I’ve got a 2005 Chevy Malibu Classic. I went to get new tires a few days ago and the place I went to said they wouldn’t put new ones on because three of my lug nuts are cross threaded. I took one of the bad ones off and showed the nut and stud to someone else and they said it was just over torqued. I don’t know what either of these things would look like because I’m a total car noob so I need some other opinions.
I’ve got three that I assume look like this out of five total on my front passenger tire. I intend on getting them fixed in a few days (going to a different tire place). I would still like to be able to drive to work, which is a 10min journey where the speed limit doesn’t go higher than 40mph.
So what actually is the issue with my studs and nuts, and will I be okay driving for a few days until I can get them fixed?
Can’t speak to the safety issues, but it’s usually a pretty easy job for a shop to replace those studs with new ones. Suggest you focus on getting that done rather than whether work-a-rounds are possible.
It’s not exactly a workaround, more like it’s friday night and the tire places near me are closed on the weekends and I need to get to work the next couple days at least.
You don’t have to use a tire store for this, any auto repair shop should be able to do it. Nobody here is going to be able to say for certain whether it is safe to use temporarily at 40 mph or any other speed just via an internet description. If you are unsure, suggest to seek out alternative transportation until the problem is solved. Like I say, this isn’t a difficult job for a shop. Many of the more experienced diy’ers would do this themselves in their driveway.
You’re probably at work already. You probably did what i would have done. Screwed them back on and if at all possible put the 2 good ones at 10 and 2 oclock. (all on one wheel)
If they were not all on the same wheel then i wouldn’t worry about it until I had time to have them fixed. I wonder who cross threaded them.
Repeated over-tightening of the lug nuts causes the tips of the lug nuts to crush down on the studs, this is what is shown in the pictures. Sometimes it is not result of the last time the lug nuts were tightened but from repeated over tightening over the years.
You could even swap good lug nuts from the other wheel to lessen the blow. Mark them so you know which to replace. Swing by my house and I’ll take a look and fix you up.
Odds are that all of them are like this and I wouldn’t count on a full replacement as being that cheap. Some of those that appear to be good should be looked at very closely.
