A woman at work came in and told me about her front wheel falling off. 2010 Dodge Minivan. First thought was tire shop did not tighten nuts. But then she then pulled out these 3 nuts and broken studs which she found on the road within several feet of where the wheel came off. She was travelling straight going 40mph when they came off. She said the studs were screwed into the nuts pretty far when she found them so it appears that the studs fractured and nuts were not loose. Very odd to find all 3 close by I thought. Notice there are no studs left on the hub so the other 2 had broken at some point. The crunched fender is from the vehicle falling on the tire when it came off. I have never seen studs fail in this manner. Any theory how this can happen? I know shops like to over torque nuts but they'd have to be really tight to fracture studs. It had been at least 4 months since tires were put on.
With all the threads still being there they were most likely over tightened. If the threads were ruined and smooth it would've been a wheel left loose. As you said, most tire shops just rattle them on with an impact gun. A few times of that happening and eventually they just break. The other two probably left the building a few miles earlier and the 3 she found were holding on the best they could till they also broke. We replace studs quite a bit in the shop, probably 5 a week. Some break in half while removing the lug nuts.
I'd inspect the rim. Try all you want alluminum won't file steel lugs down. Look for egg shape holes on the wheel. I'd also look for the taper in the lug holes for signs of distortion due to over tightening. There is more to look at than just the broken studs.
Here’s what happened ... the vehicle was serviced somewhere and the lugnuts were not torqued, or fatigued. With the possible mileage the number of times the wheels should have been on and off for rotation as part of maint makes wheel studs and lugnuts consumables at some point. Here’s what else happened, there was a hell of a driveline vibration up front of that FWD van that was certainly noticeable before a wheel came off. So, here’s my take Old van Maybe lots of miles Crappy service provider Driver ignoring a symptom until catastrophe Lucky no one was hurt or worse
worked for Chrysler dealer for 20 years , didn't sell a whole lot of studs . and most of them were stripped or seized/corroded . or lose any wheels , well one or two I think - tech error . the studs are probably original , nuts look oem - the cap style nuts may heve been replaced once . oem rims I'm guessin ? over tightening ? 3/4" HD impact ? went quite a ways for the problem to be under torqued . egg'd rim holes will stress the studs . wheel to flange area looks good . the bevel on the nuts are dirty looking though , unusual maybe . normally cleaner looking .
Seen it happen a few times. 99% of the time it's overtorqued. If you're going to use an air impact you better use the torque sticks, or they will be majorly overtorqued. We've all seen the results of that. Keith
...I'm with "over tightening" (not same as "over torquing"). Many wrenches are capable of wringing lugs with only a few impacts, including newer cordless. Add skill/care of tech. Add ever-lower quality of components. Good old days of "a couple wrench impacts will do" are gone...
Here's the rub...if this installation fellow is running around tightening the everlasting dog snot out of these nuts, you'd think at least some of the wheel studs would fail while he's "in the act".
Overtorqued, no doubt. A lot of the bolts, nuts, studs are made in China according to a friend that works for Chrysler Windsor. Seems nobody at repair shops uses torque wrenches anymore.
Who says one didn't? Guy mighta broke one, said "oh ****" and sent the car out anyway. Think she was counting lug nuts when she left?
The OP mentioned two were likely already missing when the last 3 failed. You'd hope no "tech" would be that reckless, but it certainly does suggest so.
Thanks guys. Owner had it towed to the shop that has serviced it for past 4 years. No report yet from them but I am curious to hear what they tell her the cause was. Owner did say there was a slight vibration noise up front they suspected might be a wheel bearing but they could not tell which side it was coming from. I'm thinking it must not have been very bad as they are typically pretty responsive to getting repairs done or at least will ask me to assess it as since they haul their small kids around. Here is pic of where tire ended up. Obviously that fender is not designed to handle any load applied to the lip.
The last four new cars that we have owned have been Chrysler products; we have never had a broken stud. I also will not allow a dealer to rotate the tires or remove and replace a wheel unless the lug nut is manually torqued with a click-type torque wrench. Most will not do it my way, so I don't have wheels removed. I did have a frozen caliper replaced (actually both front calipers) on one of our cars. Because I am very picky about things that can kill me or my bride, I decided to loosen and retorque the nuts. There was one nut so tight that even with a 3' cheater bar on a 1/2" breaker bar I could not get it loose. I took it to a local Goodyear dealer who removed it with an air wrench rated at 650 ft/lbs. My air wrench wouldn't touch it.
