Interesting Day With My TE

J

jgedmond

New member
OK, the plan was simple, have the dealer do the 5K tire rotation then home to change the oil myself. Dealer finds a nail in one of the tires and says I need a new tire for $214. I say BS and go to Discount Tire to get it plugged.

At Discount Tire everything was cool until two of the techs came out to tell me that 2 lugs snapped off! I am like you got to be kidding me. They claimed that all the torque settings were at spec, etc. They immediately offer to pay to fix everything.

I order 6 new lugs and 6 new lug nuts from dealer and drive a mile down the road to Brake Check to get the repairs done. The Brake Check guy snaps off one of the brand new lugs! I watched him do it and he never used an impact gun, only the torque wrench set at 83 ft-lbs. All 3 snapped off right where the last thread meets the head.

I remember someone else reporting a snapped lug and it blown off as over-torque problem. Now I'm beginning to wonder if Toyota has a problem with lug nuts and I' m worried about all of my lugs.

Oh, about the oil change everything went fine, but I can't help but wonder what the hell Toyota was thinking when they designed this lubrication system. My 4th gen is a joy to change the oil, this appears to be designed to drive folks to the dealer for service. Only us dedicated 4Runner owners would screw with this.
 
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I'm really sick of hearing this. But on the other hand I've had my tires off a few times and haven't encountered it. Weird either way. I guess the lesson is to wrench with care.
 
I hate to see this kind of stuff happening, especially since I am getting ready to buy a 4runner soon.

I hope everyone is feeding this info back to the dealerships. Toyota is a great company, and they will take care of their customers and make it right. This is a pretty big safety issue, and it should be addressed.
 
jbirk said:
I hate to see this kind of stuff happening, especially since I am getting ready to buy a 4runner soon.

I hope everyone is feeding this info back to the dealerships. Toyota is a great company, and they will take care of their customers and make it right. This is a pretty big safety issue, and it should be addressed.
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I intend to take the broken lugs to dealer parts manager tomorrow and let him know what my experience has been. The dealer rotated the tires that morning, I wonder if they replaced any lugs and didn't mention it. Good question to ask the parts and service managers.
 
T4Fun said:
wTF toyota, now you are skimping out on the metal for lugs..just makes me sick...
Click to expand...

People......it's the common use of 3/4 or 1 inch drive impacts by tire shops or dealers that overtorque and stretch the studs that are designed for sheer loads. This is what causes the broken studs. It may not happen then or the next time but it will fail.Sure, ARB and others make stronger hardened studs used for racing but are expensive and not used by any auto manufacturers.

Impacts should only be used to take nuts off unless they have a preset calibrated torque below the final torque. They can overtorque by 10-15 times the right torque with the impact and then they get out a torque wrench set to 80 ft/lbs or whatever just for show. It's a joke!They use impacts wrenches in the name of speed.Read what an impact wrench is and does.... Impact wrench - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
and the results... Loose Wheel Nuts - Causes and Effects, News Articles

You think it's only 4Runners? Just google " broken wheel stud- forum "
Same complaints in practically every auto forum from every make and model. Doh!

I've had 4 different sets of wheels on mine now, as I just picked up a set of 4th gen sport wheels, and have had mine on and off at least 10-15 times and not one broken stud. The common denominator is I don't use an impact to put them on!
 
harper7 said:
People......it's the common use of 3/4 or 1 inch drive impacts by tire shops or dealers that overtorque and stretch the studs that are designed for sheer loads. This is what causes the broken studs. It may not happen then or the next time but it will fail.Sure, ARB and others make stronger hardened studs used for racing but are expensive and not used by any auto manufacturers.

Impacts should only be used to take nuts off unless they have a preset calibrated torque below the final torque. They can overtorque by 10-15 times the right torque with the impact and then they get out a torque wrench set to 80 ft/lbs or whatever just for show. It's a joke!They use impacts wrenches in the name of speed.Read what an impact wrench is and does.... Impact wrench - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
and the results... Loose Wheel Nuts - Causes and Effects, News Articles

You think it's only 4Runners? Just google " broken wheel stud- forum "
Same complaints in practically every auto forum from every make and model. Doh!

I've had 4 different sets of wheels on mine now, as I just picked up a set of 4th gen sport wheels, and have had mine on and off at least 10-15 times and not one broken stud. The common denominator is I don't use an impact to put them on!
Click to expand...

:iagree: I haven't broken any studs on my 4runner as I hand torque them down. however when I took my superduty in for tires right after I got it Discount broke two on each sides. they fixed it for free. If you want something stronger look up ARP studs.
 
harper7 said:
People......it's the common use of 3/4 or 1 inch drive impacts by tire shops or dealers that overtorque and stretch the studs that are designed for sheer loads. This is what causes the broken studs. It may not happen then or the next time but it will fail.Sure, ARB and others make stronger hardened studs used for racing but are expensive and not used by any auto manufacturers.

Impacts should only be used to take nuts off unless they have a preset calibrated torque below the final torque. They can overtorque by 10-15 times the right torque with the impact and then they get out a torque wrench set to 80 ft/lbs or whatever just for show. It's a joke!They use impacts wrenches in the name of speed.Read what an impact wrench is and does.... Impact wrench - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
and the results... Loose Wheel Nuts - Causes and Effects, News Articles

You think it's only 4Runners? Just google " broken wheel stud- forum "
Same complaints in practically every auto forum from every make and model. Doh!

I've had 4 different sets of wheels on mine now, as I just picked up a set of 4th gen sport wheels, and have had mine on and off at least 10-15 times and not one broken stud. The common denominator is I don't use an impact to put them on!
Click to expand...

Harper7, I hear you and respect your opinion, but the Brake Check guy installed a brand new Toyota supplied stud completely by hand and it snapped off with a torque wrench set at 83 ft-lbs (I watched him do it). This is what really got my attention: no impact gun, no possible history of over-torquing, no possibility of over-torquing when installed, and yet it snapped.

The fact you and many others have not had these problems does not prove that there is not a problem. As with all manufactured components, there is the possibility of bad batches getting through QA/QC or statistical variance within batches that leads to problems in the field.
 
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T4Fun said:
wTF toyota, now you are skimping out on the metal for lugs..just makes me sick...
Click to expand...

I doubt Toyota makes them. I'd be interested to see if the company that does make them is making them toyota specs, or cutting corners with a cheaper metal and Toyota hasn't noticed.
 
haven't had any problems with the wheel lugs but i did snap one of the four bolts holding in the skid plate.


i did everything by hand and tightened gradually but it still snapped. the other three are fine so i guess the weld holding the nut in on that last one just wasnt up to par.


hopefully toyota takes care of the lug issue.
 
jgedmond said:
The fact you and many others have not had these problems does not prove that there is not a problem. As with all manufactured components, there is the possibility of bad batches getting through QA/QC or statistical variance within batches that leads to problems in the field.
Click to expand...

IMO, broken studs on the 4Runner/Tacoma is more common than people think or realize. If you haven't broken a stud, count your blessings.

I agree, before I broken/damaged the ones on my Tacoma, I too thought, must be how the other guys are tightening down their lugs. Until it happens, it's something you won't understand. :p

I rotate my own tires on my Tacoma, one broke and another stretch. I don't own an impact gun/wrench, but do have a torque wrench. I tighten down the lugs in a uniform pattern as well. When the wheel is off the ground, I tighten each lug as much as I can. Once the wheel is on the ground, I make a quarter to half a turn per lug in the appropriate pattern before I reach torque spec. Guess what, two studs were damaged/broken.

Bottom line is I take exterme caution, more so than before with my 4Runner and Tacoma, because they're less forgiving than other cars that I've dealt with or read about.
 
does someone have a link to other manufacturers for these studs, ARB, or others. never knew this to be problem.
 
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