[cmiovino]

I've had 3 Imprezas, one of which is a WRX. All are old. All never had any lug nut stud problems and I even swapped wheels on the WRX at autocross events for about 2-3 years consistently about 20 times a year. I reckon the WRX has at least 200+ on/offs with the wheels over the last 20 years.

However with my 2017 BRZ, within about 15 times changing the wheels, to my surprise, one time a rear lug was taking way too much pressure to remove and I knew it was crossthreaded or something. A few of the others were leaving shaving and didn't feel right either.

No idea what it is with the BRZ studs. They're not the same material as other Subaru studs are for sure. I'm extra careful, don't overtighten, always thread on by hand first, and use low settings to slowly get them on with an impact. I've done this method with all cars, mostly Subarus, and never had an issue.

Switched to ARP stock-ish legth studs with Gorilla lug nuts and haven't looked back. They thread together great.

I will say those acorn Subaru lug nuts on just about every Subaru in the last 25 years tend to be... eh, just not great. I have a set of TireRack basic ones I got used probably 10 years ago and use those over the multiple sets of stock ones I have for my WRX. I didn't use the stock ones on the ARP studs at all as a precaution. Not to mention they're kind of a pain in the butt to handle and thread on because they're not long enough IMO.