can shop air tool strip lugnut thread?

[08sienna]

here's the story.
I purchased 4 tires for 04 corolla from Tirerack and mounted them in my local Sears auto center. Balancing was horrible, so I went back for re-balancing for the 2nd time.
After 1.5 hr of waiting, the service manager took me to my car and showed me how one of my lugnut was rotating forever without any torque-clicking. What he insisted is that my lugnuts were wrong part (????) so even though they applied spec'ed torque, threads were all stripped. What I am suspecting is that they somehow stripped all 20 of my good lugnuts. I am the first owner of this car and I never changed them - I don't even need to mention this because they were fine during the last 2 visits to the same store. Who is right and who is wrong? During this visit, they were able to pull out my wheels, balanced them, put back, now lugnuts are all stripped. My car is still in their garage and I am stuck (until I pay for new lugnuts and so on)

 

[brelandt]

See this all the time at my shop. The threads get a little nicked up and workers are there to get the wheel off and on as fast as they can.
You can feel the threads getting harder when you put the tire back on but they gun it down anyway just to get you back out the door. Next time you are in bam the nut is stuck and you have to gun the [censored] out of them and snap the stud.
It's not really the gun but the guy using the gun. Ought to be on a low setting with a torque limiting extension when it's gun back down the torques to 76 for your toyota.

 

[MaximusD]

Call the district manager.

 

[08sienna]

Thanks for the reply. Do you have any idea how I can ask them to fix my car free of charge (without raising voice)

 

[08sienna]

yes I asked for the number and I am going to call tomorrow morning. I hope he does not repeat the same thing.. (the service manager, then the store manager repeated the same [censored] all day...)

 

[bdcardinal]

Heres the thing, when you brought it into them the lugnuts were fine. They have been the last place to touch those lugnuts the past few times. Sounds like they ruined them all and are on the hook to replace them.

 

[Dieseldoctor]

yes he stripped them.. saying they were wrong part was a cop out obviously imo. The torque is usually between 70-80 maybe 100 on very outer limit. Most shop air tools of any good measure like mac/snapon even IR can generate 600-780 ft/trq enough to strip any lug nut they is no way a torque stick or other torque control device could have stripped one that's why they make them and i use them to prevent this.. it's quite simple they bungled up and finding excuse cover shotty work..

My advice would be try the manager if he gives u [censored] ( the key is remaining calm explaining and give your side of story explaining that if they had used correct tools and dynamics involved to explain your case.) then go somewhere else have it fixed send them a bill and call BBB and consider this a learning lesson u could been rolling down the interstate and find out all of your lugnuts had been stripped while taking a high speed corner.

 

[DemoFly]

When the guys at my local midas stripped 2 of the wheel studs and lugs on my old SL2 (Probably the cause of previous mechanics or previous owners over the years, I bought the car with 130k miles) they payed for them no questions asked.

You're the victim of a 2bit mechanic and an air gun.

You sure it's the lugnuts and not the wheel stud losing it's seat from the hub?

 

[The_Eric]

Need more info.

Are the rims stock?

Are the lug nuts the originals, or of original design?

Are you sure that the shoulders on the studs aren't rounded off?

Are ALL nuts/studs spinning freely?

Do the lug nuts come off/can you see any damage to the threads?

 

[Texan4Life]

yeah I'm pretty sure its their fault. last time you went to them everything was fine, show up again and all your lugs a fed up?

someone got happy with the impact wrench

lulz the wrong part who are they kidding?

I'd be heated.

 

[exranger06]

Even IF they were the wrong lug nuts, I'm assuming Sears is the one who installed the lug nuts the last time? So no matter what, they're the ones who are responsible.

 

[Kestas]

Lug nuts are about a buck apiece. It's probably not worth the hassle of proving who is wrong. But it doesn't hurt to put their feet to the fire and let them know they screwed up.

 

[Astro14]

They're not the wrong part - they were jammed on with an impact...good techs will thread a few threads by hand to ensure they're not cross-threaded...

If they are cross threaded, the air wrench has the torque to tighten them.

Once.

Then they're toast and you have to replace them. I've even had a bit of trapped gr it start to eat at the threads and repeated tighten/loosen kills the threads by increased galling, so I've replaced them for that...

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Astro14
They're not the wrong part - they were jammed on with an impact...good techs will thread a few threads by hand to ensure they're not cross-threaded...


Exactly. There's nothing wrong with the judicious use of an impact wrench. However, when I did the taxi fleet maintenance, I always finger tightened every lug nut until it was almost all the way on. If I couldn't do that, there was obviously a problem, and the impact wrench isn't the solution.

 

[rpn453]

Originally Posted By: Kestas
Lug nuts are about a buck apiece. It's probably not worth the hassle of proving who is wrong. But it doesn't hurt to put their feet to the fire and let them know they screwed up.


If that's the case, yes, buy your own lugnuts, avoid that shop, and preferably only take the wheels into any tire shop when you need tires or balancing.

But the studs are probably wrecked too. I wouldn't want that shop touching those either, but there is a lot more expense involved if you don't want to change them yourself.

 

[heyu]

I got so fed up with in store installations ,(stripped lugs,,,Gobs of anti seize ,,,broken -cracked stepped on or rubber hammered hubcaps ),,,sears,sams club, I know everyone cannot install tires at home but For the last 20yrs i take my rims in separate and install myself at home ,,
Investing in a DeWalt battery impact sure makes at home installation a breeze

 

[HWEaton]

They most likely didn't strip the lug nuts, per se. It sounds more like they stretched the threads on the wheel lugs with excessive torque. I'm willin to bet they ruined all the wheel lugs and the lug nuts. I mean really? Torque sticks are not that expensive for a place like Sears. I have two sets and can torque from 50ft lbs. to 150ft lbs for passenger/light truck with them. It's not rocket science.

 

[eljefino]

This is more or less what your lug studs look like. The part down near the head goes into the back of your hub and is a press fit, the lines parallel to the length of the stud basically cause a friction fit. To remove a stud you hammer it back the way it came. To install a new one, you put it in gently then use a lug nut to pull it through, in the process seating the "splines".

It's not clear to me if the bunged the threads or if somehow they jacked the splines so the friction is not there and the studs just spin. IMO the latter is unlikely but conceivably possible.

It doesn't matter though; as said above they touched it last and you should be pressing for a rental car for your inconvenience.

Rock auto has 100 lug nuts for $20 in plain steel. Sears probably can get this sort of deal, so it's not worth them fighting over.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Quote:
To install a new one, you put it in gently then use a lug nut to pull it through, in the process seating the "splines".


NO, NEVER! NEVER seat a lug stud this way!

 

[Carbon]

What is your objection to using a lug nut to pull the new stud in? You would want to put some washers into place to make sure the nut does not run out of threads. Many like to freeze the stud first. But isn't it normal to use a lug nut to pull the stud into place?