Broken lug stud help

DropTopDon

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Yesterday my brother and I took both my jeeps to a jeep show about an hour and a half away to find potential buyers for it and on the way his driver side wheel blew off. Luckily it got trapped in the wheel well and didn’t fly down the road. When we stopped to check what had happened, we saw that all the lug nuts had flown off and one of the studs was broken.

1. Is it okay for him to drive the TJ home with 4/5 studs?

2. He used an impact gun to put the wheels on two days before. Could the reason the stud broke be because it was too tight? Or maybe too loose?
 
Yesterday my brother and I took both my jeeps to a jeep show about an hour and a half away to find potential buyers for it and on the way his driver side wheel blew off. Luckily it got trapped in the wheel well and didn’t fly down the road. When we stopped to check what had happened, we saw that all the lug nuts had flown off and one of the studs was broken.

1. Is it okay for him to drive the TJ home with 4/5 studs?

2. He used an impact gun to put the wheels on two days before. Could the reason the stud broke be because it was too tight? Or maybe too loose?
what did he torque the nuts to? bet he forgot
 
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Yesterday my brother and I took both my jeeps to a jeep show about an hour and a half away to find potential buyers for it and on the way his driver side wheel blew off. Luckily it got trapped in the wheel well and didn’t fly down the road. When we stopped to check what had happened, we saw that all the lug nuts had flown off and one of the studs was broken.

1. Is it okay for him to drive the TJ home with 4/5 studs?
A short trip would be fine in normal conditions. This likely isn't one of those.
2. He used an impact gun to put the wheels on two days before. Could the reason the stud broke be because it was too tight? Or maybe too loose?
We don't know if they were over-torqued which compromised the remaining 4 or if they weren't tight enough. Normally, using 4 for a short distance is fine, without knowing the condition of the remaining 4, there really is no way to give a good answer.

I would however, check the ones on the other rims just to make sure he didn't ruin all of them or any more of them.
 
A short trip would be fine in normal conditions. This likely isn't one of those.

We don't know if they were over-torqued which compromised the remaining 4 or if they weren't tight enough. Normally, using 4 for a short distance is fine, without knowing the condition of the remaining 4, there really is no way to give a good answer.

I would however, check the ones on the other rims just to make sure he didn't ruin all of them or any more of them.
The trip back is roughly 100 miles. I’ll personally check all the studs and make sure they aren’t stretched or loose/tight.

My Milwaukee 750 lbs impact will only tighten to 35lbs. just to put that out there
I just got the M18 1/2 Milwaukee impact and that’s what he used. So you’re saying they were probably loose?
 
I am
The trip back is roughly 100 miles. I’ll personally check all the studs and make sure they aren’t stretched or loose/tight.


I just got the M18 1/2 Milwaukee impact and that’s what he used. So you’re saying they were probably loose?
I am going with he over torqued it. Both my air and Dewalt impact will exceed 110 ftlbs really quick if I am not careful. Just check it and get a tire shop to double check and fix the stud. You really don't want your own tires to pass you up on the freeway at 70 MPH. I had one choose it's own path back in the day at 45 mph and that was bad enough.
 
The trip back is roughly 100 miles. I’ll personally check all the studs and make sure they aren’t stretched or loose/tight.


I just got the M18 1/2 Milwaukee impact and that’s what he used. So you’re saying they were probably loose?
There are at least 10 different versions of a Milwaukee 1/2" impact ranging from your lug nuts are going to fall off to don't even try it unless you want to ruin them.
 
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I use an impact to take them off and zip them back on snug, then torque wrench for final tightening. Different lug sizes have different torque specs. I do take my 1/2" impact on trips to quickly change a flat on my tow vehicle or trailer if neccessary. Prob should start taking my torque wrench too.
 
I’m betting the wheel wasn’t sitting flush on the hub when he tightened the lug nuts. Once y’all put a few miles on it the wheel wobbled on the hub and the lugs nuts started to back off. When he got down to one nut holding the wheel that stud broke
 
Made it home alright. Thank you to everyone for the advice. Will make sure lugs are always torqued to spec from this point forward. Gonna fix the lug stud tomorrow and give it a deeper inspection hopefully it won’t be too bad of a job.
 
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Would you guys recommend I replace the entire unit bearing or just the single lug stud? Reading around some people say it’s easier to just replace it whole.
 
If the bearing is good replace all five studs and lug nuts.
I agree, their cheap and if your replacing one it's easy enough to do the other 4 at the same time. in your situation you probably stressed the others and there's no sense having to worry about cracked, bad threads or the others being bent. It's not worth taking a chance of having a wheel depart the vehicle at 70MPH going down the highway for a few dollars !
 
Given that one broke, you need to check the rest of them for any stretching which would show he over torqued them.
How do you check for stretch? Seems that since we would only be looking for a slight deformity simply measuring length would not account for how some might seat slightly differently on the axle flange. Only thing I can think of is measure diameter and assume as it stretches it gets thinner.

Edited for clarity.