrophic when they happen — a separated wheel at highway speed is a fatality risk for surrounding traffic.
How to prevent it
- Re-torque lug nuts at 50–100 miles after every wheel change. New tires and brake jobs are the typical precursor to missing-fastener findings.
- Visual inspection of wheels and rims at every pre-trip — look for rust streaks emanating from fastener holes (the classic loose-lug warning sign).
- Track tire-rotation and brake-job mileage so re-torque windows aren't missed.
How Roadworthy HQ helps
A wheel or fastener citation shows up in Roadworthy HQ as part of the inspection it came from, not as a record of its own: the app does not store individual violation codes. Log the roadside inspection on the vehicle's Inspections tab: date, state, level, driver, the number of violations, and whether it was out-of-service. For an out-of-service inspection the 15-day §396.9(d)(3) repair-certification countdown stays on that tab until you enter the certification date. The rule's 15 days cover every violation on the report, not only out-of-service ones, so for a non-OOS inspection that date is yours to track. The repair itself goes in the vehicle's maintenance log: date, type, what was done, who did it, and cost. DVIRs are logged per vehicle with the defect described in your own words, and a defect marked safety-affecting that is logged without a repair certification sends a critical alert.