Sheared 3 Wheel Studs -Too Cold??

[mctavish]

Hi everyone. This has never happened to me. 2008 Ranger 2WD, I was driving and felt noise when braking. Pulled over and saw front passenger side had 3 wheel nuts missing and studs sheared off! The wheel was not overtorqued by a air ratchet ; I just use a 4 way lug wrench and never had a problem. Rotor was several years old and has integral studs.When I removed the wheel, the bearings, brakes and ball joints were fine so I just put on a new rotor. Could it just be fatigue and the cold ? ( Was -30 C here) Any thoughts? Thank you.

 

[adsm08]

Well extreme cold can cause metals to become brittle. Since aluminum does not expand and contract at the same rate as steel or iron its possible that the extreme cold was at least partially responsible. It's also possible that the studs themselves were made of a sub-standard mix of metal. I have seen a few, but rare, instances of this happening, usually affecting all the studs, and always in cold weather.


I would never suspect an air ratchet to ever be able to over-torque, or even sufficiently torque a lug nut. You are thinking of an impact wrench. Air ratchets are generally able to produce no more than 85 ft lbs of torque, and even then only the really good ones. The average lug nut requires more than 100 ft lbs.

 

[Andy D]

Heh heh. The Rat has 3 Auto zone studs and a 6 pack of lug nut. I had the wheels off when I replaced the brakes. Like everything else, that had been fixed by the unknown first owner, Air tools were over used, and all I have is leverage and hammers. Several lug nuts fought all the way because they were either cross threaded or over torqued or something. I did the best as I could with what I had and finessed everything back together. And forgot about it. Early spring in '14, three yrs later, I'm taking a 100 mile trip and the wonkiness I was feeling in the front end made itself easy to diagnose with the LF wheel in the air. 2 studs were loose in the hub and the 3rd was stripped. Took me 3 hrs of hard labor getting the wheel off the hub. Drills, chisels and hammers were used with patience.

 

[det107]

I'm taking a 100 mile trip and the wonkiness I was feeling in the front end made itself easy to diagnose with the LF wheel in the air. 2 studs were loose in the hub and the 3rd was stripped. Took me 3 hrs of hard labor getting the wheel off the hub. Drills, chisels and hammers were used with patience.

um.....if LF wheel was in air & it takes 3 hrs getting wheel off hub ??? Perhaps you mean it took a long time to recover the wheel that got away-

 

[AllanD]

In really cold weather the big problem is that the aluminum wheels shrink and when the nuts are loose the motion of the studs tends to break the studs.

check to make your nuts are tight!

 

[Andy D]

um.....if LF wheel was in air & it takes 3 hrs getting wheel off hub ??? Perhaps you mean it took a long time to recover the wheel that got away-

The studs were spinning in the hub and the threads were boogered. I snapped one with a hammer, But the other 2 wouldnt budge I drilled 1/8 holes in the face of the nuts and split them with a chisel. The wheel was loose but stuff would have to break before I was wheel hunting,