-moved from intro section-

My son's mechanic says he needs to replace the F and R driver side hubs because the lugs are "stripped". Talked to them and they said it has evidence of being torqued to tight and need to be replaced. Sounds like hogwash to me. How would they even know? If they are talking about the lug caps being stretched out (by someone using an impact wrench for example), that just means I need to remove the caps and/or replace the lug nuts. I've done this before and no problem... Were talking about $1400 here. I certainly would never pay them to do it as it is now my project. But I wouldn't want to do it myself unless warranted. Can anyone comment?

I'd appreciate any thoughts....

 

Sounds suspicious if it is all four. I did have one lug on the front that stripped and I could not get off. I found it right after I had the tires replaced and took it back to the tire store. Clearly they hammered it with the impact gun and spun the stud in the hub. They fixed it but did have to replace the hub. I would simply get my lug wrench out and see if you can loosen the lug nuts yourself.

 

Some one saw your son coming, time to find a new mechanic.
Yes, our lug nut covers do get twisted requiring a replacement set.
PM me your number and let me walk you thru what to do and save that $1400 for something really needed.

 

Curious, can you replace the studs on these wheel hubs?

 

Nope- just one side. So only two. But still ,,,

Mike- having the vehicle shipped to me. Will then take a closer look and see if my suspicions are confirmed. If so, will reach out if I can figure out the PM feature in this site. I'm still new to the site so not sure if I'm allowed to PM.. ??

 

Well, you could ask what, exactly, the evidence is.
They could be pulling a scam.
On the other hand it's certainly conceivable that a tire shop could over torque the lug nuts, all on one side, then realize they were doing it and turn down the setting on their impact wrench and not tell the owner.
The lug nut torque on my F-250 is up to 175ftlb. The DII is 103ftlb (assuming your son also has a DII). If they'd just done a truck before and forgot to change the wrench setting your son's DII studs could definitely be deformed depending on what class material they are, which I don't know.

 

Just talked to my son and I think that's essentially what happened. He said the tire shop marked the "stripped" lug nuts with yellow X's and told him the lugs were "stripped". When he went to the LR shop they are saying OK, if they are stripped, we need to replace the hubs. Sounds like a "who's on first" routine.

If this was the only thing wrong I would have it out with the LR mechanic and get to the bottom of this, but since there is a bunch of other work that needs to be done and my son is fed up and wants to dump the car, I will just ship it home and figure it out myself.

I have a feeling the lug covers were deformed by a gorilla with an air wrench and the LR shop is happy to go along with the story that they are "stripped" so they can do a bigger job.

The thing that seems very fishy is if the lugs are just spinning and the threads were stripped off, then they would simply fall out. The fact that they seem to spin but are really stuck on, tells me the cover is spinning and the lug is holding tight.

Unless I'm missing something... We'll see when I get he car in a week or so.

 

Threads can be dangerously deformed yet still hold to a certain extent.
That's more detail. Yes, most likely the covers are trashed. Yet it's still possible that the studs are spinning if they are pressed in (like on a D1) and the splines are stripped.

Yes, definitely come back to this thread and post what you find.

 

Some guys over on disco web posted about replacing the lug studs with used ones from a hub with bad bearings. Another option would be to replace the hub with a used unit that is still good. I think they go for about $50. (if memory is working today).

 

If the studs really are damaged I think I would just buy a new or used hub, install it and be done with it. Mucking around with trying to re-furb a bad stud with parts cannibalized from and old hub that was not designed to be dismantled just seems too -as the English would say- "dodgy" for me. I'd rather just spend the money and know it's right and move on.

And yes as was mentioned- if the studs are pressed fit into the hub (which I suspect they could be) from behind and are held from spinning with longitudinal splines, and are held from pulling through with a "head": that could cause the stud to be captured and spinning.

And in this case- what is "stripped" is not the threads at all, but the splines.

That could be it.
Can anyone tell me if that's how these hubs are constructed?

If that's whats happened: can anyone suggest a way to get the lug nut off, so I can remove the wheel, so I can remove the hub and replace or repair?