So yesterday I decided it was time to change the wheels off my car from my alloys to my winter crappy stock wheels. I'm in the garage, got all the stuff set up and some music going and I'm thinking I can get it all done in time to watch the Bears kickoff.

I start loosening the first lug and I notice it's hard as hell to turn it...a lot tougher than usual but eventually I get it to budge, no biggie. I go to the second lug and same thing. The damn thing just doesn't want to turn so I really lean into the handle and put all my strenth into it and SNAP....the shaft of the bolt just snapped clean off!!!!!!!! WTF?!!!! This is not a little wood screw or something...this is a steel wheel bolt. If it was all rusted out maybe I'd understand but these aren't that old.

I was really ____ed because the last time my tires were rotated was like 3 weeks ago and a Toyota dealership did it for me at my oil change. Either I'm hercules or something, or the Toyota tech just went to town on them with the Impact hydraulic wrench and they're on waaaaay too tight; I'm guessing the latter.

This morning I needed to skip the gym, take time I didn't have to go to the dealership and get it replaced. I was there for 3 hours because they had to break apart the calipers and everything. To make me even more ____ed off...the bolt is sheared off into my Motegi wheel lock, which I don't think I can even find around here. Grrrrrrr.

The good news is that they were pretty cool with it. When it was all done they came up with the invoice and were like, "Yeah, that'll be $100." Needless to say, homey doesn't play that. The replacement cost of the stud itself was like $7 and they were hitting me with the rest in labor. Ultimately we agreed that if they swap out my alloys for my winter wheels I'll pay 1/2 the labor. So I got the stud replaced and my wheels all swapped and about 3 hours of labor for next to nothing. I can live with that. It took them 15 minutes to do what would have taken me an hour and I don't have to deal with jacking my car up one wheel at a time now to get 'em swapped.

I miss working at a dealership on days like this.

 

that sucks!!!
Its their fault for over torque-ing from the tire rotation, I also have the same thing happen to me when I still have my Montero. I learned my lesson. Now i'm the only one who rotates my wheels.

 

they f'd up and you had to pay for it by wasting your time and spendin some $$$. i hate when any shop uses impact guns for tightening. it is always too tight. i always do mine by hand and torque with a torqe wrench.

 

Sigh. but there's nothing we can do about those impact-gun-loving mechanics...

 

I wonder if they would give a crap if we requested that they don't use impact guns.

The last time I was at bigOtires, I watched the guy hand torque my lugs in, but when I went onto take them off in my garage, they were torqued to 100ft lb anyway...

 

I will give them this though: Impact guns are a lot more fun to use than a lug wrench. Still, I'm excited to see how tight they're on when I go to swap my alloys back on in the spring.