TL;DR - Has anyone taken a grinder to their steering knuckle, removing enough material to allow a wheel stud to pass? If so, how's it holding up?

Hey guys, new dude here. I've had (2) Fits, a 2007 Base and now a 2009 Sport. I've had the 2009 for (4) years and it's been been great, other than blowing the plug and coil out of cylinder 3 randomly. However, during normal removal of the wheels, I've snapped a couple of studs over the years. For a while, I drove on (3) studs per each front hub, which did just fine for several thousand miles, however, Monday, I snapped a second stud on the driver's side. Luckily, the remaining (2) studs were diametrically opposed, so I was able to limp the car home. That leads me to my question: have any of you been able to grind a relief cut into the knuckle, allowing enough room for a stud to pass? I've done this before on other cars, but the Fit's knuckle seems thin on metal. I've found an older thread where someone seemingly did so on a 2nd gen Fit:

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...-breaking.html

I will say, the car is old, high-mileage with terrible paint and body - it isn't worth more than probably $3000 or thereabouts, so I'm looking for the easiest way out - she isn't worth dumping hundreds and hundreds of dollars into.

 

@crazzymann Hey, bud. Welcome.

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Thanks man! Since no one's denied or confirmed this technique as possible (though the attached thread seems to suggest so) I'll be attempting it this weekend.

 

Since I've bought my used 09 I've been religious about torquing my lugnuts to 80 ft/lbs. One time after an inspection someone tighten them way too tight with an airgun. Couldn't break them manually with a tire iron with my full weight on them. That was annoying.
Still didn't snap anything yet, but I'm sure they would have snapped with a good bump if I didn't realize they were so tight.

 

*UPDATE* I shaved a relief on the rear side of the knuckle. Combine that with grinding a flat on the head of the stud, I was able to get (2) new studs in. I removed a little more metal that was needed, so I used some steel-reinforced epoxy putty to patch things up - don't know how much that helped, but it was better than nothing. I've put about 80 miles on it since and so far no odd noises or vibrations. I guess time will tell, though hopefully I'm out of this car and into a nicer, newer Fit by next year.

 

How difficult was it to seat the new stud into place?

 

That putty scares me. I would be buying a cheap harbor freight welder and doing my first weld!

 

I used the closed end of an adjustable wrench, since I didn't have any washers, and a spare lug nut to pull the stud through. It took quite a bit of effort, even with a 3/8" drive impact gun. I was worried I'd stretch or snap the new studs, but that didn't seem to happen.

 

Yeah, I thought about that, and I may still go that route, but so far, so good. Now have placed well over 200 miles on the repair and no new noises or vibrations.