I broke a wheel lug. Can I still drive it fine??

Budke · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:15 pm

Well I was taking off the wheels to clean then and I guess one of the bolts got cross threaded and I didn't know it. So when I was trying to get the bolt of I was trying kinda hard thinking it was just on really tight, next thing I know BAM! The wheel lug broke with thye bolt still on it. Seeing as I don't have any money to get it fixed right now, I want to know if its still safe to drive around with just 4 wheel lugs on the wheel instead of 5 until I can get it fixed.

Jeep4me99 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:19 pm

woudn't drive too far or fast just incase. They are really easy and cheap to replace yourself. Just get the new one...a couple bucks. Slide it in through the back, line up the little groves, then use the lug nut to draw it all the way in. You may need some washers to use as spacers incase you run out of threads. If you cross threaded the lug nut, I'd replace that as well.

Inc · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:30 pm

I ran around on 3 lugs on my front driver side for a day or 2. Not at all ideal, but it can get you to where you need to be to replace the busted lug. Take it easy on the jeep until it is replaced and like jeep4me99 said, it is an easy fix. Cheap too. I just bought some new lugs for my rear axles, 10 new ones and they cost me $16 for all of em.

teckman02 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:31 pm

i have one that has be busted for almost a year and no troubles it is something that i have been meaning on getting fixed but have not had the time or funds

Budke · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 7:26 pm

Well, let me ask this then.
Could I drive a total of about 1-1 1/2 hours at 65 tonight?
I promised my girl we would go to the beach tonight and I don't want to have to call it off.

icarl · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:03 pm

1.5h @ 65 mph
Assume max speed equals 100 mph
Assume Factor of Safety = 2
5 lugs / 2 = 2.5 lugs at design strength fail at max load.

Therefore ... :lol:

Budke · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:11 pm

I don't get your logic....

icarl · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:19 pm

Budke wrote:

I don't get your logic....

It's a joke... The answer to your question requires an engineer with knowledge of stud strength and KJ wheel design loads. Or you could just go and try it and see what happens. :roll:

Budke · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:22 pm

True.
I've heard a few people say its fine. Some say I shouldn't drive far.
So I'm not sure on it.

Jeep4me99 · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 11:12 pm

Budke wrote:

True.
I've heard a few people say its fine. Some say I shouldn't drive far.
So I'm not sure on it.

when it comes down to it. error on the side of caution. Its your life and your girlfriend. Every situation is different. Some lugs may hold, some may not. If you drive and start to feel strange vibes....it may be due to imbalance now. Can it happen????? Maybe. They don't hold a lot of weight each, but together do the job. You may get to where you want to go...but can you get back and not be stranded.

I just bought an axle from a guy that had 2 lugs bust, his tire when flying....so on...and so forth.

The fix is simple and could be done on the side of the road....so if you can't get it done ASAP....at least have the tools and parts. Good luck and be safe.

Inc · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 11:14 pm

Jeep4me99 wrote:

Budke wrote:

True.
I've heard a few people say its fine. Some say I shouldn't drive far.
So I'm not sure on it.

when it comes down to it. error on the side of caution. Its your life and your girlfriend. Every situation is different. Some lugs may hold, some may not. If you drive and start to feel strange vibes....it may be due to imbalance now. Can it happen????? Maybe. They don't hold a lot of weight each, but together do the job. You may get to where you want to go...but can you get back and not be stranded. The fix is simple and could be done on the side of the road....so if you can't get it done ASAP....atleast have the tools and parts. Good luck and be safe.

^^^^^^^^
Great advice.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Mon Oct 12, 2009 11:23 pm

Hopefully if you take it nice and easy everything would be ok. I would hope that 1 lug isnt deciding whether or not my wheel flies off or doesnt fly off.. Always make decisions based on what you think though.

rescu2000 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 5:46 am

Some models of the Mustang (muscle car) only came with 4 lugs. Keep in mind that they are equally spaced, where as yours aren't now. I had a rear one break on me and drove it for a couple months that way. I felt pretty safe doing it. Finally got around to replacing it at a whopping cost of like $5. Took a total of 15 minutes to fix. Is there any risk to running it that way? I'd say very very little. But knowing that it takes 15 minutes to fix it, why take ANY risk? (Might take 30 minutes if you don't have air tools) The biggest concern I would have is that if a second one broke while driving you'd lose a lot of the mounting integrity.

Boiler · **Posted:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 9:55 am

I was going to answer "just fix it" but figured I was too late for your beach trip. That's my answer now though. This is like one fix you shouldn't need to put off for more than a day.

Budke · **Posted:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 12:17 pm

Yeah, I plan on fixing it today if I get the time to go to the store.
My trip last night went good. Felt some vibes so I pulled over to give it a good looking over. Everything looked good and everything was still tight so it must have been the road(figured out it was the road on my trip back). Kept it at 65-70mph the whole time. Went a little bit slower than i normally do around turns and didn't give as much pedal when accelerating from stops and such. So all in all it went well with no ill effects!

tomsjeep · **Posted:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 12:49 pm

Glad you survived.
I drove an Army vehicle - 6 bolt axle - with one lug broken off. It should have been deadlined, but no way was the major going to walk around in Korea, so we continued on. When we all got 'home' and the motor pool got to work on it, they went ballistic - it seems that in addition to the one broken bolt, two more were cracked. Could have been a disaster.
I'm not big on rolling the dice on this kinda stuff anymore as a result.

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Tue Oct 13, 2009 6:19 pm

Oh hell I broke one on my old 1990 Subaru Legacy when taking the wheels off to change brake pads. that car had 4 lugs and I drove on 3 on a front wheel for a few months. I actualy forgaot about untill it got cold and I was too much of a big baby to change my oil on the cold and took it to NTB. THey caught it and offered to fix it with the oil change and tire rotation for an extra $20 so told them to do it.

you should just get a new nug nut its not worth the trouble to get that off the broken stud.

Budke · **Posted:** Wed Oct 14, 2009 7:44 pm

Got the wheel stud and lug nut at autozone for less than $5. Got it in good. Needed quite a bit of muscle though!
But well worth it.

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Thu Oct 15, 2009 4:34 pm

Good job

LibertyFever · **Posted:** Fri Oct 16, 2009 10:47 am

I wish I could have read this posting earlier, I would have offered to take your girlfriend to the beach

Glad to hear you've resolved your problem for just $5.

I broke a wheel lug. Can I still drive it fine??

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