Definitely needs a new wheel, or put the spare on. Two things can cause this. When the studs snap off, it is typically because the nuts were over-tightened. That stresses the studs, and the friction surfaces between the wheel and nuts gets chewed up. Those surfaces have to be perfectly smooth and matched because it's the friction between them that keeps the nuts tight.
Insufficient tightness can also cause the nuts to slide around and tear up the holes. It looks like that is what happened here. With deformed holes, there is no way to expect the new nuts to remain tight.
We always use a click-type torque wrench when tightening lug nuts or bolts. Setting them to the specified torque insures a small person can get them off to change a tire, they will stay in place, and the threads won't be peeled or over-stressed. Any time you run into a nut that just spins and won't come off, it's that mechanic who gets blamed unfairly for doing the damage, but is actually the fault of the person who over-tightened the nuts at the previous service, often months or years ago. That is when the threads got peeled and torn loose. Now is when that damage is showing up when someone is trying to get them off.
Also, some people like to put grease on the threads to keep them from rusting tight. There's two things to watch out for. First, a real lot of what we refer to as "import" vehicles in the U.S., come with "anodized" studs and nuts or bolts. That anodizing is an electro-plated coating that is a lubricant, and it can be dissolved by most greases. That can render the coating ineffective and even make the nuts almost impossible to get loose the next time. When you see that light blue, light yellow, or silver coating, don't use any grease on the threads.
Second, when you do want to use a little grease, it must be applied very sparingly, then the nuts should be run on by hand. When air tools are used, that grease can build up ahead of the nut, then get flung out onto the friction surface. You don't want any grease on those surfaces because that impedes the nut's ability to stay tight.
Do not use any type of anti-seize compound on lug nuts, ever. Mechanics here might get one verbal warning if they're caught doing that, but a second offense will get them fired, both because it puts the customer's life in danger, and it makes the shop owner ripe for a lawsuit. Lug nuts will definitely work loose when they have anti-seize compound on them.
I don't have service information for your model, but I looked up the lug nut specs for a Pathfinder which might be similar.
Wheel nut .................... 133 Nm (14 kg-m, 98 ft. lbs.)
100 foot-pounds is typical for a smaller truck with steel wheels. Small cars commonly call for around 95 foot-pounds with steel wheels, and 85 - 90 foot-pounds with cast wheels. Larger trucks call for higher torque specs, but the highest is typically around 120 foot-pounds.
Here's a link to an article that will shed more light on this topic:
https://www.2carpros.com/articles/wheel-removal-and-re-installation
The first part is somewhat basic for competent do-it-yourselfers, but the second half has a lot of good information.
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Wednesday, June 5th, 2019 AT 4:31 PM
