Torque and Chrome

How long do lug nuts last?

I brought my 05 Mustang in for regular service, and while I was there I asked them if instead of rotating my tires, if they can swap them and put my winter tires on. They said it wouldn't be a problem. Later I received a call saying that my car wouldn't be ready for a couple days as the lug nut "broke", which it did as I went down to check it out, and that I wouldn't be able to drive until its fixed. So some how while they were trying to swap my wheels, the lug nut "snapped" from natural causes, which is what I was told. I've never had a lug nut snap on me, and I know for a fact that torque wrenches are made to avoid this problem. Now I'm stuck with a rental car until they can figure out what to do without scratching my rims... which might I add, they already damaged while trying to take the wheel off. So is it their fault or what?! Until they figure how to get my wheel off, I'm driving a rental focus, I better not be charged! When I say the lug nut actually snapped, I really mean it! Ford even told me its the locking nut to prevent my rims from being stolen, its the nut thats shaped differently than all the other ones. It snapped so far down that they were unable to remove it. So they are bringing in specialists in to figure out how to get it off, they said they have never experienced something like this before... guess there is a first to everything. And as for the torque wrench, I meant to say it helps speed up time on rim changes, but I have been told by my nephew which is an engineer that they prevent stupid things like this happening! Guess I'll just have to wait till they fix it or give me a new ride haha

Public Comments

1. thats super rare..IMO the guy overtighten the nut and broke it....human error...not part failure
2. The stud snapped, not the lug nut. Seen it happen many times. Happened to me once. I was actually replacing a stud that had snapped and when I was putting the wheel back on I started to tighten one of the other lug nuts - by hand - and the stud snapped with no effort at all. I wasn't anywhere near even being fully torqued yet. And this was on a Ford no less. Torque wrenches are not "made to avoid this problem". They are made to tighten a nut to a specific load. But I don't think that is your problem. It sounds to me like what happened is one of your lug nuts was cross-threaded the last time your wheels were installed and when they tried to remove it the stud broke. Why they can't get the wheel off in this case is beyond me. Either way, you can't brake a stud or nut coming off unless someone previously screwed up putting it on.