6G Celicas Forums

So today I was just driving to meet my girlfriend. Everything was going good. Slowed down to take a turn at about 10 mph and all I see is my tire rolling into the SUV stopped at the light. Get out, see the huge gouge I left in the road and realize my lug nut studs got completely sheared off somehow. Worst part is that it banged up my fender pretty bad. Will maybe try to get pictures some time soon.

sounds like the lugs have been continuously over tightened. have you ever, torqued them properly?
seems a bit odd that they all came off, my one friend rolled on 3 per wheel for quite some time, until he junked the car.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did them properly. Everyone that was there said they had never seen it happen before. Not the first time I've had problems though. Same side I had a wheel bearing go out and ended snapping that axle. Other side I've had a wheel bearing go out. I just don't know if I am having bad luck with my car or what.

Sounds like a wheel bearing. Wheel bearings can cause your wheel to come off suddenly like you described. Did you have a shop put it in or did you DIY?

Wow, maybe you got the only made in china celica? It does seem like it's just bad luck though. I've owned over 20 different cars and worked on them for years but I've yet to see that exact problem before.

I'll be honest, I DIY'ed it. But someone that had done plenty of wheel bearings before changed it. So maybe that was my problem. I thought that it might have been the bearing too but it wasn't making any sound like it was when my bearing was bad. Also could a bad bearing make the lug nut studs shear completely off?

a bad bearing would not snap the studs, what snaps the studs oddly are loose lug nuts. loose lug nuts allow the weight of the wheel to push perpendicular against them since the clamping force is gone, they're not made for that kind of load and they break. check the hub of your wheel, is it caked with corrosion? that can cause you to loose torque as the soft aluminum corrosion compresses after the lugs are tightened. clean the hubs of aluminum wheels when they are dirty, always. its a pain in the ass but it has to be done. apply some brake grease in a light coat to prevent them from corroding more and sticking to the brake rotor hat.

also always torque and re-check your lug nuts later if hand torquing.

Alright, so I may just need to take care of it more. It sucks, but I guess everything is a learning experience. The part that upset me the most is how the fender now sits. My door only opens about 1/3 of the way. All in all I was happy it happened when it did. Could of been much worse if I was on the highway at 70 and my tire just decided to come off.

if you take the fender off the car you should be able to straighten it enough, albeit crudely for the door to open without damaging the door or fender more.

Will definitely try that next time I get some time.

How did you manage to press that wheel bearing in? Im assuming you use something along the lines of a press, jack or anything that has enough pressure to force that bad boy in there. I just pressed in a wheel bearing yesterday, Ive always DIY'ed everything i do from ball joints to wheel bearings. Did you have ANY warning signs that it was going? Like screeching, grinding, any noise that you heard while the wheel was spinning?

Ouch, well looking at the pic my first thought would be someone hit those lugs with an impact wrench for way too long last time it was in the shop. Either that or you hit a big pothole while tuning at high speed, 10 MPH wouldn't do that though.

I would check the other wheels to make sure they aren't over tightened and also take the rotors off and examine the broken studs... It almost looks like they got pulled clean through the hub. Did you manage to recover any of the studs that ended up in the street where this happened? You could see if they snapped from tensile or shearing forces at least.

sometimes my front driver fender will rub on my door but i can pop it out about 1/4 an inch and bang no problem

Whats the maximum torque load for the studs and how easy is it to replace a broken stud?

Jeez I've never seen something like this happen before... Hope you can get that fixed soon and get the celi back on the road!

but yourself a torque wrench. If i remembered corectly our celicas use 90 ft/lbs of torque

Sorry it's been a while for updates, just been super busy. I heard no sounds at all. Nothing out of the ordinary. And it baffles me even more because I had just done an hour long 75 mph drive earlier that day. Thought something would be more likely to happen at high speeds than barely moving to take a turn.




I got it fixed.... for the most part. Luckily I had a spare hub lying around.... wheel bearing and everything. Just took the old one off and put the new one on. The only reason I had it is because for some reason my wheel bearing on that same side decided to kill itself about a year ago, so I just figured I would get a spare just in case. For now the car is running fine. Just trying to drive as little as possible and take it easy when I do.