Nuts broke off

[New2Talon]

I was driving home tonight, down 16th ave, when my steering got super shaky. I pulled off to the shoulder and checked my lug nuts to see if any of them was loose. They all seemed fine as I was going around the car until I got up to the front pass wheel.

As I walked around the front to the check front pass I noticed there was a nut missing. At first I thought that the one nut came loose, fell off and that was causing my vibration. Thats when I bent down to check the tightness of the remaining 4 lugs. Three of the nuts came out in my hand.

It appears that they SHEARED off the hub. There was only ONE bolt still attached to the hub. I am thankful that the last bolt held out until I could pull over, as I was going down 16th at about 100km/h in the left lane. If it broke, my wheel would have flew off, the brake hit the ground, and I would have slid across the 3 lanes of traffic. During rush hour, that couldnt have been good. BTW I ended up westbound on 16th, just under the 36th st overpass.

I had my car in the shop a few weeks ago, and I'm guessiung they over torqued the nuts. The shop recorded my mileage on the work order and since then I've only put on an additional 15 miles.

Is there anything else that could cause 4 of my 5 bolts to break off all of the sudden? If they did over tighten them, why was I able to drive down deerfoot and run a few errands before they broke. They all broke almost instantaneously because three of them were still in the rim socket, hadn't fallen out yet. What do I need to replace? The tow truck driver said I'd need to replace almost the whole front end assembly (tie rod, wheel bearing, control arm etc.)

If it was the shop that over-tightened them, is there any way I can go after them for the repairs. Even though it was a few weeks ago, I have proof the car wasnt driven since then.

[ercchry]

i dont think you need to replace the whole front end assembly it looks like you can just get new studs. take off the hub knock out the old ones and put in some new ones

[Evolize]

what shop did you have it at and how come they look like normal lugstuds to me? i dont see any broken ends and they all look the same length. Got better pics?

[Evolize]

Originally posted by ercchry
i dont think you need to replace the whole front end assembly it looks like you can just get new studs. take off the hub knock out the old ones and put in some new ones

hes driving a german car, there is no stud, the lugnut is the stud, and it bolts into the hub instead of the stud being part of the hub assembly and you just rest the wheel on it..

[ercchry]

Originally posted by Evolize
hes driving a german car, there is no stud, the lugnut is the stud, and it bolts into the hub instead of the stud being part of the hub assembly and you just rest the wheel on it..

oh i see but it says under what i drive toyota. but anyways wouldnt it just be a new hub then?

[RickDaTuner]

Do you have aftermarket wheels on your car? Do they require hub-centric rings to aligns them?

by the looks the studs that you posted, it would seem to me the the lug nuts were under torqued which caused them to shear off either by wheel flex or by the not being centered properly on the wheel hub. those are tensile load failures we see here, but it doesn't seem like they were over torqued on when they were installed, otherwise that would have been the time when they would have failed.

[New2Talon]

They are all the same length. That is just how they broke off. Notice how they are also all sheared off. In the first and third pics you can see how the metal was twisted off.

hes driving a german car, there is no stud, the lugnut is the stud, and it bolts into the hub instead of the stud being part of the hub assembly and you just rest the wheel on it..

Im not sure if you are talking about me but it is NOT a german car, it is a toyota celica. The bolts are attached to the hub, the wheel rests on the bolts and the nuts tighten down onto the bolts.

As you can see 4 of the 5 bolts broke off (there was only 3 left) so there was only one bolt attached to the hub, and only one bolt holding the wheel on/the car up.

[New2Talon]

Originally posted by RickDaTuner
Do you have aftermarket wheels on your car? Do they require hub-centric rings to aligns them?

by the looks the studs that you posted, it would seem to me the the lug nuts were under torqued which caused them to shear off either by wheel flex or by the not being centered properly on the wheel hub. those are tensile load failures we see here, but it doesn't seem like they were over torqued on when they were installed, otherwise that would have been the time when they would have failed.

Yes I do have aftermarket wheels. They are Rota grids (volk te37 knockoffs). Im not sure if they require hub-centric rings to align them. How would I find out?

Since it didnt happen for a while, I was thinking it could be under torque, but I hadnt noticed any other vibration earlier when I was driving it. Wouldnt I have noticed something, and why would all 4 shear off at the same time?

i dont think you need to replace the whole front end assembly it looks like you can just get new studs. take off the hub knock out the old ones and put in some new ones

But I was driving at about 100km/h. Would I have damaged/bent anything because of the wierd load that was on the front end?

[Black Gts]

I had a Celica as well, the lug nuts sometimes randomly snap , I thought it was just my car but apparently not. I have also never lost more than 1 at a time, it should be a fairly quick fix.
I also read a thread by James (Ithink) and the wheel fell OFF on his MR2, I think Toyota is messed up.

[blstrb]

I had the same thing happen to on the weekend. One of the studs on the front wheel of my '97 Volvo snapped off. How do you fix this?

[2EFNFAST]

Originally posted by blstrb
I had the same thing happen to on the weekend. One of the studs on the front wheel of my '97 Volvo snapped off. How do you fix this?

Generally you press out the broken stud and press in a new one (you can start it off, then use a lug nut and "suck" the stud through)

Originally posted by Black Gts
I had a Celica as well, the lug nuts sometimes randomly snap ,

Call me crazy, but I don't think lug nut studs snap randomly "just because" (unless there is some engineering error going on)

[canuckcarguy]

Did you go back to the same shop? Seems like they'd likely replace them for free, if there are only 15 miles on the car since their work.

I don't think you'll have damaged anything else, sounds like they sheared, you pulled over, shouldn't be a big deal.