broke another wheel stud

[fenixus]

hi guys,

yesterday after bleeding front brakes I broke another stud in FD wheel. it's the same wheel in which one stud got broken a year ago (it was replaced in a shop). also i heard unpleasant sound coming from another stud when torquing it down, i'm afraid out of 5 studs only 3 are holding right, 1 missing and 1 suspected. is it safe to drive with 4 studs in wheel ?

One thing is sure, all studs in this wheel must have been damaged long time ago in a shop (air guns) as i use torque wrenches on them since last summer.

I am about to buy 5 new studs from dealer. question is can i simply bang them out after removing caliper bracket, then put new ones in and using a lug nut screw them in (using hand tools) ?
or something like an air gun is needed to place them securely ?

also most important thing. will i have to do wheel alignment after replacing all studs in FD wheel ?

thanks for your opinion.

[djb2]

Yes, they are that easy to replace.

If you don't press them out, be as gentle as possible with the hammer -- you don't want to damage the wheel bearing.

You only need to draw the new ones far enough in that they stay in place and don't spin. When you reinstall the wheel, initially torque them to 100 ftlbs, loosen, and re-torque to about 80.

If you are replacing all of them, it might be worth your time to find a source besides the dealer. They should be under $1/each when you buy a full set.

[fenixus]

Originally Posted by djb2

Yes, they are that easy to replace.

If you don't press them out, be as gentle as possible with the hammer -- you don't want to damage the wheel bearing.

You only need to draw the new ones far enough in that they stay in place and don't spin. When you reinstall the wheel, initially torque them to 100 ftlbs, loosen, and re-torque to about 80.

If you are replacing all of them, it might be worth your time to find a source besides the dealer. They should be under $1/each when you buy a full set.

thanks! i can get a set from autozone i guess. should be cheaper a lot.

[JohnGD]

Autozone retails Dorman studs for about $2. These common parts tend to be US-made. So the metallurgy should be fine. I'd do both sides or even all four corners given the mistreatment.

There may not be much advantage in terms of price compared to the local dealer. I mean maybe $1-1.5 a stud maybe? (online dealers are about $2.50 each). I'd just pick up all 20 from the dealer, or check to see if you like the US-made Dorman ones for about $40+tax (all corners) at your Autozone.

Again, for the Autozone Rewards card: on a point basis I think you'll get 1 point for each >$20 (?) of transaction (they need to be separate, for example, you still get 1 point for buying $40 at once). 5 points you get $20 back for store purchases. So each axle set of studs is just a few cents shy, but that's easy to fix . With online registration you'll get another point. That's 3 out of 5 just for these studs. You buy oils and brake fluids there too, right? In no time you'll get the free $20 spending credit.

Yeah, unfortunately most tire shops can't tighten correctly. Too many are impact happy instead of doing it the right way with torque wrenches. Likewise with crank pulley bolts and wheel bearings.

I'd be careful with the wheel bearing when you hammer the studs out. At least I personally never felt comfortable "persuading" these things. If you can find a ball joint puller that fits the clearance the better. After that you can get several thick washers that will fit the studs. Then put on the lug nut and tighten to spec should do it too.

OEM has a tools that looks like the following, but not sure if they're identical:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Merce...motiveQ5fTools

(I'm not sure this tool is deep enough to access the stud).

Originally Posted by fenixus

thanks! i can get a set from autozone i guess. should be cheaper a lot.

[fenixus]

thanks. i picked up dorman stud from autozone (1.99 each), unfortunately they had only 2 pieces in my local store and all nearby stores carry like 2-4 of them only ... kind of weird hehe.
i think eventually i will replace all of them with original studs from online dealer, since price is almost same.

right now going to remove FD wheel, caliper bracket and rotor and bang out broken stud with a hammer. i want also to remove one suspicious stud that made a suspicious sound when torquing down, i bet it got broken too, perhaps it will fall off when removing lug nut. i hate when that happens ... damn impact air guns ...

my biggest problem now is removing lug nut from a broken stud piece ... have no bench vice here, might need to go to shop with that or buy new set of lug nuts...

had to do 60 miles on highway and can tell that car pulls to left now and i got steering wheel vibrations over 70mph, sounds like alignment. will see if replacing broken studs fixes it.
tires are due for change anyways, so i guess i will have to do alignment anyways soon with new tires on (once replaced that is).

[RichieRichJP]

Are you torquing them down properly?
Did you get the right lugs? There are angles ones too... I'm too lazy to check my bro's FD right now :p

[fenixus]

yeah i use torque wrench on wheels (77ft-lbs). might have overtightened them once in past when had no torque wrench. however my concern rather goes toward local shop that was messing up with this car frequently, they also did tire rotation some time ago and that is when FD studs started breaking ...
lug nuts are original.

[fenixus]

this one went smooth. hammering out the broken one was very easy using home repair hammer and socket extension, it doesn't take a lot of force to slide out.
installing a new one was also easy. did as djb2 said. installed new one so it locks in then put everything back together (caliper mounting bracket bolts are 79ft-lbs), then installed 4 lug nuts (one on the new stud) and torqued old ones to specs and new one to 100ft-lbs (wheels on ground), so it went in fully it think based on looks.

removing lug nut from broken stud wasn't hard either with jaw grip pliers and 21mm socket. now I have all back as it was with all lug nuts torqued down to toyota specs (77ft-lbs).

I will keep a spare stud in glove box in case the suspicious one (looked good though) breaks apart on next wheel removal or so.

will consider replacing all studs in future when i get bored. for now i have some stuff to do still (ahh ECT sensor wasn't shipped yet!)...

job done