Broken Wheel Studs (1 Viewer)

[Melchor]

'99 UZJ100 w/ 80000+ miles

Hello... what's with these broken wheel studs? It's the second stud in less than 2 months.... I was changing brake pads on the cruiser and I can't seem to take off one lug nut on the rear. After a number of stomping, the lug nut broke off. Is this common as the cruisers get old; or are being installed too tight? Thank you...

 

[vampire]

Wheel studs

I had the same problem, 3 of my wheel studs broke off on my 2000 LC on the same wheel. Im not sure what the problem was but it could have been overtightening. To replace the wheel studs I had to tighten the hell out of them to get them to pull through using washers instead of a press and it did not seem to make them want to seize up. I have been thinking that they may have been cross threaded when put on with an impact gun at the tire shop maybe? One of my friends said he always lubes his wheel nuts to keep this from happening.


When I started taking them off, they turned a few rounds then sezied up resulting in the broken studs.

The reason I was removing the nuts was to change the brakes as the other rear brake had failed completely down to the metal. It kind of makes me wonder if the other working rear break was generating a tremondous amount of heat that could have caused this problem, though the rotor did not warp???

Haven't a clue only theories.

 

[calamaridog]

Good chance they have been overtightened/abused in the past. Guess I'll check the torque on mine and get some extras just in case.

 

[HDJ100L]

i had also experience same problem before 1 wheel 3broken studs. the reason is some dealer uses the air tool to loosen and tighten the lug nuts. which causes the lug nuts to misaligned the tread.
everytime i bring the vehicle for service i make sure that they use the tire wrench to remove and set the torque wrench to 97ft/lbs to tighten the lugnuts.

 

[100 TD]

I'm not sure if I mentioned this on this forum before, but I have on one forum or another. In brief, "rattle guns" or "air impact wrenches" at tyre shops are generally set to tight, or don't even limit their torque, and can overtighten the nuts tremendously. This stretches the stud and deforms the thread. Then when undoing or doing up the next time or in future times, the thread of the nut binds on the thread of the stud, twisting the stud which has been deformed already and the stud breaks.

Lubing the thread and seating surface of the nut can actually do damage, because the application of lubricant to the thread and the surface where the nut contacts the rim reduces the friction required to do the nut up, therefore you can apply a lot more tension on the thread of the stud before your tension wrench has enough resistance to "ratchet or let go". I don't have the old info I had previously to post with this thread, but if you do a search on thread tensioning you will find lots of info and scientific fact about nut or bolt tensioning with or without lube and the results will blow your mind.

What I do is keep the threads lubed with oil, but do not let any lube get on the mating surface between the nut and the rim. I then tension with the standard Toyota supplied wheel spanner to a "moderate feel" by hand. I have been doing this for 25 years and not had a problem yet(while walking under a ladder) and no stretched studs or damaged nuts. I have replaced studs on other peoples vehicles though!
The other thing is that my wife can put the standard wheel spanner on the wheel and give the spanner a good kick with her shoes on and crack the nuts and undo the nuts by hand after that. I have said recently in another thread, do not let shops do your wheel nuts up you are asking for trouble. My opinion only, take it or leave it!

 

[rule303]

The monkeys at toyota overtightened mine too. Bent a lug wrench trying to get them off. I guess I'm lucky the studs didn't break. I HATE Toyota dealers. Absolutely the worst. JD Power agrees with me too.

 

[Jim_Chow]

IIRC, there was a thread a long time ago of a guy's lug bolts popping one-by-one. The tire shop way over-tightened the bolts. I believe the bolts are supposed to have some elasticity in them. Over-tightening stretches the bolt so they lose this abilty, become brittle, then snap when a load is applied to them. I use an impact wrench to remove the lug nuts all the time, but never to tighten...only do that by hand, first w/ a breaker bar, then w/ the torque wrench.

Tire shop monkeys should not be trusted. Once I went to Big-O tires down the street from MAF after getting my lift installed. The guy realigned the front end, but used an impact wrench to tighten the alignment bolts. For one, the alignment was way off. After two attempts, it seemed to track straight, but was straining to do so. Since it was after closing, I got on the freeway. On the first highway overpass I hit at 70mph, the steering lurched. After that, I have to keep the steering wheel turned 45 deg to the right to keep the rig straight. Next day, I drove to the Toyota dealer next to Toyota corporate headqtrs. The Toyota tech said the caster bolt wasn't properly torqued and popped loose! Never trust impact wrenches for applying proper torque.

 

[jonpierre]

I had the same problem, 3 of my wheel studs broke off on my 2000 LC on the same wheel. Im not sure what the problem was but it could have been overtightening. To replace the wheel studs I had to tighten the hell out of them to get them to pull through using washers instead of a press and it did not seem to make them want to seize up. I have been thinking that they may have been cross threaded when put on with an impact gun at the tire shop maybe? One of my friends said he always lubes his wheel nuts to keep this from happening.


When I started taking them off, they turned a few rounds then sezied up resulting in the broken studs.

The reason I was removing the nuts was to change the brakes as the other rear brake had failed completely down to the metal. It kind of makes me wonder if the other working rear break was generating a tremondous amount of heat that could have caused this problem, though the rotor did not warp???

Haven't a clue only theories.

sorry to bring up an old thread but this just happened on my rig. it was a front driver side lug. it backed out 1/2 way cleanly and then stopped. i figured that they cross threaded it at the dealer and they replaced it today.

the weird part is they told me that my abs speed sensor was damaged by previous maintenance. i told them i have never had any work done up there. the service tech told me it was no big deal.

is this something they could have damaged during the replacement of the lug?

the truck, when braking feels like it pulls to the passenger side now. but it could be my mind messin with me???!!! any ideas?