metallman

Taking off my winter wheels today, and putting on the summer wheels. Should have been less than an hour. But as fate would have it, no. I thought one of the caps of the lug nut was spinning on the nut. Thankfully the lug was backed off about a 1/4 of an inch or so when it started to spin. When I popped off the center of the cap, the plan was to grab the lug nut with vice grips. Upon spinning and spinning without any progress I realized the problem. The stud is spinning in the hub. So my question(s) are as followed.

1. What is the best way to get the stud out of the wheel? Drill it out was my first thought, but my bits are not making much progress. Guessing that I'll need a cobalt bit to get it out. Is there any other way to get it out? I thought about taking the whole hub off, 4 bolts, but then realized that I would need to take off the brake line. I really don't want to have to bleed the brakes if I don't have to. Any suggestions?

2. I'm guessing this means that I need a new hub as well. I think it means that the hub is rounded off or out where the lug comes through. Guessing a new lug stud won't help by itself.

3. Am I missing anything? Any other thoughts would be awesome if they help.

Thanks to all!

lexo98

iTrader: (2)

The hub might be messed up but the splines on the wheel studs might have damaged so you might get lucky and a new wheel stud might press back in just fine. Getting it off kind of depends on what wheel you have on there. The less you care about the wheel the better. Difficulty depends on if the lugnut is cross threaded on or not. If it’s not cross threaded you might be able to remove all other lugnuts and put pressure on the wheel at an angle to hold the stud in place while using an impact gun

YoshiMan

I haven't had the chance to do axle work on my 350c yet, so I'm not sure if this is possible with the wheel on, but if you turn the steering to full lock, and rotate the wheel, then maybe you can get a pair of vice grips on the back of the stud behind the hub to hold it while you get the lug nut off the rest of the way?

metallman

Thanks to everyone who has responded or read this thread

FIXED

1st Attempt: I thought that if I could heat the hell out of the lug/stud I could possibly get the threads weak enough to simply knock out with a air hammer. So I heated it with MAP gas on and off for about 30 mins. I would heat the lug/stud for about 3 mins, then air hammer the crap out of it. I did this over and over. It sadly did not work. I stopped when the rim was too hot to touch by the tire. I didn't want to have a blow out, especially not right in my face. So I went to ...

2nd Attempt: I started to drill the stud out. I remembered that I had new Dewalt bits that I had forgot about earlier. I chose the 3/8 bit. Oh I should mention that I let everything cool down from the heat I applied on attempt #1. I was spraying the lug/stud/hole with penetrating oil, and drilling until the bit started to heat up/smoke. I then stopped, cooled everything down with the penetrating oil and started over. This probably took 5 to 10 mins. When I got about 1/2 way (that's a guess it was really hard to judge how deep it was with the tire and rotor on) I tried to use my air hammer again. The threads left go of the lug and flew out under the car. The tire was off (thank God). Next I examined the hub. It didn't look rounded out, it still had grooves. So I picked up a new lug and stud, and hoped that it would tighten down to 80 lbs. It did. No need for a hub.

So if you are having this problem that is what worked for me. Hopefully it will help someone out there one day. I do plan on waiting until the weekend and rechecking the torque on it. Well, all of the lugs for that matter.

mandyfig

That's the exact reason why the right torque needs to be applied all the time. Good that you got it out!

MikeFig82

iTrader: (13)

Also make sure the lug nut is threading in correctly. If you contine craking it will crossed thread. Mostly happens at yiur local tire place. They just pit stop the lug nut with air gun, and never checking if it's threading in correctly by hand first.

metallman

Believe it or not I was the last one that had the wheels off. Probably 2 weeks ago to paint my calipers. I torque them down to 80 foot lbs every time I put them back on.

So this is the 1st Toyota product I've ever owned. Upon some research I have discovered that the lugs are what center the wheel to the hub. In the past I've been a hand start the lug then zap it on with a impact on the lowest setting. However, doing that on this car has not gone well. The lugs tighten up, A LOT, but are only 1/2 way on. I never understood why until now. From now on I'm going to hand tighten until its snug, then use the impact on the lowest setting, then come back to torque them down. I'm sure this is my own doing, just based on my ignorance. Hopefully reading this will prevent others from doing any damage.

2013FSport

iTrader: (2)

Good job.
Keep an eye peeled to the inside of the rotor, for grease coming out. Also, when you say "air hammer", you're not referencing an air impact wrench, correct?

Bearings can take a lot of abuse, air hamairs can be damaging though.

The one time I had this happen on a truck with real frame, I placed a large block of wood between the tire and the frame and had a friend turn the wheel, essentially pulling on the stud to seat it, I sprayed the lug and wheel with 30W oil, hit it with an impact wrench and thankfully it spun off.

metallman

Thanks, I'm really happy it came off with too much fuss.

Also I used the air hammer on the stud, not the bearing itself. Hopefully it didn't cause any damage, but I will defiantly keep an eye out for any grease. Thanks for the heads up.

Oh yes, I mean a air hammer. This is the one I have

2013FSport

iTrader: (2)

Back in my repair days, those things are life savers when you need them. Can pop that stud out no problem! Still hell on bearings tho if not supported by something heavy against the flange.

mandyfig

Although I have an air compressor, I do have an electric torque driver I use for wheel work. Has served me right.

Armadous1

Lexus technican here. I want to comment on the correct way to deal with this issue. If the wheel is stuck meaning the stud is stripped out a hacksaw works great fitting in between it between the wheel and hub.

Also to remove a stud of the hub use a 3lb hammer at least and turn the hub before though to the point where the stud will come out and a new one can go on. There is only one place and generally it's towards the front of the car that the stud point is located. Hammer it out. Should t take more than 2 whacks with a 3lbhammer.

Finally use hub stud install tool to install a new stud stopping right at the base of the cap

2013FSport

iTrader: (2)

We will likely have to agree to disagree on this one as the ability to get a saw blade to the stud is nearly impossible, and although the there is plenty of surface area left to not cause wheel runout from a slice in the hub or the wheel, there is no way this would be my first attempt. Ever!

Options before doing this:
Apply pressure as suggested in post #8 above.
Drill the center and apply lubricant.
Use an impact wrench while applying pressure as suggested in post #8.
Use a center tapped mill bit and surface the lug nut flat (semi expensive bit), now punch and drill through the threads of each the stud and the nut (they might split right now from pressure). Hit the nut with with the impact wrench, in most cases the nut will split wide open and back off.

Although I am not currently in this field, I've seen and done some things outside of the box in my days in the ruts and I've seen plenty between body shops, frame shops, and a transmission shop which brought some seriously crazy stuff in. I'm sure there are plenty of other options for spinning studs I'm just saying, sneaking a saw in between the hub and the wheel would not be an options for me.

All of that said, I would never use a impact gun on a free hub not backed by something very heavy as the stress induced on a few *****/race of the bearings can lead to their demise ahead of schedule, let alone striking the stud with a hammer. Those are not choices I would make on my vehicle personally. I get it that 'others' have bills to pay and time is money. Most of us here are in it for the quick fix, but some are here for the fix at any cost. I get that too. Everyone needs to use the best information available to make the choice suitable to their situation.

Armadous1

I literally just did this 4 days ago. Customers car was towed from discount tire. They over torqued them. Works at our dealership when it can.