Broken wheel stud

[Ryan_S]

Well that didn't take long.

I got some new tires put on last night, so I went out to re-torque the lug nuts tonight. On both of the front wheels there was at least one nut that seemed to be turning too far. I managed to snug all the back ones up, and went back to the front. I ended up snapping off one of the studs on the driver's side front. There is still one on the passenger's side that is either really loose, or will break shortly.

I had the torque wrench set at 83 ft/lbs (per the manual) so I'm not really sure how that could have happened. I always used to torque my Subaru's to 95 ft/lbs with no problems.

Is this sort of thing covered under warranty?

 

[004Gunner]

Well that didn't take long.

I got some new tires put on last night, so I went out to re-torque the lug nuts tonight. On both of the front wheels there was at least one nut that seemed to be turning too far. I managed to snug all the back ones up, and went back to the front. I ended up snapping off one of the studs on the driver's side front. There is still one on the passenger's side that is either really loose, or will break shortly.

I had the torque wrench set at 83 ft/lbs (per the manual) so I'm not really sure how that could have happened. I always used to torque my Subaru's to 95 ft/lbs with no problems.

Is this sort of thing covered under warranty?

If a shop put the wheels back on then the lugs stopped turning when their impact wrench ran out of torque. Probably around 400 ft/lbs on a standard 1/2" impact. The lugs were already broken or snapped when you torqued them. Consider yourself lucky that you caught it when you did. A nice dealership would probably fix it for you under warranty even though it's almost definitely caused by massive over torque

 

[Uneek]

Some things don't change. The 4th gen 4Runner and 2nd gen Tacoma owners have experienced broken studs more often than they should.

If the dealer doesn't cover it, it's pretty easy to replace yourself. You can see if the tire shop is willing to cover it too.

IIRC, the 5th's setup is almost the same as the 4th's and Tacoma's.

-Remove the wheel.
-Loosen and remove the brake line bracket bolt on the spindle arm.
-Remove the brake pads, by remove the clips on the slide pins.
-Remove the slide pins. Take a C-clamp and clamp the pads against the caliper and pad tabs (where the slide pins go through) to push the pistons in a bit and remove the brake pads.
-Remove the brake caliper.
-Remove the brake rotor. You can take a mallet and tap around the brake rotor hat between the studs to loosen the rotor. Or (I prefer this method more) there are two bolt holes 180* across from each other near the studs. IIRC, it's a M8x1.25 or similar bolt, and screw them into the holes. Alternate between bolts giving each a half a turn or so to "pop" the rotor off.
-Get a hammer, you might need a punch depending on how much is left of the broken stud, and pound it out.
-Put in the replacement stud from behind. Stack a bunch of washers and grab a lug nut to pull the new stud through the flange.
-Reverse the above steps for assembly. The specs appear to be the same as the 4th for your wheel lugs, the brake caliper bolts are 91ft-lbs.

Good luck.

 

[tjrlcr2k1]

I had some BFG A/T KOs put on mine about a month ago by a national tire chain and they managed to break a stud on the left front. They paid to fix it though.

 

[Ryan_S]

I pulled the nut off off the broken stud when I got to work today. It looks like there are some mangled threads about half way down inside the nut. I have no idea how that could happen, other than being deffective from the begining.

The nut threads onto the broken piece really easily till it gets about half way, then it gets stuck. I was also pretty surprised since the torque wrench was only set at 83 and it never clicked before the stud broke. I can't believe that it would be posssible to break the stud by over torqueing it by o ly a few ft/lbs.

 

[Jesse1983]

yea, something is wrong there. 80+/- should not be enough to break.

 

[Uneek]

I pulled the nut off off the broken stud when I got to work today. It looks like there are some mangled threads about half way down inside the nut. I have no idea how that could happen, other than being deffective from the begining.

The nut threads onto the broken piece really easily till it gets about half way, then it gets stuck. I was also pretty surprised since the torque wrench was only set at 83 and it never clicked before the stud broke. I can't believe that it would be posssible to break the stud by over torqueing it by o ly a few ft/lbs.

On my '05 Tacoma, I broke one and stretched another stud. The lug nut from the broken stud was damaged. It wouldn't thread completely on the replacement stud. The lug nut from stretched stud still threads properly. The spec for the Tacoma is 85ft-lb., still an insignificant increase in torque.

The OEM studs are fragile. I have spares in my garage. ARP also has replacements, but they are expensive.

 

[Ryan_S]

Stopped at the dealership and they replaced the one broken stud under warranty, which was awesome since it probably wasn't Toyota's fault.

I had them check and re-torque all the other ones. When I got home I threw the torque wrench on them again, just to check, and they all moved a bit before clicking. Now I'm paranoid of breaking more.

The service guy said he had something similar happen before, he called the tire place and they said their computer said the Tacoma torque spec was 170 ft lbs :wtf: