Broken wheel lug (picture)
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Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 831
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From: Bellingham, WA
That oval area near the top looks like a fatigue crack to me. That comes from repeated stress cycling, not from overtorquing. Have you ever run that wheel with loose (maybe not completely loose) lugnuts?
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Registered User
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 3,491
Likes: 1
From: Rochester, NY
Link just worked for me...
A few possibilities:
1) It was damaged some time in the past. Some monkey (you? dealer? other shop?) put WAY too much torque on that bolt.
2) Manufacturing flaw. Not common but certainly possible.
3) Extreme over-torquing in this one case. Working out shouldn't be the problem - use of a 2 foot lever, cranking it down as hard as possible would be. 80 lbs.-ft. with the Honda-supplied tool is easily possible, even for my wife (she may have to wail on the tool while you wouldn't).
A reasonably good way to tighten is to pay attention to how much pressure is needed to remove the nut. This, of course, assumes that it was properly torqued in the first place. Tire Rack sells an ok torque wrench for $30 (you should be able to find something comparable locally).
I had a dealer use an impact wrench with no control tighten down the bolts on a Fiat X1/9 years ago (when it was new) that required me to take a wrench and kick the SOB to get them off. Most folks now have impact wrenches or accessories that limit the torque for wheel installation. Of course, they need to be properly used to be useful...
A few possibilities:
1) It was damaged some time in the past. Some monkey (you? dealer? other shop?) put WAY too much torque on that bolt.
2) Manufacturing flaw. Not common but certainly possible.
3) Extreme over-torquing in this one case. Working out shouldn't be the problem - use of a 2 foot lever, cranking it down as hard as possible would be. 80 lbs.-ft. with the Honda-supplied tool is easily possible, even for my wife (she may have to wail on the tool while you wouldn't).
A reasonably good way to tighten is to pay attention to how much pressure is needed to remove the nut. This, of course, assumes that it was properly torqued in the first place. Tire Rack sells an ok torque wrench for $30 (you should be able to find something comparable locally).
I had a dealer use an impact wrench with no control tighten down the bolts on a Fiat X1/9 years ago (when it was new) that required me to take a wrench and kick the SOB to get them off. Most folks now have impact wrenches or accessories that limit the torque for wheel installation. Of course, they need to be properly used to be useful...
Registered User
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,960
Likes: 2
From: Transporter
It's Sooooo important to never overtorque studs. Never use lube, always clean the stud and the nut with brake cleaner spray before installing.
Often bolts are case hardened so that they are reasonably ductile in the center. This way they aren't brittle and fail all of the sudden without warning. Instead, they start to yield under too much axial force. This yielding results in the pitch of the threads being stretched out. When you try to remove the nut, it binds on the bolt because the thread pitch is different. Then when you keep turning to try to remove the nut, the ductile center of the bolt fails in torsion somewhere along it's length.
If it was me, I would consider replacing all the studs if it's possible somebody overtorqued them all.
Often bolts are case hardened so that they are reasonably ductile in the center. This way they aren't brittle and fail all of the sudden without warning. Instead, they start to yield under too much axial force. This yielding results in the pitch of the threads being stretched out. When you try to remove the nut, it binds on the bolt because the thread pitch is different. Then when you keep turning to try to remove the nut, the ductile center of the bolt fails in torsion somewhere along it's length.
If it was me, I would consider replacing all the studs if it's possible somebody overtorqued them all.