So I don't know exactly why but when I was removing my front right wheel today, two of the five wheel studs ended up spinning...

I tried drilling through the lug nut and then through the stud to remove one of them, but the wheel stud seems too strong.. I'm using a cobalt 1/4" drill bit. Is the trick to just drill out the lug nut? Do I just need a bigger drill bit?

I also tried remove the other 3 lug nuts and then letting the weight from the car hold the stud in place. It seems to hold the stud in place, but then when I attempt to remove the lug it spins as if it's cross-threaded...

Pleased help...

Is my hub in danger of being damaged?

 

Holy crap. I've never seen this before. The stud spins or just the nut?

Good luck. Subbed to see how this plays out.

 

that does not make me feel good

This is why I need to get a second car... A simple Sunday task of "let me bleed my brakes...this shouldn't take too long.." turns into me working from home tomorrow.

 

Always.

 

When I worked at discount tire, we just pull the wheel out so it was pulling on the stud and nut, and hit it with impact. I was never not able to get one off. Eventually the stud or nut fails.

You won't damage the hub, they are a FAR harder steel than the stud..

 

a trick that has worked for me is to slide a jigsaw metal cutting blade between the wheel and the hub against the spinning stud. Then while applying pressure to the blade hit the nut with a wrench (impact would probably be fastest) and the turning motion will cause the blade to cut through the stud.

 

Ive had this happen to me when I had my evo mr. I did exactly what you did which was to drill through the lug nut and then used a bigger bit to drill through threads of the lug nut and stud until the lug nut threads were pretty much gone. Once that happened, I used a punch and hammer and punched the stud to back it out. It took me probably about 4 hours to get that one stud and I went through multiple bits while using water to cool the bits down. GL, its a PITA

 

I ended up having it towed it to a tire shop. This is one headache I don't want to deal with...

I'll keep you guys posted on how they end up doing it. Here's to hoping they don't bend me over

 

When you get it back. Put a touch of anti seize on all of the studs to prevent this in the future..

 

I thought anti-seize on the wheel studs was a no-go?

I torque the lugs to spec which should prevent this from happening. I'm reading that the stock stud threads may be weak?

When I was last putting on these wheels something happened that definitely should have foreshadowed this predicament. It's hard to explain but this is the sequence of events:
- I was tightening the lugs in the star pattern
- Everything looked to be going fine (looking from the top, the wheel was coming closer and closer to the hub)
- Then out of nowhere as I was tightening one of the lugs, the wheel just sort of pop off the hub and was now very far away from the hub looking from the top
- I thought I was following the star pattern so I have no idea how this happened, but I'm guessing this pop cross threaded a bunch of the studs...

Stuff like this is very frustrating when you try to the right thing (spend lots of money on good torque wrenches, take your time, etc..) and **** just fails..

Is it possible that after 10 years the studs just degrade? I do most of the work myself but shops have touched it. So I have no idea what they were doing when they were putting the wheels back on..

 

The FSM states to install the lug nuts dry and that is what I do. If you did a survey here I think you will find that about half the owners here lubricate the threads. It doesn't seen to cause a problem.

As you say, cross threading is probably the cause of the problem. I'd want any cross threaded stud replaced - no thread chasing. To avoid cross threading screw the lug nuts on by hand at least a few threads.

 

Just got an update from the mechanic... They have been at it for an hour and a half and still haven't gotten them off. They are moving to a torch now and he says there may be wheel discoloration

 

FWIW, this is why I never, ever, EVER impact lugs on. Off, okay. But neeeever on. Like, ever.

 

So $285, 5 new studs and 5 new lugs later, this is the state of my wheel...









This is what it started out like:



They ended up having to use a torch.

I expected more from professionals..

I didn't ask, but I don't understand why they didn't drill it out..

The shop that did this:
Caliber Tire And Auto Service
174 S Main St, New City, NY 10956

 

I wouldn't run that wheel. Aluminum doesn't play well with heat (torches)...