Broken wheel stud and lug nut.
 

This morning I discovered that the locking lug on my passenger rear wheel has, for lack of better word, exploded. It appears that the stud stressed so bad that it exploded taking the outer portion of my locking lug with it. The dealer had to order a new stud and will have to use some special tool to remove what remains of the lug and stud.

Thanks to all your complains, Nissan has put out a TSB for this http://www.the370z.com/images/servic.../NTB09-024.pdf.

Edited by AK370Z

Wtf? Did it kill any passing animals when it launched?

That's crazy!

Hmm, maybe I should consider take my locking lugs off and replacing with standard ones for the auto-x?

Do you know what they were torqued to?

Ouch. I had that happen on my Camaro one time when I was taking a right turn - happened on my front right wheel. Suddenly, the steering wheel was wobbling like crazy, and I was in "wtf" mode. Pull over, find the lugs missing, stud half gone, and the wheel VERY loose because the forces stripped the threads on the remaining studs. Getting those remaining lugs off was a PAIN.

Although...special tool? A press? Ironically, you can more than likely just pound them out with a hammer if its anything like my Camaros, and they come out SURPRISINGLY easy.

But, I guess it is a Nissan, and something may be different. Wouldnt hurt to let the dealer do it - they doing it for free I hope?

yea there shouldn't be any "special tool" to get that out, you just use a punch and hammer the thing out (if it doesn't just fall out) after you get the disc off the hub... odd that it happened tho, i'm wondering if it was overtorqued and was cracked and your autox stressed it to the point of breaking?

Joey let the dealer fix it. That's really strange though.

Yeah, there should be no reason they dont cover THAT under warranty, thats for sure.

The dealer is taking care of it under warranty. The locking lugs are two pieces and the steel core is still attached to the remainder of the stud. The steel piece is perfectly round, so it can't be twisted off or tapped through. The only way to get it off is to use a "nut cracker" and crack it in half. Then the stud must will have to be tapped out and be replaced.

I have to guess that the stud in question was already cracked (or at least, weakened from stress) by over-torquing. Had you or the dealer removed that wheel for any reason, or was it likely last tightened at the factory?

This goes with my conspiracy theory about the factory over-tightening everything :p I've only taken my front driver's wheel off so far (to remove the wheel well liner and reach through there while installing the headers), maybe I should go ahead and check them all like the paranoid fool that I am :icon17:

Not really sure how tight mine were, don't have a reverse torque wrench :) All my wheels have been off the car and are currently torqued to 80 ft/lb, although I usually go to 85 at the auto-x and I check them part way through the event to make sure nothing has moved due to heat expansion.

the locking lugs where installed at the dealer. If it was over torqued the dealer did it.

Think 1/2" drive impact wrench.

^No doubt

Joey did you get it fixed? One of mine just broke in half as well and I haven't even driven it in anger yet. I was just tightening it with the torque wrench.

Also all the locking nuts were loose compared to the others. They appear to be made of an inferior metal or they are too shallow causing the end of the stud to press against the top of the nut. They all need to go and should be replaced with regular nuts until proper lock nuts can be installed.

http://www.the370z.com/members/chris...ocking-nut.jpg

I'm still waiting on the dealer to call me me when the stud comes in. When you see a side by side it really is obvious that the locking lugs are inferior. I'll think I'll warn my dealer.

This is not the proper locking lug for your rim; it should be shouldered like the stock lug!

Did either of you see what kind of locking nuts you got? I ordered some 370Z locks, but got the G37s... I put them on, and they did seem to not quite tighten. I my end up removing them if you guys can confirm you got the same ones, but I'm 400 miles away from home right now for a friend's engagement party, and they've held up thus far.

Don't know about the locking nut but the regular wheel nut is the same as the G37. I had to buy some at the Infiniti dealer because the Nissan dealer didn't have any. I took off all the locking nuts and replaced them with regular. I used an extractor tool from the auto parts store to remove the sheered nut saving the stud.

If anyone has one of these cheap locking sets, remove them immediately and replace them with a premium set. The cheap ones will fail, it's only a matter of time (mine took 3 weeks).

I suspect the locking nuts I got were very generic, cheap crap that the dealer threw on.

Looks like I can join the club - just busted a couple of my locking lugs ends off. One side, I was checking tightness on my lugs, and barely turned the wrench 10-15 degrees and SNAP. The opposite side, I was just trying to take it OFF, and it snapped! What a hunk of ****....

My dealership is closed today, so I'll be going there tomorrow very early.

My dealership wouldn't fix it. They claimed they couldn't get the broken nut off and would need to drill the stud out. They were going to charge me over $100 to do this because they claim that they weren't the ones that installed the locking nuts, the car came from another dealer in trade. I had to go to Pep Boy's 100 yards from the dealership and buy the removal tool myself for $20. It came off easily with an impact wrench and the tool. I then spent another $40 at the Infiniti parts counter to get 5 more regular lug nuts, and I'll have to spend another $40 to get another set of quality locking nuts.

Luckly, my car wasnt a trade - it was sent to that dealer first. This one is going to be on their head lol. Although thats shitty the dealership wouldnt cover it...

Hey, just in case - can you post up what extractor you bought? And how did you make sure the wheel didnt get damaged?

I kept the locking ones from my 350 when I traded it, will they work on the 370?

Come on Nissan, this is getting annoying. Rotors get trashed, engine overheats and now locking nuts explode?

Im starting to feel a little unsafe.

I think the lugs, in this case at least, are a dealership thing though. Maybe ones they figured would just come right over from the 350?

Oh yeah, dont forget the moving drivers seat :)

Probably not, I think the studs are longer.

Here's a link to the ones I bought.

Except I got the 2 piece set instead of 3.

http://www.the370z.com/attachments/w...ut-remover.jpg

The socket hole did get a little scratched but that was partly because I was in a hurry. It's a fairly snug fit but you could probably sleeve it with some thin cardboard taped on.

The procedure was to set the impact wrench to reverse, but initially start threading it on by hand to get it nice and straight. Slowly start the impact wrench in reverse and let it thread itself on the nut. Once it bites apply full power to remove the nut. Once it is off you then have to separate the nut from the tool by grinding a flat into the sides of the nut and then locking it in a vice so you can use the impact wrench in forward mode to remove to separate them.

Hmmmm, interesting....because I dont think I have any threads to thread this tool ONTO...I think it was broken off right at the tip of both studs...

Or, wait, do you thread it onto the remaining lugnut?

Yes.

Interesting. Alrighty. I have some ideas to protect it, so, we'll see. Either way, I hope the dealer will do the job.

Unfortunately, there are other styles too that can be used to remove wheel locks. Wheel locks, at best, simply slow down the theft process a bit.

Oh, I know - I totally agree, too. I sometimes think they are a waste.

It's a very hard steel designed to cut its way into the smooth surface of the nut. Think of it kind of like a thread cutter die, only in reverse.

I'm hoping the dealer will do it for you, that way if they scratch the rim you can make them pay to refinish it.

Agreed.

I got mine fixed this morning. It took about an hour (they also had to program my second key FOB:takes a LONG time). No scuffs or scratches on the wheel, and a brand new stud; it's like nothing ever happened. I warned the dealer that this was not an isolated problem and they are considering removal of locking lugs on all their 370Zs.

I can't help wonder whether the dealer, the first go around, simply loosened and removed one of your lugs to be replaced by the locking lug versus properly loosening all the lugs and then applying the proper torque to each lug?

Glad to hear it's fixed!

okay guys so i have a question i was given a set of locking lugs by my dealer... are these the ones your talking about? http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/723/img0238o.th.jpghttp://img99.imageshack.us/img99/8995/img0239c.th.jpghttp://img294.imageshack.us/img294/9338/img0236.th.jpg
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/1558/img0237.th.jpg
here is pictures of the package they gave me

Yeah, those are the ones. I'm interested to know what wheels the other failures were on. Mine has the base 18's.

Mine was on the sport wheels, but the locks look like they were for a 350Z.

http://www.thezstore.com/store/graph...arge252025.jpg

Yes. And people the locking lugs must have the same profile, washer, depth, etc, as the other lug nuts. This wheel was designed with a lug/washer style nut. You will not get the proper torque on the rims if they are different style lug nuts.