Broken wheel stud ok to drive?

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

I once drove on three (out of six, on an 80 Series), but not on the highway. So, if you just need to get it to the shop, you'd probably be fine (assuming the shop is in town), but otherwise I wouldn't be so sure...
 
I would not hesitate to drive around town a bit with a broken stud -with great care- until I get it fixed -promptly-, but I sure as heck would not wait several months to do that. I am no expert on the strength of these studs, but I'm pretty sure that Toy would not put 5 if it was obvious that 4 is more than enough in general.
 
What are the specs on the replacement studs? I need to replace a stud on the rear of mine.
 
If you broke one, then it's possible the others have been overtightened and stretched as well, change them all out while you are at it.
 
If you have to take apart the hub the replace one (which you do), you might as well replace them all while you're in there. As 100 TD points out, you've transferred lots of stress to the other four (and maybe they were also on their way to breaking anyway), it's just cheap insurance and maybe an extra half hour to replace all of them while you have everything apart anyway. Keep the old ones as trail spares if you want. I just personally don't feel anyplace on the axles (especially at the ends) is where you want to cheap out. Remember, this is your only connection to the road!

When I broke mine on the 80, I replaced all six studs with new ones, sitting in the dark in a gravel parking lot behind the Placerville Toyota dealership (they wouldn't let me work on their property for liability reasons). I finally finished up at around midnight, on the eve of a big Rubicon trip (I was actually on my way up to camp when the wheel broke off, which was why I didn't just go home and wait for the dealership to fix it in the morning). I made the trip and the truck performed flawlessly, but from that point forwards I always put a torque wrench in my truck tool kit, for checking lug nuts at trail's end...

edit: I'm assuming this is a front stud. If it's rear, it's not nearly as difficult to replace (don't need to disassemble the hub).
 
I have a broken lug on left rear. My mechanic said don't even bother until it's time to do the back brakes unless I plan on baja racing.

edit: I just realized this thread was from 2015. my bad.
 
Last edited:
It takes 15-20 minutes to replace a rear wheel stud. It helps to grab the appropriate tool from The Drawer of Jeremy to back out the broken one.

cFCmC7j (1).gif
 
If your wheels are hubcentric and resting on the hub, you can even drive with just 2 lugs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom