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I got spinning wheel studs with the bolts still on them...

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Porkchop-wrx

15+ Year Contributor
40
0
Nov 19, 2003
New_JerseyUS
Yeah i went to put on new rims and got to the last wheel and 2 of the 3 bolts just keep spinning with the impact wrench. The bolt has corroded itself to the stud. How to I get it out and replace it. The only thing i could think of was to grind off the bolt with a dremel or something like that. There is no room to get in there and hold the stud. Any other suggestions.
 
Take your car to a local tire shop and tell then that the studs are spinning freely. They will drill them out and if the screw up your hub or wheel the have to replace it. Well at least up here they do. I did it to my rear Driver side wheel and it took them like 2 hours to get 2 of them out and then you have to pay for new stud and lug nut but it worth it.
Good Luck :talon: :thumb:
 
I work at a tire shop. What you have is really easy to fix. Follow these steps.

1. Take off wheel.
2. Take of brake caliper and rotor. so all brake components are off.
3. cut off stud just infront of the lug nut with a grinder.
4. bang out old stud.
5. Put new stud back in and lube it up real good and put a lug on it you are not going to use. Zip it down with the gun real tigh. (most of the time this ruins the lug so you need another one.)
6. Now the stud should be in place put brake componets back on and wheel back on then good lug nut back on and bang your done.

I recommend you do it yourself its really easy and I know at my shop we screw people over with like 1/2 hour lahbor for install for a 3$ stud and lug. ;)
 
Porkchop-wrx said:
Yeah i went to put on new rims and got to the last wheel and 2 of the 3 bolts just keep spinning with the impact wrench. The bolt has corroded itself to the stud. How to I get it out and replace it. The only thing i could think of was to grind off the bolt with a dremel or something like that. There is no room to get in there and hold the stud. Any other suggestions.


how can you take off the tire if the lugs wont come off..

i had one stick and spin, so i just took off the others and pulled on the wheel, front to back side to side, until the stud snapped.

your gonna have to replace the stud anyway.
 
I had the same problem when I swapped wheels one day. Here is what you do, and its pretty simple if you have some basic tools;

1. Jack up the car, put supports under it. Using a hammer and a center punch, make a divot in the end of the lug nut. This will keep the drill bit from walking around.

2. Grab a drill and a couple sharp bits, say 1/4" and 3/8" or 1/2". Starting with the smaller bit, drill a hole deep enough to go past the point where the nut threads onto the stud. You can measure the distance on a nut the you have already removed. You don't have to drill perfectly straight, so don't worry. Use some WD-40 to keep the bit cool and sharp. Spray the bit every so often.

3. Change to a bigger bit, and open the hole up.

4. At this point I was able to put an impact on it and spin what was left of the nut off. You may have to remove what nuts you can so that the wheel will have a little play on the rotor. Pull out on the tire at a point opposite of the frozen nut. This will put pressure on the stud, hopefully giving it enough resistance to let the nut spin off.

5. If you still can't get it off, try breaking the stud. I know there isn't a whole lot of room in there, but there shouldn't be a whole lot of metal left on the stud. Take a deep socket, or a tire iron, and work the stud back and forth untill it snaps. Or, stick something solid and strong into the hole you drilled. Don't use the bit, as it is pretty brittle. Use a big phillips screwdriver or something. Depending on what wheel you have, you may run the risk of chipping some paint, or scratching it up some. Just a freindly warning!

Once you accomplish this, knock the remainder of the stud through the back of the rotor. Installing a new one may require the removal of the shield, but I was able to fish the new one in without doing so. Depends on your dexterity and patience. Once its in there you will need to tighten it down, like Civib said. A good way to do this is grab lug nut you don't want to use again, and a plain nut that is bigger than the stud, so it will just slip over with alot of distance between the threads. What it does it keep the lugnut from bottoming out the threads. Some studs are not cut all the way, and if you run a regular lugnut down to that point, you may end up with another stuck, spinning stud. Put the big ass nut on first, then the lugnut. The lugnut will center the big nut on the rotor. Crank the lug down untill the backside is sitting flat against the spindle. Reassemble everything, and go for a drive. Recheck it after you put some miles on it just in case. Hope this helps, and good luck!
 
The drill bit method is a good one. I used an acetylene torch, heating only the nut until it was a bright orange color, then I hit the nut with a chisel and hammer. The lug nut broke (well, folded is more like it) and the lug was still in one piece. Then I removed the caliper and pulled the rotor to remove the bad stud. The entire process took only 30 minutes, and I removed two lug nuts on the passenger rear.
 
Bestwestranger said:
Playing with fire is always good, however, its a little hard on aluminum rims with inset lugs! :D

I didn't think of that. OMG

I had my steel snow wheels on, easy access.

Whoops!
 
The funny part is that when my stud decided to spin, I was at a guys house trying on his old stock 17" GT rims to see how they looked! It was about 11 at night, I had work the next morning, and had a 45 min drive ahead of me to get home. We were like "Uh, that ain't good". Luckily he was nice enough to let me take an extended trial period before I bought them. :thumb:
 
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