another smashed one

[moulton712]

so i was driving on the highway yesterday and my driverside rear wheel fell off....

pics will come soon.

about 2 minutes before the tire fell off , the car started to viberate a little then alot then even more. my friend was driving in front of me and i was going to call him to pull over. i hit send on the phone then all of a sudden the wheel fell off, and started bouncing on the highway. the car swirved and i started drifting on the highway. then i pulled over and stopped

i was lucky no one got hurt or no one elses car got hit.

the problem was the ichiba wheel studs i had put on the car a week before. i guess they are so weak and not meant to go 70 miles an hour.

they were properly put on and i do check the lugnuts everyday. so not having them on right is not the issue.

for most people the car is totalled, but i'll rebuild it. unless the insurance company wants to put a salvage title on the car. i only said this because i told them i don't want any money for the car cause i have a parts car (i have all the parts needed)

like i said pics to come.

[Eikon]

Did you use a torque wrench to install the new studs to the proper lb/ft?

that's the only way I can imagine new studs failing.

This sucks! Sorry to hear about it.

[naed240sx]

I'm wondering the same thing.

Also, could you provide pictures of the hubs showing where the lugs snapped?

How did you install the lugs? Are you sure they were seated all the way down?

[moulton712]

yeah all 4 studs broke off where disk assembly meets the car. they were put in correctly they were torqued down and they were checked about a billion times even taking a razor blade to see if there was a gap. i checked my lugs a couple times a day.

i really think it was the aluminum wheel spacer that doesn't expand/shrink with the hub assembly the same. the lug nuts came loose cause of the new studs and then so on.

i know it wan't because of how they were installed. we work on cars for a living everyday all day.

pics soon work is busy at the moment

[Eikon]

I wonder if you can file a claim against Ichiba then? That's just terrible for all the studs to fail like that. lawsuit???

[BiXLL]

t

yeah all 4 studs broke off where disk assembly meets the car. they were put in correctly they were torqued down and they were checked about a billion times even taking a razor blade to see if there was a gap. i checked my lugs a couple times a day.

i really think it was the aluminum wheel spacer that doesn't expand/shrink with the hub assembly the same. the lug nuts came loose cause of the new studs and then so on.

i know it wan't because of how they were installed. we work on cars for a living everyday all day.

pics soon work is busy at the moment

I am curious as what you toqued them to. The only time I have ever heard of new studs breaking, it was do to them being improperly seated on install, or lug nuts over torqued. As Seth said, if you did both properly, you have a lawsuit without question!

[madcowvert]

man that suck sorry to hear abut your vert.. thats why i got nismo sstuds you can't go wrong with oem.

For the amount of time and money i don't think you'll win anything i'm sure that on the box it say's " for of road use only"

Good luck and i hope you have the vert back and running soon.

[naed240sx]

man that suck sorry to hear abut your vert.. thats why i got nismo sstuds you can't go wrong with oem.

Nismo studs are actually pretty much crap compared to arp or peak.

For the amount of time and money i don't think you'll win anything i'm sure that on the box it say's " for of road use only"

Dot. Thats the problem right there. Also, considering that ichiba is based out of China or Korea, a lawsuit is going to be very expensive, time consuming, and in the end probably not worth it.

[94_240sx]

Everyone says ARP is the top notch. I think Ichiba is from Taiwan.

[GoinTopless240]

tI am curious as what you toqued them to. The only time I have ever heard of new studs breaking, it was do to them being improperly seated on install, or lug nuts over torqued. As Seth said, if you did both properly, you have a lawsuit without question!

Hey gang, I've been kinda lurking past few months, but felt the need to pipe in with one of my overworded responses. BiXLL is right on the notes of lugnuts overtightened. If all of them separated/sheared off at the hub, then it would lean toward over torque. Couple of questions tho... have you checked the calibration of the torque wrench? We check ours every month at the shop here and have them tested by Team Torque twice a year, along with our tester at the shop. If you live near a Costco and ask the shop manager if he/she could do you a favor and check it for you they have a chance. We take torque wrenches out of service and have them destroyed if they fail and can't be fixed properly. Also make sure when you check the torque, that the socket DOES NOT MOVE. If possible you should check torque with the car up in air and use a wheel chock to keep wheels from turning while torquing (not the e-brake). You do have a valid point that the spacer might have caused the studs to stretch past their "Yield Point", but you would notice that when you checked the torque. A stretched stud would give "soft" feeling when checking torque or the feel like the lugnut just won't set torque easily (not hard to turn, but more like it just keeps turning). 87 ftlbs isn't very much (which is what most Nissan/Infinity cars call for). Most proper spacers should have their own studs and use the vehicle studs to hold the spacer to the hub assembly, that way the same stud isn't being expected to handle expansion of multiple metals with only one torque. Luckily no one got hit by the flying tire (seen many deaths of innocent bystanders from this). Most cases, the people in the car that loses the wheel survive the wreck, but getting hit by a 70 lb tire and wheel at 60mph while you're walking down the street or traveling the other direction, is NEVER a good outcome.

Sorry for the long winded answer, but I deal with this everyday and felt if I can give you some helpful information maybe some newbie somewhere might be safer. If you have any questions about this kinda stuff let me know.

And on a different note... I feel like I'm letting the gang down, but I haven't touched the Vert since October. My old bones just don't like crawling around on the cold concrete floor at home. I'll post if any progress is ever made.....lol

[moulton712]

good response

they were on there right. and i do get my torque wrenches checked. we sell alot of rim and tire packages, and oviously don't like to see this happen.

i thought i was getting the wheel spacers with the their own studs, but they just came with longer studs.

i just think i just got a bad batch.

i don't think i can get a lawsuit availible. but i will ask for my money back.

well the good news is i got a white 240sx coupe today. the car is stock and in good condition for a 92. i already have a mods list for it going. including the new origion urban body kit comming out.

[lloyd240sx]

omg, this happened to me way before I did the body work and paint same wheel and everything on the highway. It shook and I looked at my friend and asked if he felt that then it tucked up in my fender well. Luckily it did noth but scratch up my wheel on the inside but they were junk. I had replaces the studs and 3 of them broke, damn napa products... Now I have 5 lug and nissan wheel studs

[DeXteR]

[off_topic]

Lloyd... I LOVE your car. I saw someone on here posted a couple pictures of it a while ago. I added them to my car pron folder. You have any other pictures uploaded somewhere?

[/off_topic]

I had a similar situation with my pathfinder. But I think mine was sabotage and not materials failure... Most of my lug studs were still intact, however, I didn't have any lug nuts - none. It's scary loosing a wheel. Glad everyone was ok.

[moulton712]

finally i had a few minutes in the daylight to take some pics. it's snowed a couple of times since so the satin paint looks way dirty.

i also took some picks of the 240 coupe i got last week, and alittle work i have started.

i'll probably rebuild this car though. it doesn't look too bad, i'll have to wait till the snow dissapears before i can get the parts car out. i really don't see more than a handfull of hours to get this car on the road. and of course more time to for the body work.

i'm thinking about gutting the car, taking the top off and pretty much turn this thing into a sunny day kill some hondas car. the car was smashed pretty bad when i got it anyways. this was my first driveable 240.

[bloodsport]

Cut it off. and go wide body

[DeXteR]

While you're at it, cut off that landscape trim as well

[moulton712]

Cut it off. and go wide body

i was about to put the wide body on, untill this happened. this is why you see in the pic the fenders are rolled. but not i'm putting them on my coupe.