tardisguy

The other day I ran over a screw on the way to work so tire was flat when it was time to go home. No big deal, put on the spare with the OEM on-board tools and drove the few miles to Discount Tire. Tire covered by warranty and they pull it in. Tech comes in after a few and says one of the lug nuts is seized and if I want them to keep trying and risk breaking it off. I give the OK to keep trying and I follow them outside to watch. As soon as he hit it again I can see the nut is turning but not loosening so I tell him to stop because the stud is now stripped out of the hub. They wont cut it off for liability reasons so they put the new tire on the rim and send me on my way to take care of getting the spare off and road tire on. I drive home (15 miles) and jack up the car and cut off the lug with my cutoff wheel. I go to loosen the the other four lug nuts with my 4-way and the one next to the stripped one strips as well as soon as I start applying force. so I have to cut that one off too. I got mad, pulled the hub and took it to the parts store and got 2 new studs. Put everything back together and its OK. My fear is am I going to keep having this problem. I don't want to have to cut off a good wheel because a stud strips out of the hub. Has anyone else had any issues with their studs or hubs like this.

Hamman

Wow, that is odd. I have had our wheels off dozens of times and hundreds of times on my Xterra and never had this issue. Almost like they dipped the threads in red loctite before hand.

mRVRsport

Tardis,
Have your vehicle ever been submerged?
It's hard to believe two studs on one wheel have seized so bad that it caused to you resort to that much effort to get the wheel off.

Perhaps you should lather on a small amount of anti-siege to the studs to prevent such a headache later..

tardisguy

Hamman, I have had the wheels off quite a few times myself and like I said, I pulled off the flat and put the spare on with the onboard tools. Kinda hard to get lots of torque on them. What I am wondering is if the tech at discount tire had the gun on tighten instead of loosen when he first tried to take the lugs off and stripped the knurl off in the hub and tried the next one before he realized he messed up, then he went into CMA mode. This is the second time this particular store has messed up a lug on one of my vehicles. Same tech too but a couple of years before. I only went to this one because they had the replacement tire in stock. Just concerns me that potentially hitting tighten instead of loosen could that easily have stripped the knurl off the lugs

mRVRsport, I bought mine new with 36 miles on it. It has never been flooded or off-road except for the dirt road at my property. After this issue, I went to all 4 corners and did just that. A few of the lugs had signs of galling on them so I am taking no chances. If another one strips I am going to replace all the studs with ARP studs

Hamman

Good idea and thanks for the info. That shop sounds shisssstyyyy. I'd have those M F's cover a new hub ASAP, but thats just me, especially if you've had previous issues with them. We all make mistakes and $hit happens but come on... two of them! Seems like you're on top of it though mate. If it's something you can do yourself and not have to deal with trusting someone else then I am all for it. I haven't had a car to a dealership in over 10 years. Nothing but problems unfortunately.

mRVRsport

DAMN!
That is a stinkin' pile of donkey !!
Unfortunately, when you don't have video evidence of the act, it's very difficult to get any satisfaction from them. They will always slime their way out of it.

That's one of the reasons I tried to work on my own vehicles for just about everything, unless I absolutely can't do it myself. (which I know it's not possible for everyone to do - all the time.)

tardisguy

Same here, if I can do it, I do it. My family and I are going to ride in it after its fixed so I take the time to do it right instead of watching a production clock. I have lost count of how many techs I have ticked off because I watch them work. I am always respectful and friendly when I say something, I never say anything unless I "need" to and I always stand outside the bay or door and give them space. There are still good guys out there but they are getting harder to find. There are a few shops and dealerships I have gone to for various things over the years that have told me to never come back because they really messed up and I called them on it right away and made them redo it.

Worst one was I went to the dealer for a synthetic oil change because I had a coupon. WATCHED, from the waiting room, as the tech put in the cheap oil in. I called him on it and asked him to put in what I paid for or refund my money, so he got mad and pulled the SM out. SM got mad at me for being nosy about MY car and refused redo or refund. I got the GM of the dealer out there and he was mad at everyone. He got mad at me for catching them mess up and he got mad at them for getting caught. He made a different tech put the right oil in with him and I standing next to the car watching then told me to get the f*** off his lot and if I called the TV stations to do a report he would sue me for slander. I didn't call the TV stations but I called up Mitsubishi and the BBB and explained what happened. The next month they got some kind of customer service award from Mitsubishi!

AWCAWD

I also second the views of mRVRsport and tardisguy. I had mostly very bad experiences with techs and managers in the past. Therefore I am trying to fix and maintain everything I can. As far as dealership visits are concerned I made it clear that I will be present next to my car all the time or I walk. My current dealership understood this and I have great relationship with them (kudos to John the manager and Chris the tech). During the scheduled maintenance visits I just decline items that I have checked and I do not pay for those ( I check my fluids, brakes, tire pressure etc more often than visiting the service; once a year or less).
As to the original post: very few tire shop uses torque wrench to tighten the wheel nuts/bolts. I change my tires myself twice a year (with the seasons) and can report that using an anti-seize is beneficial, especially if one lives in the rust belt.