(Near) Catastrophic failure of H&R Spacer Studs. Causes?

[rmr]

I run 15mm spacers up front and 20mm H&R spacers on my rears. Installed about a year ago with plenty of autocross and track days on them with no issues over the summer.

Decided to keep the 20mm on the rears during winter and had my winter tires installed by a local tire shop for convenience a few months back, although I do confess I did not go back to have them rechecked after install.

When turning left out of my house something felt funny at the right rear corner, a bit of a rotational noise like a tire was poorly balanced. I made it a few hundred meters to a grocery store parking lot and discovered 3 studs snapped clean off (one looks like its been gone for a while and rusty) and 2 freshly gone. Safe to say only one felt actually "tight" and the second remaining one was loose as well.

Perhaps most concerning is that a shop uninstalled all the spacers for me and it appears one of the broken studs is partially backed out of the spacer (the rusty, first stud to have broken) perhaps as a result of the shop's uninstalling them but certainly very concerning. No obvious damage to the spacer itself anywhere.

I was very lucky to not lose a wheel or have something happen on the highway. I will think twice about running these spacers again and certainly be the only one torquing anything down on my car in the future.

What would have caused the original (and other) studs to snap off like that, taking the lugs with them and everything? Is this a matter of stud failure or perhaps over or under torquing the lugs? Any suggestions?

[murdoc]

Where did you get those wheels? The shitty condition of the lug seat tapers might have caused them to not stay tightened. Especially if they were just zipped on with an impact wrench by a shop and not cleaned before hand.

Or they might not have been tightened properly to begin with.

[8RZ]

I can't tell from the pic but are those lug nuts the "acorn" style? That's what is needed with those wheels.

[imnotsureaboutbrz]

if you are going to be using spacers, which scare me... at least use a torque wrench to secure them. I looks like chronic and repeated over tighening.

[VIP BRZ]

wow, those studs broke so strangely. I've only ever seen them sheer clean across like they were cut. Not Gnawed off

[swarb]

h&r is likely to use high quality or at least rated studs with a specific torque value.
Most likely the shop used an impact gun.
I have never seen a non-performance shop use a torque wrench(only) on the studs, maybe after an impact gun, but the damage has already been done.

Also the seat of the lug nut isn't flat with all the rust on there. It's so rusted I can't even tell if it is a conical seat or a ball seat.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by swarb

h&r is likely to use high quality or at least rated studs with a specific torque value.
Most likely the shop used an impact gun.
I have never seen a non-performance shop use a torque wrench(only) on the studs, maybe after an impact gun, but the damage has already been done.

Also the seat of the lug nut isn't flat with all the rust on there. It's so rusted I can't even tell if it is a conical seat or a ball seat.

All of this^.

[mav1178]

The closed ended lug nut is also a potential cause, since the stud may have bottomed out in one.

If I ever run extended studs, I will never use closed ended lug nuts because I cannot tell if the bottom of the lug nut has any contaminants or debris that may cause the threads to be damaged.

-alex

[guybo]

Property torquing spacers is kind of a pain the tookus. Install spacers, torque; install wheels, torque. Drive 100 miles, remove wheels, retorque spacers; install wheels, torque. 100 miles, retorque wheels.

What I see above was someone being lazy and not properly torquing even once, let alone 5 times.

Yes, I mean the OP being the lazy one.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by mav1178

The closed ended lug nut is also a potential cause, since the stud may have bottomed out in one.

If I ever run extended studs, I will never use closed ended lug nuts because I cannot tell if the bottom of the lug nut has any contaminants or debris that may cause the threads to be damaged.

-alex

DAMN I didn't catch that it was closed. That explains so much. I couldn't figure out how the wheel could be so rusted where the nut should have seated. They weren't seated since they bottomed out in the studs. Over torque against the closed end nut weakened the stud and then since the wheel wasn't tight a hard bump or a bit of shift in a turn sheared them right off.

[mav1178]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

DAMN I didn't catch that it was closed. That explains so much. I couldn't figure out how the wheel could be so rusted where the nut should have seated. They weren't seated since they bottomed out in the studs. Over torque against the closed end nut weakened the stud and then since the wheel wasn't tight a hard bump or a bit of shift in a turn sheared them right off.

Yeah, or OP was lucky with the summer wheels + closed lugs in that it was able to seat properly, but switching to winter wheels caused the stud to be too long and the lugs bottomed out.

I did this once, many many years ago, with Nismo studs and wheel spacers and improperly torqued lugs. The same effect (wobbly wheels) caused the studs to be sheared off in the same manner.

The shop may have used a torque wrench properly, but they probably did not check that the wheel itself was seated properly on the brake rotor.

-alex

[caschnd1]

That wheel looks cracked between 3 of the studs (the ones at the bottom of the photo). I'd toss it.


-Craig

[caschnd1]

Looks to me like the wheel bottomed out on the studs securing the spacer to the hub. Look at the stress marks in the wheel (circled in red). That could cause the stud failure you are seeing.

[Kratzogram]

Originally Posted by caschnd1

Looks to me like the wheel bottomed out on the studs securing the spacer to the hub. Look at the stress marks in the wheel (circled in red). That could cause the stud failure you are seeing.

So is it safe to think that if you are going to run spacers over winter you should just run the OEM rim?