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I have never heard of anyone doing a thorough analysis of wheel studs. If one breaks off you simply replace it. However, how do you test the strength of wheel studs. especially when you have another mechanic work on it before you did and he rammed the lug nut on way to tightly with a torque wrench.
Please take a look at this video. It’s a the Truck in question is a bigger application. However the same principle is at play.
Also what is the likely hood of one stud breaking off as you drive ?
How accurate are torque sticks. I usally turn my gun down low. Snug up the lug nuts then I use the torque wrench.
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I have never seen a stud just brake off. Usually if they do, it happens when the wheel comes off due to the lug nuts not being put on tightly. Im sure it can happen, but seems like a slim chance. I hear torque sticks aren’t terribly accurate, but I am sure they work fine for lugs considering that most people dont worry about over-torquing anyways.
It can be very costly to check a stud properly by a metalurgist and they damage it by testing it, if your studs are questionable then just change them. I decide they have been overtorqued when the threads get deformed and the nut does not spin by hand on the open threads, then replace the stud and nut, many times you can see the seat for the nut on the rim is deformed also. As for torque bars, they are accurate, the problem is almost nobody reads the damn instructions, they limit the output of your impact gun by a percentage, you have to set you impact to make them accurate and keep rechecking the accuracy periodically. Personally I do not like the bars. Too many factors can change the accuracy, if you have lower air pressure before and after the compressor cycles, if you get wear in your gun, etc. Trusty torque wrench on every wheel nut is how I roll.
I’ve actually done this video on this topic.
That said, if you break a stud it may have nothing to do with the installation. I’ve seen issues with some vehicles, particularly American vehicles that are prone to breaking studs. As much as I hate to say this I feel it’s a materials issue as the main cause of this problem that I’ve seen is corrosion. Yes, if someone does not install a lug nut correctly it can also cause that but I’ve had first hand experience with putting on lug nuts properly only to have them break when removing them later. This would suggest that even if you do everything right they can still break sometimes. As for checking them, I think that would be prohibitively expensive IF you could find a place that could even do that work.
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