2004 LS V8 - found a missing wheel stud and lug nut??? Broke/sheared off?

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lsintoronto

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My wife was driving the car (2004 LS V8) yesterday and called to say it was making a terrible sound - checked it out and found that a wheel stud and lug nut had broken/sheared off completely and was missing. Another lug nut was very loose and a third was slightly loose. I'm not sure what happened as I know the last time I put this wheel on (driver front) I double checked all lugs with my torque wrench. These are aftermarket alloy winter rims/lugs.

Anyone experience this before? Can you buy and replace just one wheel stud and how hard is that job to do? Or does the whole hub have to be replaced?

Is it bad to drive around with only 4 wheel stud/lugs for a few days (couple hundred miles) while I look for parts and get it repaired? It's a holiday here so everything is closed today :(
 
lsintoronto said:
My wife was driving the car (2004 LS V8) yesterday and called to say it was making a terrible sound - checked it out and found that a wheel stud and lug nut had broken/sheared off completely and was missing. Another lug nut was very loose and a third was slightly loose. I'm not sure what happened as I know the last time I put this wheel on (driver front) I double checked all lugs with my torque wrench. These are aftermarket alloy winter rims/lugs.
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yikes. you are supposed to re torque aluminium wheels after 100 miles or something. the aluminium expands a lot and needs to have the torque checked.

lsintoronto said:
Anyone experience this before? Can you buy and replace just one wheel stud and how hard is that job to do? Or does the whole hub have to be replaced?
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not hard. carefully hammer out the old stud (or whats left) and push the new one in. use a stack of washers and the lug nut to seat the stud.


lsintoronto said:
Is it bad to drive around with only 4 wheel stud/lugs for a few days (couple hundred miles) while I look for parts and get it repaired? It's a holiday here so everything is closed today :(
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well, i wouldn't do it.
 
I wouldn't go on a road trip with a busted stud, but I'm sure it's often done. On the other hand, I wouldn't be afraid to go a few days of regular driving around before repair.

KS
 
chris2523 said:
yikes. you are supposed to re torque aluminium wheels after 100 miles or something. the aluminium expands a lot and needs to have the torque checked.



not hard. carefully hammer out the old stud (or whats left) and push the new one in. use a stack of washers and the lug nut to seat the stud.




well, i wouldn't do it.
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Thanks - going to pull the wheel off today and take a look at what's there. I usually do re-torque but have less that 50 miles since they were installed (and I specifically double-checked the torque on the driver front so I know I didn't forget to tighten them).

It's mostly driving to and from work (45 miles roundtrip) for a few days until I find the replacement wheel stud (will check dealership tomorrow) and maybe try and make it to this Saturday to do this myself versus taking it to a shop to remove everything (caliper, rotor, etc) to replace the wheel stud.
 
I didn't get any warning when my wheel fell off, hadn't payed attention to it for too long I suppose and enough studs broke off to send the wheel rolling.
 
Thanks to a tire shop cross threading a lug and not saying anything, I had a std that had to be broken off the next time I got a flat. Went all over town looking to replace that stud and nobody has it. Searched on here and there are a few lug replacement threads. I recall that depending on which one it is it can be a bit more involved. also recall the person getting the studs online somewhere for fairly cheap.
 
My past career was in vehicle testing and the majority of our work involved changing out the brakes every 500 miles. We had a couple instances of lug nut / wheel stud failure during my 25 years.

I would not put the car back on the road. While it was only one bolt that broke, the others were on their way from the loose nuts and resulting stress. All five bolts and nuts should be changed out and the wheel should be checked for damage at the lug nut / wheel interface.
 
TooManyToys said:
My past career was in vehicle testing and the majority of our work involved changing out the brakes every 500 miles. We had a couple instances of lug nut / wheel stud failure during my 25 years.

I would not put the car back on the road. While it was only one bolt that broke, the others were on their way from the loose nuts and resulting stress. All five bolts and nuts should be changed out and the wheel should be checked for damage at the lug nut / wheel interface.
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Yeah - I was thinking it might be prudent to replace all on that hub to be on the safe side. Will have to drive the car to buy the studs (if I can find them right away) and find somewhere to replace them but plan to stay off highways and keep my speeds down. Have to drive it though - can give the Volvo to my wife but it's supposed to rain so the Mustang stays in the garage. So will use the LS but I'm hoping I can find the wheel studs in the morning and get them replaced tomorrow.

I checked these on Saturday and all 5 were there and they were torqued to 95lbs....and the car was driven a total of approx 40 miles on Sunday so I know the remaining 4 were subjected to <40 miles of stress as the 1 stud broke off on this trip.I re-torqued the remaining 4 to just under 100lbs and checked all the other wheels. The rim has some surface scuffing but still looks fine around the holes.
 
lsintoronto said:
Yeah - I was thinking it might be prudent to replace all on that hub to be on the safe side. Will have to drive the car to buy the studs (if I can find them right away) and find somewhere to replace them but plan to stay off highways and keep my speeds down. Have to drive it though - can give the Volvo to my wife but it's supposed to rain so the Mustang stays in the garage. So will use the LS but I'm hoping I can find the wheel studs in the morning and get them replaced tomorrow.

I checked these on Saturday and all 5 were there and they were torqued to 95lbs....and the car was driven a total of approx 40 miles on Sunday so I know the remaining 4 were subjected to <40 miles of stress as the 1 stud broke off on this trip.I re-torqued the remaining 4 to just under 100lbs and checked all the other wheels. The rim has some surface scuffing but still looks fine around the holes.
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It might be best to replace the whole hub, that way you get all new studs, bearing and wheel sensor.
 
Hawk03 said:
It might be best to replace the whole hub, that way you get all new studs, bearing and wheel sensor.
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It looks like I'm going that route - called my local dealership and they said no dealers or the regional warehouse has these in stock so it has to be ordered from Detroit and will take 3 business days.

They're also $10 each so would be $50 to replace all. A new hub from them is $140 and they can get it by this afternoon so given the existing hub is original and has 112K miles it makes sense to just replace the hub and get the new bearings and sensors.

I imagine labour on replacing 5 studs versus swapping the hubs may not be that much different if the studs are hard to get out based on 7 years in the hub.

How hard is it to replace the hub (if one has never done this before)? I've done brake rotors and pads before so have had all those parts removed, just never tried removing the hub before.
 
You should be able to buy new studs from any worthwhile auto parts store. I've never paid as much as $5 for a wheel stud. The main tool necessary to R&R is a BFH. Good Luck!!

KS
 
lsintoronto said:
How hard is it to replace the hub (if one has never done this before)? I've done brake rotors and pads before so have had all those parts removed, just never tried removing the hub before.
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Its pretty easy unless the hub is corroded and rusted in place. It should take no more than an hour if it all goes right. It ended up taking me about four hours cause we had to use a torch and hammer it out.
 
Rockauto does have them in stock and you can expedite shipping if you go that route. I would get some extra just in case at that price.

Has the car had any shop recently install the wheels? If someone has used an air impact without a torque stick they can over torque the stud. This stretches out the stud and stress cracks can form in the root of the threads. This can cause the stud to shear later either when driving or the next time the lug nut is removed.
 
Thanks for the help/feedback. I didn't want to be without the car for too long so ended up buying a new hub from the dealership and attempted to change it tonight. It was easier than I expected - some of the info in this and other hub/broken stud threads helped. The hub came off with some light tapping with a rubberized mallet. If Rock Auto has the studs at a cheap price I'll buy a set and install them and keep the old unit as a spare. The bearings seem ok.

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How much does the dealer poke us for a hub? Save the old hub for sure to have a spare. You got lucky your hub came out easy. Mine were freakin welded from being up north.
 
Your LS looks healthy, especially given all the white crap that we get for 6 months a year.
 
Yup, she's pretty stout and fairly clean underneath dspite the seasonal salt. I do have a rust bubble at the top driver's corner of the windshield so she will be going to the body shop in December to have that repaired (have to remove windshield, repair, and repaint). Had to do this exact repair on our 97 Taurus a few years back.
 
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