Lug Nuts Snapping off...

mrneen · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 4:11 pm

On my drive home from work, I noticed a slight vibration. I assumed it was normal due to the snow in which New England had recently. (Drove through the snow on my road, not plowed.. good that is.)

Anyway, as i was driving, the vibration had become increasingly worse.

...I was about a mile from my house and i made a left hand turn and all of a sudden i heard a ping sound followed by even more vibrations and metal to metal sound.

first thought was maybe a tie rod... or CV....

Upon inspection, when i got to my house, i noticed that i had snapped 2 lug nuts completely off.

I already placed an order into NAPA to replace them,

my question is how easy is it to replace all five? any one have a write up or directions that i could borrow?

Also, what would have caused this? i just recently changed my Hub and Bearing assembly, about 2 months ago. and everything was torqued to specs, and then i checked it after 100 miles to re torque them.

would a balancing issue or alignment cause this?

any information would be appreciated.

Thanks everyone.

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 4:32 pm

alignment nor balancing would cause them to snap
if you over torqued them at some time it would though

Xodius · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 4:40 pm

tommudd wrote:

alignment nor balancing would cause them to snap
if you over torqued them at some time it would though

My wife and father in law call me the stud master, lol. I have had to replace 9 of my 10 rear and 1 of my front already. Every time I take it to Discount Tire they over torque them and next time I go to take them off SNAP! I hate them there. :frankie:

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 4:56 pm

Thats why no one ever touches my baby! :twisted:

well except for my alignment guy but I trust him :mrgreen:

mrneen · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 5:14 pm

thanks tom

i assume probably over tighting them did it??

I do need an alignment.. my camber is messed up.. the tire is leanin outwords towards the top... i already got one after i put on my Al's A-arms....

any other reason why they would snap off?

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 7:00 pm

mrneen wrote:

any other reason why they would snap off?

They were either over tightened or not tightened at all so the wheel was banging around thus snapping them. Im personally the only one to ever torque the lugs on my Jeep besides from the factory, never had an issue.

mrneen · **Posted:** Wed Dec 29, 2010 7:55 pm

okay, thanks for all the help.

are they easy to replace i assume?

just bang them out and look for the threads to line up?

davegt · **Joined:** Wed Dec 15, 2010 5:55 pm **Posts:** 4

I wouldnt say they r easy to bang out...you will def want to use heat...and buy new lugnuts..the factory ones on my 02 were junk( the ones which have a cap welded over them) they tend to crack letting water in and rusting on the studs...so maybe not over tighting them but using so much force to get them off weakened the studs. I always use some form of anti cease on them now...torqed no more than 90.

Draco · **Posted:** Sat Jan 15, 2011 12:33 pm

I had problems with studs snapping years ago with a full-time 4WD pickup. The first time it happened I felt vibration driving on a busy freeway. I was able to inspect three of the four wheels, but couldn't inspect the front driver side wheel very well because of the traffic. So I got in and drove some more. The vibration resumed, and I decided to get off the highway. I took the next off-ramp, which had a fairly tight radius. Then I saw the unusual sight of my front wheel in the rear view mirror, bouncing in the grass along the side of the road. I wasn't going terribly fast at that point; the vehicle slid on the brake rotor and stayed upright.

It was a long time ago, but as I recall I was told that some or all of the studs were slightly undersized for the wheel.

The same thing happened a year or two later when driving on an interstate highway. That time I knew what the vibration meant, so I was able to spot the broken studs immediately and drive very slowly on the shoulder into town for repair.

In the last few years, several of the studs on my KJ got stripped were replaced with something slightly different. This was on a road trip and I didn't realize the studs and nuts weren't quite OEM until much later. Last December I made sure that all my studs and lug nuts were OEM again.

Lug Nuts Snapping off...

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