Hi all,

Newbie to the Fit - we just adopted a 2011 Sport with stock 15" alloys.

Being in upstate NY we are looking to put on a set of winters. I see lots of talk about breaking studs - does anyone have a handy DO/DON'T list for wheel swaps to avoid breakage in the first place?

Thanks!

 

Buy a torque wrench, do not lube studs. Next time you get your wheel bearings done consider replacing your studs if you want some more piece-of-mind. Just so you know what condition they are in.

 

1. Don't let anyone touch your wheel studs, especially with an impact gun.
2. Use a torque wrench to adjust all studs equally and to the correct torque.

Different folks have different ways of doing this. I personally spin on the lug nuts by hand, then snug them with my ratchet while the tire is in the air (until the tire starts spinning), then lower the tire until it's just touching the garage floor so that I can snug them some more. Once you've done it a bunch of times you have an approximate feel for the torque. Once I finally put the car on the ground and torque the lug nuts I'm only turning each one about 1/4 turn for the 85 lb-ft click on my torque wrench.

Note that if you use a torque wrench to properly install your lug nuts it shouldn't be that hard to remove them when it's time to rotate or swap your wheels.

It's as simple as that. Assuming you're starting out with decent wheel studs you should have no problem. Growing up on a farm and later doing my own car maintenance I've changed 150+ wheels (cars, trucks, tractors) and therefore 1000+ lug nuts and have never damaged a wheel stud. I suspect that most of the folks having problems are either using impact guns or dealing with wheel studs that have previously been abused by an impact gun-wielding maniac.

 

That sounds more complicated than what I do.

Remove and re-install by hand. Use all handtools. Use torque wrench once the wheels feel reasonably snug by hand, never putting serious effort behind anything prior to torque wrench.