98 i30
128k

Yesterday I had a flat, passenger rear. I replaced it with the spare No Problem - tightened the factory closed-end nuts with the wheel on the ground and the factory wrench.

Long story short - to replace with new tires, my “known quantity favorite trusted shop” had to chisel 4 out of 5 nuts off...the favored mechanic said “these Jap cars, I dont know...the lug nuts just go bad, it wasnt anything you did necessarily”

Guys, there is no way I cross-threaded or overtightened (with my body only) 4 out 5 nuts/studs. I wasnt in that much of a hurry, and everything felt real good...

WTF over. Is this some common malady that has heretofore escaped my notice on this board?

 

The steel wheel is thinner and perhaps the deeper threads in the lug nuts were damaged for one reason or another and then they ruined the studs.

 

Pics

 

Is the bore on the spare supposed to be bigger than the hub? Seem strange to me.

 

New rear OEM studs are on eBay or at the dealer. $2 to $3 each. Make sure you find where there's enough clearance to remove fully and bang them out with a hammer. To install new, get a heavy duty nut the thread size of the stud and add 4 or 5 thick washers and slowly pull the stud back into the hub until it's bedded if the studs got damaged.

I replaced all 10 in my front hubs and got all new acorn lug nuts. SOLID lug nuts. Amazon has 20 lug kits for reasonable.

And the OEM nuts with the studs shouldn't cause problems when threaded all the way on with no wheel. I've never had any problems when locking the rotors to the hubs when doing associated work.

And if you overtighten lug nuts, they are supposed to be softer than the studs and that's where the threads fail because it's easier to replace a lug nut than a stud. So maybe goosed 'em a bit much over the years and that flat was their last stand.