So over the past three months I've replaced 4 wheel studs on my drivers side front wheel and three on my passenger side front. I have no suspension mods and am riding factory wheels. I'm looking for some reasons as to why this would be happening. At first I thought all the factory studs were just weak but I just found a new replacement one broken today. At worst I'll go to the dealership next week, but wanted to see if you smart gentleman had any ideas first. I had an alignment done after the first few broke hoping that would fix it,but the alignment wasn't great. Could this be the problem? Need new front struts? Thanks!

 

If wheel studs keep breaking it usually means they were over tightened to begin with and not properly tourqed (spelling not my best)...lol

 

Always use a torque wrench when installing anything with bolts. Everything has a torque value. Lug nut torque specs for the VQ platform are 80 ft lbs. Torque in a star sequence.

 

I've never heard of anyone breaking studs on these cars or any other modern Nissans for that matter under normal situations.

Make sure you're tightening them in the proper pattern and using a torque wrench. I like to hand tighten my lugs with the tire off the ground, then go around once more with a ratchet in a star pattern to tighten them a bit more. I then drop the car to the ground a bit so that there is just enough weight on the tire to keep it from spinning as I torque them to spec. If you do this, you should never break studs.

Are you sure you're not cross-threading them? Are you using an impact gun?

I'd have to believe that it's something that you're doing wrong, unless the car is a multi-owner vehicle in which one of the previous owner replaced the lugs with subpar quality lugs for some reason.

 

You aren't running a slip-on spacer right? Completely stock suspension, brakes and rims?

Then i'd suspect over-torque is the issue.

The spec is 80 ft-lbs, and that's not a lot of force for the average guy with a tire iron to be able to put on them. When i install my wheels, i torque to 2 values. First i torque to 50 ft-lbs in a star pattern, and then to 80 ft-lbs. Have yet to break a stud

 

maybe op is big and doesn't kno his own strength

 

It's possibly. I've seen plenty of 200 lb guys throw their weight into the tire wrench when tightening the lugs.

For me, 80 ft lbs on my torque wrench can be accomplished with one hand. ( not a macho exaggeration either)