oh god after coming back from lunch at work today I noticed that 3 of my wheel studs broke off O.O My wheel was basicly held on with 1 nut left. Need to get it fixed tomorrow sigh wtf.

 

i would have left the car right where it was and called a cab. thats dangerous

 

i didn't notice until after I came back from lunch. When I did I saw that 3 of them had broke off and my lug nuts are who knows where. I left my car there I just hope I don't find my car sitting on cinder blocks when I go back tomorrow x_x.

 

ah smart man

good luck with the cinder blocks, when we repo people at my job, we leave them on factory steels people leave us when they buy custom rims. of course I hope that does not happen to you.

 

i had an issue with this yesterday. i went to have my alignment done after i installed my skunk2 coilovers and the first guy that "did the alignment" took the wheel off.. which never should have come off.. and idk what he did. but i ended up taking it back and having the original guy who always does my alignments re do it. easy fix. so i go home.. and oh GREAT my new wheels are in. i get the tires mounted and wheels balanced and when i get home to take my wheels off.. turns out the dumbass who did the first "alignment" stripped all 4 of my studs out. 1 broke off. 3 stripped.. completely messed up my lug nuts, which i just bought cost me over 100 for them which pissed mee off more.. so now i need a new set. this was on my front driver spindel.


anyways back to the proccess.

oreilys didnt hve them when searched on the computer, but i have a good friend who works there. he contacted the customer support and they found a match for the studs, appearently 88-00+ hondas are all the same?.. go figure. but anyways i spent maybe 9$ with his discount for 8 studs only needed 4. but original price was about 2.90 a piece.
steps :
1. Take the wheel off
2. Take off the (2) 17mm bolts on the back of the caliper. move caliper out of the way
3. Use an impact screw driver to un do the screws that hold the rotor on.
4. keep the car out of gear so you can rotate the spindel.. and use a hammer to pop the studs out of the back..
5. Get new stud and insert. itll be a bit crooked when first going in and your dust shield will probably get beat to shit (mines horrible, yet functionable. just smashed in a little on the side needed to make room to work)
6. use the hammer to beat the studs through the back as close as possible.
7. i put lock tight on the back of all the studs to help with the hold
8. i put the car in gear and used a lug nut to suck the stud up, it gets pretty difficult.. had to beat the back in a bit in the proccess of sucking it up with a lug nut.
9. after this, the stud should be flush with the spindel.
10. (repeat steps 4-8 for the rest)
11. Re assemble the rotor using lock tight on both screws, also make sure to use an impact screw driver for this step also.
12. after rotor is on re assemble the caliper with the (2) 17mm bolts
13. add wheel and lug nuts.. should be good to go.

i ruined a whole bunch of lug nuts tightening the studs up to the spindel so be sure to use spares when you guys are doing this.


Hope this helps a lot of people.

 

You could have saved all of that time and all of that money for extra parts by following the instructions in the Honda Fit Service Manual. "Never use a hammer to replace the wheel bolts". Take the front and rear hubs to an automotive machine shop to have new studs mounted with a hydraulic press. Simple. Cheap. SAFE. RELIABLE!!

 

Why is everybody breaking off their wheel studs? What are you guys doing to your lug nuts that is causing them to snap off?

 

i brought my car to a shop and had an alignment done, where they effed it all up. i was doing this in the middle of the night, took a couple of hours to finish. kinda hard bringing my car anywhere when its immobile with 3 wheels. plus christmas eve. i had to do what i had to do.

 

damn everyone shit is getting messed up.


the other day i went to switch my front wheel and i was backing out the lugs and the POS wouldnt come off because it was obviously stripped. Dont ask me how because i hand turned them on and torqued them down.

 

yeah with three breaking off for me I'm not feeling too cool with the regular studs, about to order some better ones and have all of them switched out on my car.

 

bringing this thread back to life

cross-threaded my studs (front driver side, yay) when i was rotating my tires this past weekend

i threaded two but bought three wheel studs from Kolbe Honda in Reseda, CA.. only paid a little over $7.00 for all of them. if time permits, i'll try and put together a DIY because it seems fairly common to thread these damn studs.

 

I think you can grind a flat on one of the sides when replacing it. That way you gain the clearance to put it in straight and wont mess up the threads.

Like manx said before, anti-seize IS your best friend

 

Same thing happened to me. I broke off 3 of my studs because they were stripped and woudnt come off without breaking. I think it was from overtighteting or something. Was like $130 to get 'em fixed. :/

 

Charly-
The proper term is "cross threaded my studs". You might be interested to know that the Honda Service Manual says "NEVER install wheel studs by pounding them in with a hammer- only press them into the hubs with a hydraulic press".

 

No kidding!?! I have been changing my wheels on my Civic 50-80 times per year (autocrossing & lapping) for the last 10 years and have never stripped or cross threaded one stud or nut once!

Never ever start a nut with a gun! always put the nut on by hand first and give it a couple of turns to make sure that the threads are engaged... then if you have a nifty cordless impact or whatever, go nuts!

 

thanks for correcting my terminology. it's spelled charlie, BTW.

i've replaced the wheel studs on my ef almost three years ago and they're holding up just fine - i sucked them up with a lug nut. thanks for the warning

 

Sorry about the "Charly", Charlie. I should have remembered from PM's. The problem with using lug nuts to pull studs through the hubs is that the nuts are soft steel- that's why they cross thread so easily.

 

no worries

i'm going to remove the hub and get the studs pressed at a shop. i'm not going to chance effing them up again.

 

You are a smart man.

 

Qwerty66,

Thanks for the nice suggestion. But look at the photos again. You can't use a "nut to slowly cut it into your hub" with a socket and a ratchet. This may work for other cars such as a Camry, Nissan, etc. But not for Honda. There isn't enough clearance to slide through the new stud into the hub. This is typical of a lot of Honda models. Honda engineers want you to spend $400 to replace a $2.00 part - a part that's not uncommon to break. Makes perfect sense for their pockets.

I have a 2000 Honda and this is basically what happened. Broke three studs on left and right front wheels. I ended up having to pay a mechanic $200 fix the problem, which included removing the hub and knuckles to gain access to the studs. Of course by removing the hub you basically also break the seals of the bearings. So another $140 for a set of bearings. Then $50 for a machine shop to un-pressed and pressed the old and new bearings. I'm now very reluctant to rotate my tires for fear that one or more of these studs may break again. Welcome to Honda!

Tonight, I purchased 4 new tires at Costco and was told by the tire mechanic that a stud in the left back wheel broke. So here we go again. My wife wants me to sell the car. All I can say is, never again will I buy a Honda.