HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud

Post by **PapaSmurf2k3** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 4:59 pm

I seem to break wheel studs fairly frequently (this is the 2nd time it has happened on this car), so I'd be willing to bet someone else is going to have this problem in the future. So here we go!Step 1: Identify broken wheel stud. Chances are, if it broke, it broke while driving. If that is the case, kiss your lug nut goodbye.Next, prepare to remove the wheel by securing the other ones, and breaking your lug nuts free while the wheel is still on the ground.Now jack up the car. In my case, I lost a rear wheel stud, so I jacked it up by the pumpkin. (I also lost a wheel stud on the drivers side a couple years ago).Remove the wheel by removing the remaining lug nuts.Ah yes, there she blows. You are going to have to remove the rotor, so for that, pull off the brake caliper via the 2 17mm bolts holding it to the spindle (note the position of the ratchet. That is the bolt to remove, as well as 1 more on the bottom).Pull the caliper out of the way, and remove the rotor.Note the small pile of rust starting to form. Now comes the fun part. Locate your maimed wheel stud, and pound the living crap out of it with a hammer. Hit it axially towards the center of the car. I didn't have any PB blaster handy, and the wheel stud was being stubborn, but I am a crafty bastard, so I used tire shine.Chances are, at this point, you have hit the wheel stud so hard, you have musroomed the top of it a little bit. This is when you will need some sort of drift to punch it out the rest of the way. I used a bigass shoulder bolt that I happened to have in my pocket from work.Your hub should now look like this (with a progressively larger and larger pile of rust on the ground):Now, bust out your new wheel stud (with thread pitch M12x1.25), available at most auto parts stores. You will also need an open lug nut (also M12x1.25). Feed the wheel stud through the back of the hub, and screw down the lug nut til you get all the way to the hub. Screw it good and hard. This will start to pull the wheel stud through the hub, and secure it.Chances are, at this point, you need more beef/threads to pull it through the rest of the way. I put my rotor back on and tightened it down again.At this point you are essentially done. Just put your wheel back on, lower the car, and tighten the living **** out of that bolt. Loosen it up, and tighten the rest of the lugnuts in a star pattern like normal. Pat yourself on the back, you just saved yourself roughly $50 by not bringing it to a shop. Total repair time should take about an hour if you work at a leasurely pace.

Post by **Gabes13** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 5:05 pm

I love replacing broken wheel studs!!!!

nice write up

Post by **sebazztard** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 5:50 pm

yea some cars are easier than others. some require removing the hub good write up for the new wrench turners.

Post by **Nacho_240** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:15 pm

There already exists a write-up for this

zerothread?id=247358

Very kind of you to help the noobs though.

Post by **PapaSmurf2k3** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:31 pm

I'd say mine is better, but its really not. Oh well, my pics are better haha. He makes up for it with volume though.

Post by **Nacho_240** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:44 pm

<--- party pooper

Sorry I put a halt to your glory. Maybe you can do an article informing noobs of certain cleaning products that can be used as a replacement for other chemicals.

ex. tire shine <---> pb blasterwindex <---> wiper fliudrubbing compound <---> lubricant

Post by **E7-S14** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 7:03 pm

well hot damwish i searched for one of these threads when i was changing my wheel stud...

would have saved me the hasslei ended up cross threading a crappy lug nut on the stud that wasn't secure inside the hub. i then foolishly put the Wheel on to secure the dam stud(which was a bad bad idea)

i had to cut through my stock wheel just to cut the dam crappy lug nut and stud off..it was a sad sad night for me..

just another one of my foolish mistakes that i learned from

Post by **PapaSmurf2k3** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 7:51 pm

Nacho_240 wrote:<--- party pooper

Sorry I put a halt to your glory. Maybe you can do an article informing noobs of certain cleaning products that can be used as a replacement for other chemicals.

ex. tire shine <---> pb blasterwindex <---> wiper fliudrubbing compound <---> lubricant

hahah, dude! I filled up one of my windex bottles with windshield washer fluid today. Windshield washer fluid- $2/gal max. Windex/other, $2+ for like, a 16oz bottle.

Post by **tEknoS13** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 8:15 pm

nice. its also a good idea to stack a few washers in there before screwing on the nut to get it in the hub. just my .2 cents

Post by **spooled240** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:16 pm

good write up

Post by **r34 gtr** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:17 pm

There are few things I hate doing on a car than changing a broken wheel stud. Its always rusted in there like mad and I end up having to hit it with the torch...ugh.

Post by **spooled240** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:27 pm

yeah tell me about it, nothing like dealing with seized/corroded bolts and nuts. My diff bolts were so tight and seized...after bending a few breaker bars, busting my knuckles and cussing numerous times I just left the rear diff cover on the car.

Post by **vancouverbc** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:41 pm

good job. positron pictures are a problem.

Post by **moulton712** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 9:52 pm

i'd buy a torque wrench

Post by **jza80king** » Tue Nov 04, 2008 11:50 pm

I had this same problem when I sheared a stud off, but I was told that pulling the new stud with a lugnut isn't a good idea and that the best way is to actually have the lugnut pressed into the hub? I actually took the whole hub to a machine press for $25 to have the new lugnut pressed in. So I'm guessing using the old lugnut trick isn't a big deal then? The money wasn't an issue just the fact that I had to take more things apart take it to the shop, then put everything back on....this definately is easier.

Post by **PapaSmurf2k3** » Wed Nov 05, 2008 2:26 pm

Yeah, I didn't have any washers around, although I could have just gone to work and grabbed some. Whatever, it worked.

jza80king wrote:I had this same problem when I sheared a stud off, but I was told that pulling the new stud with a lugnut isn't a good idea

Were they trying to tell you something? If you take your car to a shop to get this done, this is exactly how they will do it (Minus the tire shine).

Post by **jza80king** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 12:32 am

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote:Were they trying to tell you something? If you take your car to a shop to get this done, this is exactly how they will do it (Minus the tire shine).

it wasn't the shop that told me the stud had to be pressed in it was other people....I thought this would work and was going to try this but when I asked a few people I know they said just take it to a shop and they'll press the new stud in. I took my whole hub assembly and watched the guy press the stud in with like a heavy press machine, he didn't do it this way. Whatever works though

Post by **94_240sx** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:39 am

Rear is easy, but front is bit tricky because hub will spin freely. Trick is you put crow bar or breaker bar in between studs at 45 degree angle touching the ground to jam it. It means you have to replace them one by one. Don't take all the studs out at once. It's hard to eaplain, but I think I saw this in AZHitman's write up and worked like a charm, so search. I've replaced all 16 studs using washers and worked perfect. I also checked torque on all lugnuts once in while to make sure new studs seat properly. Nice write up BTW.

Post by **PapaSmurf2k3** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 2:40 pm

jza80king wrote:
it wasn't the shop that told me the stud had to be pressed in it was other people....I thought this would work and was going to try this but when I asked a few people I know they said just take it to a shop and they'll press the new stud in. I took my whole hub assembly and watched the guy press the stud in with like a heavy press machine, he didn't do it this way. Whatever works though

Well, I meant if you took the whole car in. Obviously if you brought just the hub, and a press was available, they'd press that sum-*****. Doing it the "lug nut way" is just a faster way of doing it (especially with an impact gun), and time is money.I've also replaced my front studs with lengthened, hardened NISMO studs by this method.

Post by **s13gebala** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 3:07 pm

lol i did this today... never knew it was 50$! what a waste of money

Post by **PapaSmurf2k3** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 4:42 pm

$50???Mine ran about $1.49

Did you buy a solid gold wheel stud?

Post by **positron1** » Sat Nov 08, 2008 1:16 am

Nice write-up! Somebody buy me a new camera for X-mas!

Post by **charat** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 5:51 pm

i has a question... coudl you use a lug (like say... i dont know... a wheel lock lugnut? kuz i lost my original ones...) to tighten the thing instead of a nut?

Post by **S13k** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 5:54 pm

yea if your lug nuts have enough thread to put the whole stud in there and then some

Post by **PapaSmurf2k3** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 8:30 pm

If you have enough washers/spacers to do it, then yeah, you could probably do it that way.

Post by **numbnuts240** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:16 am

charat wrote:i has a question... coudl you use a lug (like say... i dont know... a wheel lock lugnut? kuz i lost my original ones...) to tighten the thing instead of a nut?

go to the parts store and pick up an open ended lug nut for a couple of bucks.

Post by **BTP** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:06 pm

PapaSmurf2k3 wrote:$50???Mine ran about $1.49

Did you buy a solid gold wheel stud?

yeah i as wondering how much your wheel stud cost i need 3.

Post by **Klits562** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 12:42 am

s13gebala wrote:lol i did this today... never knew it was 50$! what a waste of money

hahaha your sig got me good it was at the edge of my screen and everytime id flick at it it moved off screen so i thought i got it but it kept comen back....then i realized it was a gif

Post by **240sxJoe91** » Fri Dec 18, 2009 11:03 am

Hmm wheel studs= Fun lol..I had to take one off an izuzu suv in my shop class it got annoying so i was like F*** it and i took a grinder to it, lol it was pretty easy

Post by **davincci** » Fri Aug 13, 2010 11:43 am

A great trick that will save all the extra hard work is to freeze the wheel studs the night before you do the work. by freezing the stud the metal actually shrinks a lil making the replacement a much easier fit. liquid wrench also works great!!!

HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud

HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud

Re: HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud (PapaSmurf2k3)

Re: HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud (pandapants)

Re: HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud (sebazztard)

Re: HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud (Nacho_240)

Re: HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud (PapaSmurf2k3)

Re: HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud (Nacho_240)

Re: HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud (Nacho_240)

Re: HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud (PapaSmurf2k3)

Re: (spooled240)

Re: (vancouverbc)

Re: HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud (PapaSmurf2k3)

Re: HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud (jza80king)

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Re: HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud (jza80king)

Re: HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud (jza80king)

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Re: (PapaSmurf2k3)

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Re: HOW TO: Change a broken wheel stud

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