Topic: Anyone else snapping lots of wheel lug bolts at races?

We torque our wheel lug bolts to spec with a torque wrench each change, though it seems we have been breaking lots of them - typically 1 or 2 every second race. Always the front wheels in our FWD car.

I thought this may be because we were somehow overtightening them, though we have been very careful with the torque wrench, and have even replaced all of the lugs with new ones.

Wondering if this is somehow due to the intense heat since it's only the fronts in our FWD, and we change all 4 tires typically.

Also - anyone have experience / thoughts with swapping out lug bolts for lug nuts with an adapter such as these https://motorsporthardware.com/product/ … it-12x1-5/?

Re: Anyone else snapping lots of wheel lug bolts at races?

We have about 10 races on our motorsport hardware studs and have never had a failure.   Have you been re-torqueing when they are hot?  That's a no-no, as the studs can and will stretch when they are hot which will lead to failures.

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Re: Anyone else snapping lots of wheel lug bolts at races?

Passaable wrote:

We torque our wheel lug bolts to spec with a torque wrench each change, though it seems we have been breaking lots of them - typically 1 or 2 every second race. Always the front wheels in our FWD car.

I thought this may be because we were somehow overtightening them, though we have been very careful with the torque wrench, and have even replaced all of the lugs with new ones.

Wondering if this is somehow due to the intense heat since it's only the fronts in our FWD, and we change all 4 tires typically.

Also - anyone have experience / thoughts with swapping out lug bolts for lug nuts with an adapter such as these https://motorsporthardware.com/product/ … it-12x1-5/?


Possibly something with the wheel fit? Maybe insufficient starting torque? We upped ours to 90 cold, 82 hot (they can stretch if tightened hot)

RWD Infiniti with over 40 races (on this chassis) stock studs, stripped a couple over the years being in a rush, once got heat stroke @ Charlotte, forgot to check torque, they loosened @ hour 12 of 14 breaking 5 off the RF, otherwise solid, and mostly original.

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Re: Anyone else snapping lots of wheel lug bolts at races?

Every car that I've raced that came with wheel bolts I have installed studs and went to wheel nuts.
Get the stud kit you linked to. I used studs similar to those and had no issues. Do get extra studs and nuts.

Re: Anyone else snapping lots of wheel lug bolts at races?

Are you using any lube on them?
If so, you can be stretching them close to yield.
Then when hot, and loaded, they fail.

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Re: Anyone else snapping lots of wheel lug bolts at races?

never and we run a heavy F-body with 1.5" spacers. I guess you could try the longer heavy duty type like FWD drag racers use.

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Re: Anyone else snapping lots of wheel lug bolts at races?

I've never seen that, FWD or RWD. Are you running a wheel with a slightly wrong bolt pattern? Have you calibrated your torque wrench (I made a cheap calibration jig using one of those in-line torque wrenches at harbor freight)? That's really uncommon AFAIK, seems like there's an underlying issue, but if you never find the root of the problem you could probably make it go away with some ARP hardware.

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Re: Anyone else snapping lots of wheel lug bolts at races?

I thought you were supposed to be cautious of torquing too often. Only once per track day or maybe twice during 24 hour race. Im suprised that you are torquing every driver change and more suprised nobody is reacting to that. Maybe im the one in the wrong!

Re: Anyone else snapping lots of wheel lug bolts at races?

^ Didn't notice that the first time around... yeah that's really odd. I torque once and usually never torque again... sometimes will do it if we aren't sure if we remembered to torque. If they're actually able to squeeze more than a smidge of a turn each driver change something is definitely wrong.

We helped someone on the side of the road a couple months ago who had miata wheels installed on their honda.. both 4x100 but honda CB is slightly larger. Basically the PO/"mechanic" persuaded 54mm to 56mm, a couple of the wheels weren't fully seated to the hub but I'm sure you can edge your way onto the hub by driving-torqueing-driving-torqueing. They were pulled over because the studs were able to see shear and bending and the studs broke. Sounds oddly similar to the PO's issue.

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10

Re: Anyone else snapping lots of wheel lug bolts at races?

Do yourself a favor and replace them with ARP studs.

I did and never had a problem (over 20 races)