I was trying to take off all my wheels today to do some painting. and the front driver side wheel has 2 bolts that are stuck at the edge when I tried to loosen them, and one broke off. so theres 3 bad studs on one wheel.

Should I get extended studs with wheel spacer?

or should I replace them with oem studs, and get spacers with built in stud?

I am going to get spacers eventually, and I wanted to know which one was stronger, built in studs or extended studs.

Thanks!

 

Either type should be plenty strong, but the type you get will depend on how thick your spacer is. A 5mm or 10mm spacer only comes in the extended stud configuration, so you wouldn't have to buy new studs. A 15mm or higher has built in studs, so you'll need new stock studs.

 

OMG....I don't know how many times I've posted this advice....never let anyone install your wheels with an impact gun! It's not the lugs fault it's the tire change jockey doing his thing. Not only will impact guns ruin your lugs but at the same time it's warping your rotors. Always have your wheels installed with a torq wrench set at 85 LBS you won't have these issues!
Gary

 

hmm... I'll try calling the shop and let them know about what happened... lets see if they will replace them for free.

 

And get them to pay for the install of the new lugs. The parts are relatively cheap, but putting them in is kind of a PITA.

 

Yeah I am in the process of doing that, I ordered spacers from b2autodesign and he offered me free oem studs!

great guy! and sponsor to deal with.

I will make them a deal of supplying the studs, but they must install em. or I will take legal actions if needed... but I don't think it will have to go that way because I heard good things about them.

I will update this later this week.

I believe their are closed today (Labor Day).

Thanks everyone!

 

hmm... they said they use laser alignment and never removed the wheel.... is that how shops do it now?

 

I didn't know you'd had your alignment done. I thought it was new wheels or tires. I would have said they probably didn't take them off. When was the last time you know the wheels were off the car? Not that you can do anything about the studs at this point, but it would be nice to know.

Laser alignments aren't really cutting edge. In fact, they're pretty standard. The cutting edge are the high definition setups like Hunter makes. I've had several mechanics tell me to find a shop that uses Hunter equipment when I need to get an alignment.

 

I've seen alignment done since the mid 50s and have never witnessed them ever removing the wheels. I did alignment back in the 70s on Bear racks never took a wheel off just for alignment and I know they don't on todays modern alignment racks. Your wheel stud issue goes back to a shop where you either had brakes replaced or installed new tires. Time to quit blaming everyone and just get new OEM studs and make sure from now on they're installed using a torq wrench like I said before. It's not that big a deal, all shops know they should be installed correctly....just ask!
Gary