Wheel studs breaking left and right....

[pete6032]

Since I bought my 2002 Civic in 2008 I've had 5 wheel studs replaced. I've taken my car to a number of shops - dealers, corner mom & pop etc. Is this really just shop guys being lazy and cross threading the bolts putting the wheels back on? I've never had such problems with wheel studs before, and they need to be machined back in in the front so its very costly to fix. The place I currently take my car the owner talked to me about how he stresses with his guys to hand turn the lug nut before screwing it on. He said its a common problem with lazy shop guys. When he told me that it won me over and I've been going there since. Well now I just got a call from the shop after requesting a tire rotation. They broke a stud and want me to pay $190 to replace it. No one else has touched or serviced the wheels since I got new tires a year ago. I plan to have a call with the owner to complain. Should I ask them to replace the stud for free? I don't understand how studs on this car could possibly be breaking all the time.

 

[skyking]

does your car have closed end or open nuts? If they are closed end, there's no excuses. The trouble is, the shop before this one could have really overtightened it, and then they break taking them off.
It is really hard to blame the remover if the installer before hammered them on.
I do not recommend going to a shop that won't finish tightening them with a torque wrench.
IF they just 'gun' them on and call it good, they could be loose or too tight. Since they don't want wheels falling off, they will err on the side of TOO TIGHT!
I also recommend checking the torque yourself. That does not necessarily mean having a torque wrench, you should have or develop a feel for how tight is right.
You don't want to end up on the side of the road on a rainy night, and break your lug wrench trying to remove a flat tire. True story I had a flat when I worked for Sears and had the tire shop do some work, and I stood on a a half inch breaker bar and snapped a socket. Luckily I was nearby and took it right back to them. #^^@$%^@$%&!!

 

[pete6032]

does your car have closed end or open nuts? If they are closed end, there's no excuses. The trouble is, the shop before this one could have really overtightened it, and then they break taking them off.
It is really hard to blame the remover if the installer before hammered them on.
I do not recommend going to a shop that won't finish tightening them with a torque wrench.
IF they just 'gun' them on and call it good, they could be loose or too tight. Since they don't want wheels falling off, they will err on the side of TOO TIGHT!
I also recommend checking the torque yourself. That does not necessarily mean having a torque wrench, you should have or develop a feel for how tight is right.
You don't want to end up on the side of the road on a rainy night, and break your lug wrench trying to remove a flat tire. True story I had a flat when I worked for Sears and had the tire shop do some work, and I stood on a a half inch breaker bar and snapped a socket. Luckily I was nearby and took it right back to them. #^^@$%^@$%&!!

Closed end. Car is all stock. Just got off the phone apparently the stud was not cross threaded as I suspected. What happened allegedly was that the wheel stud was spinning as they were attempting to unscrew the lug nut. Not sure how or why that was happening. They said they would have to drill out the old stud and install a new one.

 

[Raizinman]

Does your vehicle have wheel spacers? What about a modified suspension? What about wider wheels? There is something you are not telling us.

 

[deadlyapp]

Yeah I've never heard of consistent stud breakage like this. You'd have to have really incompetent mechanics or defective parts.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Are your roads made of salt? In 30 years of beaters I only remember one broken stud.

 

[Midwayman]

I know a bunch of guys who do trackdays and autox all the time and even they don't seem to break studs. Where are they snapping? At the hub? At the nut? The head pulling off?

 

[RLGL]

It is possible there is corrosion between the wheel and hub. This would make it impossible to get an even torque when the wheel is installed. that can lead to loose wheels, damaged rims and broken studs. A through inspection is warranted.

 

[pete6032]

Does your vehicle have wheel spacers? What about a modified suspension? What about wider wheels? There is something you are not telling us.

Car is stock. I have owned it for the last 12 years and not made any changes to it. I did have new shocks installed on the rear a few months ago but don't see how that would have any effect on this wheel stud. Guy at the shop who I trust said they were trying the stud out but it just kept spinning and they couldn't get the lug nut off so they had to drill it out.

Previous studs breaking were all due to cross threaded bolts. Car is parked outside 24/7 365 even during winter. We get a good amount of snow.

 

[NutBucket]

So that means incompetent mechanics if they keep getting cross threaded. Doesn't sound like you're doing the work yourself so...

 

[Raizinman]

Time to take the vehicle in to the Honda dealer and have it done right. Sometimes the "guy at the shop who you trust" doesn't know everything.

 

[ondma]

I recently had a very similar problem with a couple of my cars. The nuts were definitely not cross threaded. I think the problem was a combination of the nuts being tightened too much (impact wrench instead of torquing them properly, I suspect) and the wheels not being taken off for a long time. They did not appear rusted; it was just almost impossible to remove the nuts. A shop managed to remove one by heating it up and using a long torque bar, but a couple had to have the studs drilled out and replaced. I dont really have an answer, except to have the nuts torqued properly and maybe rotate the tires (or at least loosen and re-tighten the lug nuts) every few months, regardless of mileage.

 

[Torn Mind]

Generally speaking, the sauce in the steel of a Honda or Toyota resist corrosion very well for 15 or so years.

That shop is making a buck off of you.

Do you live in a more...."sparsely populated" or densely populated area?
Because when business is slow....a little accelerated obsolescence is "stimulus".

 

[pauldun170]

I've been driving since 1991.
I've had wheels off on vehicles manufactured in the 70's and everything from Chevy's to BMWs to Toyotas to Nissan's to dodges. Done myself, done at dealers, done by cob artist crap mechanics.
Not one broken stud

 

[BarkingGhostar]

I've only had it happen once and I truly blame myself. I was driving from Boston to Jacksonville with a planned stop in Virginia Beach and just outside Fredericksburg I discovered a tire was coming apart. i pulled off onto a military reservation road (I didn't know it until I had already done it) and put on the full sized spare. Only problem was I was half asleep and by the time I actually got to VB I had broke two studs off because I had not properly seated the wheel. Aside from that I've driven vehicles from the early 1960's to brand new and never had a stud break on me.


BTW, I will say screw Honda. My wife's 1995 Accord EX bought brand new developed a problem three different Honda dealership service departments couldn't correctly identify let alone fix. And this was a brand new car when bought and that was the last straw on top of many other things.

 

[ondma]

I've only had it happen once and I truly blame myself. I was driving from Boston to Jacksonville with a planned stop in Virginia Beach and just outside Fredericksburg I discovered a tire was coming apart. i pulled off onto a military reservation road (I didn't know it until I had already done it) and put on the full sized spare. Only problem was I was half asleep and by the time I actually got to VB I had broke two studs off because I had not properly seated the wheel. Aside from that I've driven vehicles from the early 1960's to brand new and never had a stud break on me.


BTW, I will say screw Honda. My wife's 1995 Accord EX bought brand new developed a problem three different Honda dealership service departments couldn't correctly identify let alone fix. And this was a brand new car when bought and that was the last straw on top of many other things.

Ehh.... luck of the draw. I have a 2005 Civic that has 150k and still going strong, with only one repair except for wear items. Overall, I think it is a reliable brand (at least compared to most American manufacturers), but they have slipped in recent years.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Luck of the draw? Yeah, bad luck in Honda incompetence to fix their own products. I wasn't blaming the car, but the dealership service departments trained by American Honda Motor Company.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I've only had one break on me since I've been changing tires. That was on a Mitsubishi. I was tightening using a tire iron too...not an air gun. When it snapped, I realized how soft the alloy was. I figure because they were the press in style, they have to be softer so they compress slightly and stay in place.

If you've had that many break, it's probably because someone overtightened them all ONCE, long ago in the past. My guess is that damage was done previously and wear while overtorqued + removal did more damage to weaken them until they snapped. The good news is, they don't cost all that much to replace...just more of an annoyance to disconnect brakes, etc to swap them out.