Changing out tires on my big horn and while torqueing down one of the rear tires the lug nuts wouldn't want to tighten. The wheels are stock and wheel is centered on the hub, target torque is 130lbs. Picked truck back up in the air and took off lug nuts and made sure everything was centered. Tried to torque down again and same issue, do these studs like to stretch or are these nuts really soft? I have done tires countless times in my shop but haven't run into this issue before. On one lug nut i knew better than to keep torqueing on it but ended up snapping the stud. And yes my wrench is in calibration. Thanks

 

Are the studs spinning??

 

No they were not spinning. I checked them all incase I had to replace more while I had the inner axle slid out to replace the one i snapped. I'm able to take a nut and thread it all the way on each stud without binding so I dont really see them as being stretched. I ran a thread restoring tap into each lug nut and there was some resistance in all of them. I put them all back on and firmly seated each lug nut in a cross pattern, I did not wild with the impact as I never do, just enough to snug them up, set vehicle down off the lift and tried to torque them again with the same issue, they just dont want to tighten as if the wheel isnt centered on the hub. Now I'm being gun shy on the torque wrench also. I did encounter this same issue on a 2019 mazda 3 a few weeks ago too, had to keep moving lug nuts around to other studs to get them to tighten. By the way I forgot to mention the lug nuts on the ram are stock and the miles on the truck are 32,000. Only have had to take the wheels off for me to put the winter tires on it so not to many times have these wheels been taken off

 

How do the threads in the lugnuts look? Maybe time for new ones??

What size truck? (weight rating?)

 

Threads looked ok after I got done sending the thread restoring tap through them, blew them out with 100psi. Truck is a 17 big horn 1500 crew cab 5.7. I do have a set of gorilla nuts on the way as of today as the damn clad nuts are starting to swell. Hoping that will be the fix. As I mentioned I had this issue on a 19 mazda 3, maybe these lugs nuts today are just being made worse and worse

 

Are you sure they are torqued to 130 ft/lbs? For the second gens, I think it was like somewhere around 80-95. 3/4 tons were 130.......

Ok, looked it up, that is indeed correct. Wow.....

 

I was trying to search around on a bunch of forums for this issue but couldn't find any specifically related to mine other than just reading how such and such garage over tightened the nuts causing the studs to break. I did see one post where someone took a brand new OEM stud and tested it for stretch, they found it started to stretch at 110lbs I believe it was and it caused a hairline fracture. I feel as if these wheel studs are prone to stretching alot that there would be more talk about about it but nothing that I could find

 

Hey brother.. let me ask you...u say the nut bottoms out right? So what happens then? Can u still wiggle the rim? Is the tire tight against the hub? Can't tell? Put something on floor beside it and spin the wheel. Is it wobbly? I've seen chunks of crap get stuck between rim and hub many times. Also have seen certain vehicles where the rim has to be on the right position if not the rim will hit the pin or plug or whatever and won't sit flat. Also..are you going from steel to mag rims? They nuts are different sometimes. If mag nuts they could be bottoming out on the stud but not contacting the steel rim yet. Or could poke right through the rim due to differing hole sizes in the rim. Anyhow....my 2 cents. Good luck friend.

 

I've got a '16 Mazda CX-5 and never had an issue with the lug nuts. I can't remember ever having this issue on undamaged studs. The only ones I remember were in the late 60's some Chrysler A body cars had really nice aluminum wheels that would crack around the lug holes and they wouldn't tighten.

 

I have a 2020 Ram 2500 and every time the wheels are removed and put back on studs break. They are junk and should be recalled.