A search on this got me to ---> https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/gene...ut-stud-4.html. It seems these guys were not very happy.


What do I have to do to change the wheel bolts (a.k.a. lugs)? Is it something like this:

1) Remove knuckle and hub.

2) Use a press to remove old bolts and press in new bolts?

Does the wheel bearing have to be removed? If so, should it be replaced with a new one? What parts are not reusable (for example: the axle nut)? Should I replace with ARP or upgraded bolts instead of OEM? Does removing the knuckle mean that I will need an alignment?



As Al says in Scent of a Woman, "I'm in the dark here."

Help me.

 

Do not take off anything beyond what you would for changing the brakes.
- Caliper, rotor

When you see the broken one, take a hammer(or rubber mallet) and hit the broken one, itll fly out. Mine did last weekend after 140k miles of being on there.

Rotate the hub around until you get it to the opening on the front of the hub(facing the headlights) take and grind or cut a little bit of the head of the stud off until it can slide in, if you dont like that the cut is there, use a washer to help the stud stay in.

No removing of anything beyond what you would for changing front brakes, replaced wheel stud and youre done.

As far as the stud type, thats up to you, I went to Autozone and picked up an OEM replacement and popped it in.Took me about 30 mins to do it.

I didn't go through the process of trying to save the OEM wheel bolt, I just pitched it and bought another one.

All in all, the job cost, 4 ish bucks and some dirty hands and time on my garage floor.

 

Tapping the bolts out and forcing new ones in seems to have worked for you. However, I would like to know what the correct way to do this is and what level of difficulty the job would be.

 

Best way is a hydraulic press- press the old studs out and the new ones in. There are almost certainly hundreds of combo parts/repair shops in the L.A. area that would do this for you quickly at a low cost. Shops that do a high volume of tire & after-market wheel sales & installation probably run into the need to change wheel studs to suit various non-stock wheel designs fairly often.

 

Thanks, Trisk.

So, just disassemble the knuckle, remove the hub, take it to someone who has a press, replace the wheel bolts, reassemble the hub and knuckle, and get a new alignment. Is that the extent of the job? The book says that the pinch bolts holding the strut cannot be reused, so I guess I have to replace them, along with the axle nut. And the bearing has to come out. I guess I should replace the bearing as well. That needs to be "pressed" in, right? And greased as well?

Is that about it then?

 

Didnt force the new one in, I used the age old bigger nut, then lugnut and tightened til it was even with the other 3.

I did end up cutting the portion of the brake dust cover in the front to help it slide in easier. Its been on for about 500 miles.

I just didn't feel like going through all that extra work since my other car is down at the moment, and the Fit is my only running car. I didn't like the idea of the cut head of the wheel stud, but its on, holding strong and doing fine.

 

Listen to Katsumoto. He is giving you great much CHEAPER advice.

 

And if you crack your hub with a badly placed hammer strike, loudbang/claymore will happily pay you for the results of his bad advice. Hydraulic press is the best /safest method.

 

The advice here was pretty solid and should help you.

Don't worry about the corner of the stud being ground off. We've been doing that for years at the shop and have never had a problem. We've saved our customers some money too by not having to follow factory procedures and pulling everything apart.

Another trick we use to avoid hammering on the hub, which can transfer force through the wheel bearing and potentially damage it, is to use the same press we use for ball joints to press the studs out and back in. It doesn't work on all cars because of the space between the hub and knuckle but we use it whenever we can.

I don't recommend putting a washer between the stud and the hub either as that will change the installed length that the stud that will stick out past the hub and may also not allow the knurled ridges on the stud to completely lock into the hub. It would depend on how long the knurled ridges are and how thick the washer is. Either way, you don't need the washer.

Think of how much force would be required to pull the hardened stud through the hub. That would be much greater force than the wheel could take and you would be in a lot more trouble than just having the corner of a stud ground off if you figured out how to get that much force applied to your wheel!

 

Putting a washer ON THE INNER SIDE behind the lugnut to draw the new lug into place is an approved method and has been used by professional mechanics for 50 years or so as long as I can remember. One simply REMOVES the washer after the new stud is drawn in. And since the lugs are just a slight interference FIT they can be driven out with much less force than simply driving puts on them.

And most people simply use a punch on the stud and normal people don't miss hitting THE PUNCH the chance of hitting the hub is REMOTE at best unless you are a midget troll and are having a rough time lifting the hammer.

And since the hub is forged I seriously doubt ANYONE on this site is strong enough to crack a hub with a hammer strike.

 

I have always hammered a stud out, and a new one in.

NEVER had cracking issues. If the hub were to crack from a simple hammer blow, Id push the rest of the car off a cliff. Only a cheap piece of shit hub would crack under a simple hammer blow

 

You're right about a washer to pull a stud in being used by mechanics.

I was referring to "if you dont like that the cut is there, use a washer to help the stud stay in". I interpreted that as putting a washer on the stud before installing it because the edge was ground. Did I read that wrong? I read it several times to make sure I understood it.

I have personally used that method many times and even put grease on both sides of the washer to reduce friction and the minimize the torque required to pull the stud in. Unfortunatly sometimes it caused damage and as technicians we dont like to damage what we are repairing.

I have seen the tapered end of lighter duty lug nuts deform from the force applied to it while pulling in a stud. After experiencing that as a professional technician many times, I attempted to find a larger nut that the conical end of the nut would fit into. Worked better in some ways and didnt damage the cone end most of the time but it deformed the taper on the hardest ones to pull in. Still not a good option. Then i took a large nut and put it on a lathe and tapered the inside of the nut to match a lug nut. Then I smoothed it and polished it. That was the least damaging way I ever found to pull a stud in but not perfect. I always go for perfect.

There was still one problem. I put a torque wrench on the nuts that were pulling the stud in to test how many ft lbs were needed to pull them in. The results weren't pretty. It was usually more than the spec on tightening it which is rated based on the lug diameter, thread pitch and hardness.

I always felt we change a stud because its broken or has damaged threads and then we use more torque tightening the lug nut to pull the stud in than we are allowed to use to tighten the wheel and not damage the new threads or new lugs. Doesnt make sense to do that.

Instead of removing the hubs I came up with the idea of using the press and it works flawlessly when it fits. There is no hammering forced transferred through the bearing and no excess force being appled to the threads to pull the stud into place.

50 years ago when the lug nut method was first started the lug nuts were solid steel and lasted forever. They didnt wear out or stretch the threads nearly as much when overtightened by impact guns. I remember as a kid cranking those nuts down with the impact on the highest setting and never breaking one or stripping them. Today we hand torque lug nuts to minimize hub deformation, rotor warping and damaged threads.

There used to be a tool that was made to pull studs in. It was a few pieces that would fit over the lug and used a full length nut with a flat end to draw the stud in. i have looked for that tool since and never found it for sale. probably not even made anymore. It even had a ridge on the back side of the nut. After drawing it in, you flipped the nut and tightened it with the ridge facing the hub so it would drive metal towards the stud to ensure it would never spin in the hub.

I know I am new here but I am a member on many forums and always help everyone. Cars are my life, my profession and my passion. I approach servicing them with science, physics, logic and persistance. I just want to use my lifetime of professional eperience to help others that havent spent their life doing that and need a short cut to get the right information from someone who has. Give me a chance.

Im always happy to help.

 

2010: Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I always like to read about various ways of tackling a specific problem, especially if there is a shortcut involved.

 

I need further explanation on this. Perhaps pics.

Thanks!