Hi all-So, we have had our 02 for 3 months. When i bought it, the front wheel had only 4 lug nuts. Asked the owner about it and he said the tire shop had accidentally stripped it out and he was going to have them install a new wheel stud/lug before i picked up the car. Done deal. So after having the car for 2 weeks, i had the wheels on and off about 5 or 6 times (flushing the brake lines, checking the pads, etc etc) and i stripped out a different stud on the same wheel (lug nut was tight all the way off-had that sick feeling in my stomache!) so i got the pleasure of replacing a front stud. So 4 days ago i got new wheels-reputable tire shop installed them. Today i had to take off the wheels as i replaced my centercaps...yep, different stud stripped out yet again on the same wheel. So, can someone give me an idea why in the heck this is happening? on both my vintage mustangs, i was removing the wheels almost weekly to fix problems Never had a stud strip out. I can see maybe the 18 year old kid with the airgun in his hand at the tire shop thinking he's on a pit crew and maybe crossthreading something, but i actually had one strip out that i had tightened, which i know was threaded on correctly. So, i'm glad its on the front as that is another easy fix, but should i be putting antiseize on there or something to keep this from happening? (as an fyi, i tighten in star, hand tight, 80 lbs, then 100). Any help/advice would be appreciated (and man, this sounds like such a stupid question but this is weird!) Thanks all!
jp

 

What kind of lug nuts are on it? Not sure without seeing what you have but it sounds like it's galling on you. I'm thinking incompatible metals kind of thing for some reason. Next time you have one of them off make sure the threads on the stud and the lug nuts are clean and not damaged before you install them.

 

Either poor thread engagement, or something is causing a stud to deflect when torqued down which causes a lug nut to lock on and seize to the stud. Can happen from someone using a 120mm bolt circle wheel, or you never know on an aftermarket wheel if the bolt pattern is well within tolerance. One clue is when a lug nut seems to keep needing turned after it's snugged and doesn't come up to torque up quickly, because it is trying to bend the stud. And sometimes an overstressed stud will easily just snap off when torqueing to spec. A brake rotor retainer washer can be a big issue on most aftermarket wheels too, since it will try and **** the wheel.

 

Bad lug nut? I wonder if it's the same lug nut being used on diff.stud. Check the treads on that nut and see if they are damaged.

 

It sounds like the previous owner or some tire shop over torqued the lug nuts at some point which probably stretched and weakened the studs. If your having that many strip out I'd just install new studs to be safe.

Steve

 

Change them out. New studs, new lug nuts. You didn't say if you were using new lug nuts. The nuts may have been damage from the initial damage. They may be whats causing the studs to strip out.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions-yes, 8vette7. Knew that the antiseize would screw up my torque specs. Never have used any on wheels studs-just taking a shot in the dark. Im thinking what killian96 said. I took a good hard look at the studs this morning, and grabbed one of the new lug nuts that i got with my wheels and spun it as far as i could on all the studs by hand. The 2 new studs it went on easily all the way down. the 2 other old studs it started to hang up. So, thinking someone along the line put a little beef into the torquing...back to napa to clean them out of wheel studs! Thanks everyone
jp

 

crap-yeah, i better get all new black lugs since one of them is fubarred too, and i'm sure a replacement won't match...holy cow! is everyone going with the gorillas or the mgards? (as opposed to another brand? don't want to start a debate about one vs the other, as for my use it won't matter, but should i stay with one of those 2?)

 

Just throwing it out there; any chance you have imperial (1/2") nuts instead of M12 x 1.5?

 

no, don't think so-this has happened with 2 different sets of lugs, and the last ones came from 1st rate corvette-good idea though! (will have to order some online as no LAPS's around me carry black ones. Closest was a tire shop that had the 12x1.5's but they were slightly larger-21 mm instead of the 19 mm. Looks like amazon prime will be my friend!)

 

You really never know, when I bought my old 350z the lug nuts weren't the same thread pitch as the studs themselves. I just went ahead and replaced all 20, even though some were correct. The wrong ones would thread on alright, to where someone not familiar with threads might think it was correct.

 

That's exactly it; 1/2" is just larger such that even though the pitch is different (but close!), that you could probably thread them on pretty easy.
OP, never heard of the vendor you mentioned, might be worth your time to buy a 12mm x 1.5 bolt and run the nuts on it. I would. But then it's partly because I can't think of a more likely cause.
I bet older Corvettes had 1/2" studs... food for thought.
Edit; nope, 7/16-20... but they were imperial.