Broken wheel stud

[DRC]

So I was changing the gear on my 08 4runner this weekend and it went so well I decided to rotate the tires also. I should have stopped while I was a head because I ended up breaking one of the wheel studs. Dam thing came right off while I was tightening it. I mean it never got tight. It was snug but kept turning and I was thinking it’s stripped or it’s going to break and right then “pop” it broke in half. Seems like very soft metal on the OEM parts. It’s not like I was standing on the wrench just using my hands. Never broke a wheel stud before but hey there is a first time for everything.

Anyway…I really don’t want to put an OEM part back on and was looking for something better. Anyone know of a good brand of wheel studs?

 

[Uneek]

Take a look at this thread.

I found info on the ARP studs here,
Tacoma Lug Nuts

A bit expensive, but I would imagine ARP being far superior to the OEM studs.

 

[DRC]

Thanks much Uneek. I did a search but did not find the link you posted. There is a bunch of great info there. It looks like there is even some talk about Toyota having a bad run of studs in a few models. It did seem a bit odd to me that it broke so easy. Sounds like a few others had the same issue.

I called the dealer and they wanted $9. for each stud or $115. to do the work. I asked how long does it take and was told about 30 minutes. Seemed a bit expensive to me. Sound like it's easy to do so I will save my self the bucks and do the job myself. I don't mind spending a few bucks for good studs so I will take a look at the ARP's.

 

[Uneek]

It's pretty easy to do. Which wheel was the broken stud on?

I broke and stripped the front studs (one on each side) on my Tacoma. It's really easy to do, and about 30 minutes on each side. For the fronts, you just need to remove the caliper and rotor. Get a hammer and pound out the old/broken stud. Put the new stud in, stack some washers and use a lug nut to seat the new stud.

Let me know if you need more details.

 

[bbumbles]

It is easy to do i broke mine on my 08 limited on the first tire rotation boy was I pissed but went to CAP auto parts store for $4 and bought one puched the other out and drove the new one in with the old lug nut you will have no problem changing it.

 

[DRC]

I decided against the ARP studs as they seemed to long. Looking at the rear axle setup there is just not much room to work. I ended up buying the standard Dorman replacement studs 610-462 at 44mm (1.75”). These are for the rear wheels. The front has a different part # and are a bit shorter and a bit cheaper. Glad I did because I barley had enough room to get these in. I could have gone about ½ inch longer at most but anything longer then about 2 ½” and you would have to pull everything apart. I found 12 at the local parts store for $3.00 each so I decided to replace all 12 thinking if I broke one then I may have stressed the others.

I finished the work this past weekend my first stud job. (no jokes please :naughty It only took about 2 hours to replace all 12 studs on the rear wheels thanks to all the great tips on this forum. I ended up having to figure out a few steps on my own so I will list my tips, if you will, for the 4th gen model year 2008. Hope this is useful

For the rear, the six o’clock position is the sweat spot. Well it’s the only spot you can get the stud out and in. Once you have the rotor off you can simply pull the brake shoes apart a little bit at the bottom till the adjuster falls out. This will give you just enough room to remove the old stud and put in the new stud. Remember to re-adjust your parking brake once you finish since you took the adjust out.

I read that a ball joint press or c-clamp works for pressing the studs in and out. Do to the limited space the ball joint press did not fit so I tried the c-clamp trick but it did not work. There is not enough room to press them out and trying to press them in you just can’t get enough force with a c-clamp. The biggest clamp I could fit started to bend under the force. And these are solid American made clamps not those cheep-o foreign imports mind you. 5 pound sledge 2 – 3 medium hits and you’re good.

When doing all 6, knock out at most 4 studs at once. Replace them and then do the last 2. If you try and remove all 6 at once the deflector plate will come loose. Made that mistake!

Install the studs using a torque wrench set at 80lbs and some spray lube. Since the c-clamp did not work I used a bolt and several heavy washers. Make sure you use heavy washer. Like 1/8” thick. On my first stud I used a bunch of thin washers and they started to deform. Or use a large bolt as a spacer. When tightening, use your torque wrench so you don’t over stress the studs. Over tightening is what got me into this mess to start with. What I found was my torque wrench set at 80lbs worked great. Once you hit 80lbs stop, back off the bolt, spray some more lube and tighten again. Using this stop and start method I never exceeded 80lbs. Yes it took a little longer but not much. For most studs I only needed to tighten / loosen 2 – 3 times to fully seat the stud.

Finally put it all back together. For anyone who needs it, the torque on the caliper mounting bolts is 65lbs, on the mounting bracket its 77lbs and the lug nuts are 83lbs. Also, just as a safety check, after 2 – 3 days of driving recheck your lugs and make sure they are all at 83lbs. You don’t want a stud to seat further and loosen up.

And now that I am done replacing all 12 on the rear, I don’t really see the need to replace all of them. Next time I would just replace the broken stud and move on. I examined all the studs I removed and could not find any “visible” signs of stress. Not that visible stress would show, but they all looked good so replacing all of them may just be overkill.

 

[CJ3Flyr]

Good job! I have been told (and it seems to work) that you can tell if a stud has been over-torqued by screwing the nut on most of the way and the try to wiggle it in and out. Stretched studs seem to allow the nut to wiggle a lot which makes sense.

 

[ukbgblue]

2004 wheel stud size

I have a 2004 4runner Sport edition and broke a wheel stud. what is the exact size of wheel stud for this this model?.... please help asap

Thanks
Bobby

 

[santana]

Recently broke a wheel stud on the front right tire of my 2005 and wanted to share some pics and notes to get this done quickly. I picked up a wheel stud from advanced autoparts for 1.99 plus tax.

Firstly, you deff have to remove the caliper and rotor. Without the correct tools this could easily be the hardest part of the job. Specially if this is the first time you are removing your caliper and rotor or it has been thousands of miles since you last took it apart those suckers will be seared on there.

The two caliper bolts are a pain to remove as they are torqued to death. If you dont have air tools, a steel pipe to increase your leverage will be your best friend. Jack the car high enough so you can work under the wheel to properly fit the socket wrench inserted into a steel pipe.

If you release the bracket that guides the break line to the caliper.
You can get away with not removing the break line and moving the caliper out of the way. You just need some strong rope or nylon string to suspend the caliper out of the way. See the pic below.

When you are done removing the caliper. Hammer out the rotor and put it to a side. Hammer out the broken stud and it should fall right out.

Find some washers that fit around the new stud and make sure they are laying flush against the metal. See pic. Tighten a lug nut on the new stud until you see the new stud press in.

To keep the axle from turning while you are trying to tighten the lug nut on the new wheel stud see the last pic. You will see I used the steel pipe to keep the axle from spinning. I put on two lug nuts and braced the pipe against the ground so it wouldnt turn.

worst part about breaking a wheel stud is it happens right when you are finishing with whatever you are doing! :redbrick:

 

[Atlanta_man]

I had some work done at the shop a while back and I always recheck the torque on the wheel nuts.

One front wheel had the nuts extremely tight. I had to use a long cheater to break them loose. Can't believe they did not shear all of them off when they tightened them.
One heck of an air tool I suppose...

 

[Sungod]

I don't think I have every heard of 'better' studs. They are made of steel and do their job as long as you do yours. You should install and snug them up by hand, then properly torque them to 76 ft/lbs. That does not mean cranking them as tight as they will go with an air impact then using a torque wrench. A lot of people improperly install their lug nuts and that accounts for 99% of the problems.

 

[levi10moore]

Loose wheel stuf

Hey gang,

If my wheel stud is loose does that mean I need a replacement or can I tighten it?

 

[DRC]

If the wheel stud can be wiggled side to side or in and out that may be an indicated of a stretched stud or possible crack. They should be solid. I'd replace it. No sense in risking it.

 

[cloud]

Thanks, I now feel less badass about that time i changed my brakes on my old Camry and sheared a couple studs.

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