My son has a 2008 Prius that he's had since July of 2008. He has had the tires rotated and balanced numerous simes since then and almost EVERY time the service provider has broken a stud. It is always on the left rear. It has been serviced at 3 different places and the only one that HASN'T busted a stud is a Toyota dealer. Has anybody else had an experience similar to this?
The correct torque setting is 76 lbs. for the lug nuts. I have watched the monkeys at the local tire shops use a nice expensive torque wrench and when it "clicks" indicating you have reached the proper torque, they just keep turning about another 1/4 turn. I did not let them torque my wheels like that. I immediately went to the manager and had him watch his employees from the office as they repeated this several times on some other cars. He said he would train them properly in the use of a torque wrench. I do not trust them and I stand right there when they torque the lug nuts to avoid them breaking studs.
torque wrench? Never seen one used in any shop even if they had one which most do not. Bet they went 125+. My truck like most is 75 to 125. 100 is what I use. Alloy wheels can fracture or deform from over torque not to mention all the other studs may be fractured also and fail going down the road(think Nascar). If you rotate yourself you can check balljoints, bearings, brake ect.
You have to specifically request hand torquing and give them the spec. Whenever I've neglected to do that they overtorque the things. It's not our best and brightest working in shops, particularly tire shops. (I find it difficult not to use particularly strong language when describing them.) They tear up the lugs, damage the nuts, and make it nearly impossible to remove a wheel if you have a flat, want to rotate, etc. It's really great when one of these clowns puts a tire on so tight that your wife can't remove it during foul weather in an emergency. Makes you want to kneecap 'em with a tire iron that they've made useless for its intended purpose. I've made it a habit to bust loose and hand torque anything that I didn't watch them put on. (If I check a couple and they are fine, then I won't do the rest.) When I haven't done this the rotors soon warp. And when I go to remove the tire...it gets ugly. I had one on a truck that was so bad that my tire wrench failed first--twisted when I exceeded its yield strength. I couldn't believe the lug survived that as I expected it to shear (didn't care at that point.) Between both feet pushing on one side of the cross and both arms pulling on the other I was putting a lot of torque on it--enough that I could feel muscle fibers going <ting> in my upper back.
Reminds me of the time my wife took her last car in to have a flat repaired. The kid working on it just put the bolt in the impact wrench and then inserted the bolt in the hub and pulled the trigger. Not before or since have I seen such a catastrophically mangled set of threads. I yell at someone about once every five to seven years and that was the day. Sears. Don't go there. Ever.
I usually buy tires from either America's Tire or Costco. In California (have personal experience in Silicon Valley as well as OC), both retailers have their staff use torque wrenches to tighten the lug nuts and the invoice shows the correct torque setting. The installer uses a torque wrench. Then the supervisor rechecks all four wheels with a torque wrench. I haven't noticed any issues with over tightening. However, tire pressure is another story...
I've never snapped a stud or had any problems with wheels I've PERSONALLY put on and properly torqued. Those done by impact gun monkeys, well, another story
I have had a similar experience. I had new tires put on at non dealer garage, several lugs worked loose, and when they tried to retighten the stud broke off , 3 of them. I talked to Toyota dearler he said only way that would happen is if lugs were not tighten and it caused the studs to weaken and break.
Quite the opposite, most likely. They're bangin' them on with an air impact wrench far beyond the torque spec, and stretching the crap out of the studs. Sounds like they owe you a bunch of free repair, if they're competent enough to actually learn how to do it right in the first place. . _H*
Had one snap off by hand with the toyota supplied wrench while rotating my tires. They are defective as I have owned 18 cars and none have EVER snapped a lug. Mine is an 08
Just recently over the long weekend I had the same incident. I plast dipped my stock rims when I regretfully overtightned one of the last lugs it broke right off. I plan on doing the repair myself this weekend.seems pretty simple......
I snapped one on the left rear the other day. I'm pretty sure the dealer used a gun at the last service. The lug did not feel right when I started taking it off and it popped as soon as I put it back on. $180 down the drain . . .
Rear wheel stud repair is cheap if you purchase the parts yourself and take it to your most trustworthy mechanic
