FSM’s always seem to specify the hardest way to do things.
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Deviation from factory SOP is common in the aftermarket but the details are usually kept away from public view. In dealing with studs in hubs I have cut the damaged stud off flush with the hub and driven out what remained and then measured and allowed for the length necessary for the nut to be fully covered by the stud and cut it and installed it using a standard nut with a washer and adequate lubrication to pull the splines into the hub. Another trick is to drill a hole in the rotor splash plate. Over the years I have seen that other shops have done similar modifications.
Rod Knox
In dealing with studs in hubs I have cut the damaged stud off flush with the hub and driven out what remained and then measured and allowed for the length necessary for the nut to be fully covered by the stud and cut it and installed it using a standard nut with a washer and adequate lubrication to pull the splines into the hub. Another trick is to drill a hole in the rotor splash plate.
Cool. That coulda saved me a lotta trouble a time or two.
As to lubricating lug bolts, I’ve always done it and will probably continue to, since I don’t like the way un-lubed ones tend to act upon removal after several years. It’s hard for me to see how lubed threads are that relevant to tightening, compared to the friction of the nut against the wheel itself (which I don’t lube).
I’m almost certain I’ve never overtightened a lug nut, and in fact have never had any problem at all in this area.
yikes, instead of 2 inches of water, now I’m drowning in an ocean… however, from the good points made, I’m inclined to use dry fasteners for this… I can also confirm some shops over-torque the lugs. I imagine this is because they use torque-sticks, or just have to go as fast as possible. I also don’t like the idea of excess torque doing things to rotor, studs, etc.
and after searching just on the Car Talk site for “lug anti seize”, I can see that this is not untravelled territory - so thanks for reiterating all your points.
@autoowner. "…I don’t like the way unlined ones tend to act upon removal after several years…“
There you have it in a nutshell. If you don’t rotate your tires or have a car you only use on weekends or…what ever you don’t do to remove wheel rims yearly, you will definitely find a reason to use anti size compounds. That’s why we have a difference of opinion. When I rotated my tires myself, spring and fall over winters and off again, there was never ever any problems removing the lug nuts I had properly torqued. Decades ago when I put tires on till they rotted or wore out and never removed the wheels regularly, sure, we had problems. It depends on the " the plan”.
Too bad it isn’t always so clear cut. The lugs I have the most problems on are swapped 2x year to exchange winter/summer tires/wheels. This car sits a lot. Non-use, in my experience, promotes rust. Also, the quality of the lug nuts has a bearing on it.
I have a different spin for all. Firstly, I use anti-seize. I got tired for busted studs, or stuck nuts.
Here’s what has never been said. I’ve worked in the power plants where these topics are routine. Every stud size has torque limits. Well, there are 2 charts! One is for dry threads, which is a higher value. This will be the value given in our repair manuals and such. Two is lubricated threads, which is a lower value. More torque is going to the tensioning action when there is less resistance in the rotation movement. Therefore, less torque is needed to achieve the same stud tension. The real engineering answer is to use the lubricated thread torque charts, and not the same dry thread torque charts. One would need to Google that based on type of lubes, or whatever is readily available. I don’t recall it being a simple deduction over dry values.
GM has torque setting based on flats rotated after a low torque value. This is actually the most accurate method, and most aggravating. So much rotation equates to so much axial displacement. This results in so much elastic stretch in the stud, and presto. The amount of force to turn a nut/bolt loosely translates to how much axial stretch is occurring. Resistance to rotation is always variable. Big ole nuts on steam turbines even have several smaller bolts through the sides of the nut, same direction as main stud. They drive through the nuts and against the casing. Thus these act like miniature screw jacks ‘lifting’ the big nut away from the seat. This stretches the stud. Stretch tensions this way can be achieved with simple hand driving torque wrenches. Otherwise, the traditional method of turning these big ole nuts requires a “Hytorque” with hydraulic drive pressure the same as jaws of life cutters. Resistance to rotation is the enemy.
And lastly, I set my small air impact driver to max like always, lubed studs, and pull the trigger. I do have three step settings. I do the skip stud on low torque first to get it evenly seated. Then I go a couple passes before going for force on final round, skipping studs. I have never to this day had any problems going on, or getting off with same cheap air impact gun. I have also used plain motor oil when anti-seize wasn’t available. I also place a thin coating on the mating surface between the rim and hub to maintain that true and flat surface from corroding to a not-true surface.
Proof is in my pudding.
I’ve always put a very small amount of moly-lube on the stud threads when reinstalling the wheels. I started doing that when I lived in Colorado, for the reason @oldtimer11 above says, to prevent problems when removing the wheel later. I never had any problem once I started doing that. Some of the experts here though say this isn’t a good idea as it affects the torque reading when tightening the bolts, and the better way is to just keep the studs clean as possible.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem caused by using the lube. I do admit one time I got a loose wheel problem caused by loose lug nuts, but I’m fairly certain that was because I failed to tighten that particular wheel during a driveway wheel rotation.
What I like to do with my 89 Mustang GT is with the car on the ground, break one lug nut loose and back it out all the way then re-torque it, then follow with the others one at a time. I do this once a year and this way I know if get a flat all 4 lug nuts will remove and not getting stuck with one that wants to give you a hard time on the side of the road.; I do not put many miles on this car. Its been a year now and only 1500 miles on the trip odometer. Time for its annual oil change in December.
I recommend any, ahem, older person to have a cheater bar in the trunk.
Re “those, ahem, older people,” it has often seemed worthwhile to loosen the lug nuts and re-tighten them with a 4-way lug wrench for car owners who appeared might have trouble changing a flat. And even those marginally loose lug nuts coated with anti-seize never resulted in a wheel becoming loose. I kept a few 4-ways at the shop and sold them to at my cost, <$5 as I recall, to customers who were concerned with dealing with a flat when alone.
Another idea – this is what I do – is keep a hefty breaker bar and the correct size socket in the trunk along with the jack. A plain-jane breaker bar isn’t a very expensive tool these days, so I think it makes sense to have one in the trunk as a dedicated as a lug wrench. I’ve been able to remove stuck lug nuts with mine, helping people I see along the side of the road with a flat tire, when they couldn’t remove it with their own lug wrench. Sometimes I had to jump up and down on it to get a stuck-on-the-side-of-the-road car’s lug nuts off though. With the socket, it holds to the nut ok even when jumping on it. (Although I’m not saying this is a recommended procedure … lol). Another advantage, a breaker bar & socket doesn’t take as much trunk room as a 4-way.
"I recommend that any…older person have a cheater bar…"
I resemble that remark !
With some cars that have been prone at times to wheels sticking to hubs, I have used anti-seize lightly on the hub faces.
Probably not that it matters, but I’ve never torqued any lugs on any of my cars over the years tighter than 40-50 Ft. Lbs. Never been an issue with coming loose and never a problem removing them.
Looks like bumping old posts is a Foie Pas. So now I’m a marked user - I’ll just say that I put AS on the wheel studs (right side - there was a Dodge Dart puzzler about this…), tightened the aluminum wheel nuts, and they backed out of torque after driving. Carefully used solvent to clean threads and torque them dry. Not using antiseize on wheel studs again, unless something comes up.
I live in Minnesota, where they pretty much dredge up the Dead Sea every winter and slather it on the roads, and I’ve never had this problem.
Now, all of my vehicles have close-end lug nuts, and I imagine open-end lug nuts might have a bit more of a problem with this. You can get caps for those, however.
Maybe even a faux pas…
;-]
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I have warned people not to use antiseize on the lugnuts, lugbolts, and studs, because you can very quickly bottleneck them, when you try to torque them . . . and then it can get very ugly
One of my colleagues even uses it for brake jobs, on the sliders, pins, etc.
IMO it’s pretty much guaranteed that caliper won’t slide correctly, and you can expect uneven brake pad wear
But he claims to know everything better than me, so maybe he’ll learn the hard way 
Luckily I’m no longer in the business of repairing cars @db4690. I would hate to be dealing with all the comebacks due to broken studs and stripped lug nuts due to using anti-seize on them. Maybe I got out of the business just in the nick of time. But most of my business was fleet vehicles and the managers haven’t mentioned any problems with me and I occasionally see them all. And over the years I have installed tens of thousands of wheels with A-S on the studs. Wow! Lucky me.
Oldtimer, imagine if they used the same extreme torque on studs with antiseize on them?
I don’t recommend antiseize on studs for all the reasons already mentioned, but I had a pickup that had wheels the center holes of which would marry themselves to the center hub (solid rear axle, drum brakes) after they got older and had a bit of corrosion on them. The holes were almost a “press fit”, and the back surfaces of the wheels would stick to the brake drums. On those wheels I used antiseize on the spot on the back of the wheels where they contacted the drums and on the wheel center hole. It really helped. Without it the wheel was a bear to get off. I do recommend it for those specific problems.
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