Doing my annual service Fluid change etc. decided to do my brake service as well and get it all out of the way before summer. Upon completion and remounting of my wheels I came across a bit of a problem. I mount all four wheels and as I finished on the 4th Passenger front, I started to snug down the lug bolts with my breaker bar before torquing all 20 lug bolts down. As I worked around the last 5 lug bolts I started to snug one lug down and all of a sudden the breaker bar started to spin, as I pulled the wheel socket out; out comes HALF OF THE LUG BOLT. Now I have half the lug stuck in the hub and another on the floor. Come to find out the lugs I have are Crap Chinese imports. No offense to the Chinese but these lugs are junk! Not feeling safe I started to do some research and found a company local to me Otis Inc LA. (No Affiliation) I was able to purchase some RAD lug bolts German made quality parts. Now ill feel a little safer with quality lug bolts. Image Unavailable, Please Login
two questions - 1. how did you remove half a bolt? 2. how did you obtain the inferior bolts? How did you come to find out country of origin?
Well, I was holding up the lift for another project so I set the car aside and next weekend I have to extract the broken half with an EZ out, "going to be fun drilling that out" I actually purchased the car with the HRE wheels, the lugs were already on the car. My assumption the lugs were fine. I had spoken to a few people in the wheel and tire industry and explained my situation. Both had told me that the import Lug Bolts are chrome plated not Zinc plated. They had both told me that chrome plating is common amongst cheap lug bolts. They see this type of thing all the time. So as I ordered my new lug bolts from Otis Inc I mentioned the chrome plating and he agreed with the other dealers comments. Now I never remove or install my lugs on any of my cars with an impact gun. I always mount the wheel and snug them up and torque to spec 80-90ftlbs Removal is always with a breaker bar.
I am very glad it happened to you then and not while driving! The broken piece should come out easily as it wont be tight. Should unwind with a pin punch.
Some things. But then it would turn out they were designed in the US. As a friend who is an architect said "buying stuff from Hone Depot made in China is like renting landfill".
Check the first 3 digits of the bar code to find country of origin. Prefix List | Support | BarCodes & Identification | Products & Solutions | GS1 - The global language of business Today people ***** about China. In the 50's it was Japan.
Well my tire dealer has been in the business for 35 years. I trust what he has to say! I tend to listen to people who know more than me in their line of work. Could he be wrong? Absolutely, however I've showed the lug bolt to 2 separate people in the same field, one who's involved in the manufacturing process and all have given me the same conclusion. So yes to me and my opinion that is my "indisputable evidence" do you have to believe it no. So maybe I should change the title to "My opinion of a Garbage China Lug bolt" Chris.
90ftlbs however when the lug snapped it was less than 50ftlbs I never start at 90ft lbs. that's my final dry torque number. Since I've owned the car, the lugs have never seen an impact gun. Chris.
Glen, My thoughts exactly. I'm crossing my fingers it's an easy fix. Going to take care of it Wednesday so I'm back on the road for the weekend. Chris.
This is a great quote! OP - your lug bolt doesn't not look like the OEM version that came with my car. They should look like this. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Agreed for stock lug bolts, These are aftermarket wheels. The lug bolt needed for my wheels are M14 1.5 with a 27mm shank. Stock lug bolts are too long. Chris
90ftlbs is pretty high for a wheel bolt/nut?, but yes should be able to handle that easily. What is the factory torque since they made the thread in the hub? While my cars are not Ferraris, I only use 40ftlbs. Pete
Thanks. OP is not far away and very glad he caught this before driving the car! I wonder why Ferrari spec'ed it so tight, and BMW for that matter?. When you think about what a wheel nut/bolt has to do it is not much. The most important thing they have to do is stay tight. Most of the force on a wheel occurs at the bottom and is pushing the wheel into the hub ... Pete
A well known friend of mine in Indy, had a machine shop that did outstanding work - he could fabricate anything for a race car - then everybody bought from China and he had to close eventually - now they all wish he was back in business because of the **** produced in China Short version of the story but true
My 55 Cadillac has the driver side lugs bolts reverse thread...old school thinking that the rotation would unscrew the lug nuts...funny eh?
I agree with the sad Chinese Crap that fills the shelves here in the US. Cheap, but you end up replacing what you buy again and again. My 2001 360 OEM wheel bolts are chrome plated. I switched to some really nice titanium ones with Torx head. Very sweet. My OEM bolts are for sale.... full set, make offer and they could be yours. Buyer pays shipping.
I torque my Jeep srt bolts to 115 ftlbs. I torque pretty much everything to 115 ftlbs. You should see people try to open the milk jug after me.
