Broken Wheel Stud. Now What? - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Frank20 · 07-31-2006, 02:13 AM

Well I finally got around to painting my brake calipers and drums this weekend. To do so i obviously needed to remove the wheels. In the process of removing the wheels 2 studs were broken when removing the lug nuts. One on each hub on both the front left and front right. I took the rears off without a problem. Im guessing the lug nuts were put on with an air gun and tightened too much which led to me breaking them when trying to get them off. So I basically have 4 lug nuts on both the front wheels. Should i get this fixed right away or can I take my time about it? Is it safe to drive as is? Anyone know how much I would be looking at to get them replaced?

DBIGMAC1 · 07-31-2006, 02:20 AM

I would replace them right away, the bolt pattern spreads the load over all 5 bolts, the front of the car needs all 5, if it were the back you could get away with 4, not the front.

***Eye8Pussies*** · 07-31-2006, 02:22 AM

regardless- get them fixed as soon a possible!

***toyomoho*** · 07-31-2006, 02:55 AM

It should not cost that much. The job can be done with the hub on the car. You might a call tire shop; they must have seen a few broken hub bolts in their time. You could do it yourself if you had tool to press out the broken bolt. Check the posts below.

1997 Toyota Tercel - Broken Stud

broke a wheel stud

camryfour · 07-31-2006, 10:15 AM

I had a stripped one on the front that I replaced on my gen 2. I just banged it out with the hammer and went to Autozone and bought a replacement. I just got the torque wrench and torqued the sucker down pretty good. It costed me about $2 for it.

kenny1773 · 07-31-2006, 10:55 AM

I replaced several of them on my old gen 3 (stupid tire shop jacked up 4 of them on the same visit for me)

It is easy to do, take the tire off, spin the hub around until the stud it at the take out point (you will see a notch to allow it to pass in one area) then tap it out gently with a hammer, put the new one in and tighten a nut on it to pull it into place

I would recommend that you buy them from some place like NAPA - toyota charges about $10 per stud retail price.

**NOTE - buy new lug nuts to go on the new studs as well, you will regret it if you don't

marc780 · 07-31-2006, 01:28 PM

I believe they are not threaded, they are held in by splines. So you can just soak em with wd-40 or whatever and beat em out.
no worries, pound the new ones in best you can and tightening the lugs will do the rest.

***toyomoho*** · 07-31-2006, 10:47 PM

As marc780 states, the bolts have a spine that presses into the hole. Be gentle with the hammer, there is a bearing inside the hub.