I had the great idea to finally install my '04 shocks today and things started going downhill soon after I started. Seems like the last time my wheels were off the lug nuts were put on with an impact gun; result of trying to remove those nuts are seen in the pic below.
I didn't let the lug nut issue stop me so I finished up the install having unsuccessfully searched for replacements. I took my time, polished my wheels and detailed the wheel wells. I even painstakingly cleaned the road grime and gung off my calipers; which now look as good as new. Anyway, I mount my wheels and tighten them down, lower the car off the jack stands and start the torque sequence. Set my tq wrench to 100 ft/lbs and start wrenching. Thinking to myself "gee this one is taking a lot of twist" when all of sudden off it comes, stud and all.
So now what do I do? I found out (the hard way) that the stock lugs are not the best and would probably end up damaged anyway. In any case I'll get some new ones Monday. Can you guys recommend where I can get replacement studs? I guess it would be wise to replace all twenty since I have no idea if the remaing 19 are still structurally sound.
Arthur,
The repair may not be as easy as swapping out studs, which actually isn't easy either.
The C5 studs are press fitted into the wheel bearing hub. To get the studs out, you need to take the wheel bearing hub off, which isn't too bad on the front, but a little harder on the rear. For the front, you can get the wheel bearing hub off by popping off the ball joint on the lower a-arm to the spindle to get to the bottom of the three torx bolts holding the wheel bearing to the spindle. On the rear, you can't get to any of the torx bolts because of the shield to the parking brake so you have to take the whole rear spindle off, which means popping both upper and lower ball joints.
Once you get the wheel bearing hub off, then you can press out the studs using a vice and press new ones in. But... if the hole the stud is pressed into is stripped from prior damage (such as in your case), the new stud may not seat in the hub and when you try to torque it, it may just spin. Not good.
To do this yourself, which is doable if you are a garage mechanic, you need several special tools, such as the axle nut socket, forks to pop the upper and lower ball joints, and a torx bolt "socket" (not sure what those are called). I can dig up the sizes of these if you want them.
I know guys that use JB weld on the back of the studs to help keep them from spinning inside the hub.
When my stud stripped from the hub and started spinning freely, I couldn't get the lug nut off and had to drill out the stud. I took that has a sign to replace my whole wheel bearing assembly. Downside to that is they are expensive (on the order of $400 each) and you get new stock studs.
I now consider my wheel bearings as annual replacement parts.
Couple of pics of the rear spindle and wheel bearing hub showing the back of the studs. You can see the three torx bolts you need to remove to get the wheel bearing hub off the spindle so you can get to the wheel studs:
Arthur,
The repair may not be as easy as swapping out studs, which actually isn't easy either.
The C5 studs are press fitted into the wheel bearing hub. To get the studs out, you need to take the wheel bearing hub off, which isn't too bad on the front, but a little harder on the rear. For the front, you can get the wheel bearing hub off by popping off the ball joint on the lower a-arm to the spindle to get to the bottom of the three torx bolts holding the wheel bearing to the spindle. On the rear, you can't get to any of the torx bolts because of the shield to the parking brake so you have to take the whole rear spindle off, which means popping both upper and lower ball joints.
Once you get the wheel bearing hub off, then you can press out the studs using a vice and press new ones in. But... if the hole the stud is pressed into is stripped from prior damage (such as in your case), the new stud may not seat in the hub and when you try to torque it, it may just spin. Not good.
To do this yourself, which is doable if you are a garage mechanic, you need several special tools, such as the axle nut socket, forks to pop the upper and lower ball joints, and a torx bolt "socket" (not sure what those are called). I can dig up the sizes of these if you want them.
I know guys that use JB weld on the back of the studs to help keep them from spinning inside the hub.
When my stud stripped from the hub and started spinning freely, I couldn't get the lug nut off and had to drill out the stud. I took that has a sign to replace my whole wheel bearing assembly. Downside to that is they are expensive (on the order of $400 each) and you get new stock studs.
I now consider my wheel bearings as annual replacement parts.
Thanks again Brad. I'm going to look for some ARP replacement studs (if that is an option) and replace all the front studs left and right. I'll probably take this opportunity to change my brake pads too. Valuable lesson learned here guys.
I was able to remove/reinstall the front studs without having to take off the wheel bearings. I removed the brake calipers and suspended them from the top A-arms with wire. Next I removed the rotors and then I used an air hammer on the studs which popped right out. Then I used the air hammer from behind to get the replacement studs in. There is a lot of room in the wheel wells to accommodate an air gun so I was able to make quick work of it all. After everything was back together I went for a short drive and re-checked the lug nuts to make sure all was tight. So far so good.
Lessons learned? 1.) Never buy cheap tools. I bought my torque wrench from a swap meet and it wasn't calibrated. 2.) Never use or allow someone to use an impact gun to install wheels. 3.) Get rid of the OEM lug nuts. Although they are cool looking they will not stand up to repeated twisting. I now have some solid ones that are chrome plated.
As for my opinion of the '04 shocks? Too early to tell. Admittedly I didn't put my car through the paces but on my little road test I didn't notice anything appreciably different.
I'm willing to bet that your aftermarket lug nuts are partially to blame.
GM's lug nuts are softer then the wheel studs for a reason. It's easier/cheaper to replace lugs then studs.
For all my GM cars, I torque the lug nuts to 80 ft lbs. I was stripping out stock lug nuts with the 100 ft lbs so I adjusted... (I was swapping wheels up to 4 times a week though.)
No problems with 80 ft lbs with tons of drag racing, auto-Xing or Road racing.
This is true for both my '96 Camaro and my '02 Z06.
__________________
Brian
'72 Corvette 454 4-spd Steel Cities Grey "MY DADZ"
'96 Z-28 396" + N2O 6-spd Arctic White "WHYT LIE"
10.78 @ 129mph W/ 1.52 short time
'02 ZO6 QuickSilver/Black "ZO SIC"
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