2016/HONDA FIT Wheel Stud and lugs
 

I am changing to winter tires myself (Breaker bar to loosen, torque wrench to tighten). Previous tire changes were at Costo.

I finished changing 3 tires.

The Left Front tire has 2 nuts where I can turn them with breaker bar with a lot of resistance. The nuts are turning but not loosening from the stud.

What is going on? Thanks in advance.

Stripped threads on the studs, maybe? If so, those studs would need to be repaired or replaced.

Was probably cross threaded and now the stud has come loose from the hub.

Thanks for the input.

Do you think the hub will need to be replaced?

It's possible if the stud turning in the hole has opened the hole up more. Stud should be the weaker part so I would think the hole is fine though.

That makes sense.

Any idea if this would be covered by Honda Warranty? Or basically because Costco did it there's no way Honda would cover?

Sorry about your problem. Studs just not as tough as they used to be. That and wheels being installed by air tools set to high torque will tear them up. If I need wheel work I take the wheel off myself and take it to the tire shop. I always start lug nuts by hand and do final torque with a torque wrench. I hate I cannot trust shop to take the time to do the job correctly. Once you get this fixed try to be careful where you take your car. A friend carried his pontiac to costco for new tires and they broke off three of his studs before telling him he could not drive home until they replaced them.

Basically.

You can try calling and complaining to them but I doubt they will take responsibility.

Why would Honda cover it? It was the Costco "Technician" who messed up your car. Wheel studs strip and break all the time. 99.9% is because some cross treaded or overt tightened them. You can always try Costco and see it they'll do anything? Unfortunately this will probably be a costly learning experience for you? Saving a couple bucks at Costco vs somewhere like Discount Tire where they use run up guns and hand torque the lug nuts.

I needed tires many years back and went to a local NTB. When I saw the guy put the lugs on by hand and use a torque wrench I knew I would be back. I have now moved about an hour away but make the trip back to get tires because of that.

A lot of it has to do with the people that work at a particular place but some places push good habits and make sure people follow them.

So I went to Costco and they say its impossible that they overtorqued because they use a torque limited impact gun and then a torque wrench to finish off.
I'm wondering is it possible to cross thread with a torque limited gun?

Also, is this safe to drive on in the mean time?

Thanks.

The studs are the only things preventing your wheels from flying off the car. No, it's not safe to drive any vehicle with compromised studs. If a wheel flies off, not good.

What the service guys say they do and what the mechanics actually do can be something completely different. When I was young, like 50 years ago, I remember taking my first car to a large shop to get the exhaust fixed. I literally went out to where my car was on the hoist and stood there while the mechanic worked on it. In those days many places allowed you to go over and watch the work being done. That's long gone now supposedly in the name of safety of course but there can be other reasons for not allowing the public to watch the work being done.

I had to replace a rear lug stud on our 2011 last week. When rotating tires my son cross-threaded a nut and turned further with a battery-powered impact wrench which really messed up the stud and the nut. I had a heck of a time removing the nut. It was pretty difficult pressing out the stud and pressing in the replacement (AutoZone had one in stock, imagine that) without a 20T press in my garage, but I did get it done, nearly ruining my vice in the process. I have a friend with a press, but he was out for the holiday weekend and I had to get it done. Alternative would have been to replace the entire hub/bearing assembly with the cheap quality one that AZ had in stock.... but the chinese bearings are garbage and I didn't want to do that if I could avoid it.

I hope you took away your son's impact wrench and smashed it with a sledge hammer. You can buy him some old fashioned manual tools for Christmas.

Nah. I taught him how to manually thread the nuts on, usually snug to the wheel first. I handed him the low-torque impact (on the middle setting it will only tighten to maybe 50 lb/ft or so) to snug the 4 nuts before we dropped the car to the ground for final hand-torque with a manual torque wrench. He didn't realize that he had cross-threaded it prior. My fault for handing the 18yr old the impact before checking to see how far he had advanced the nuts.