How upset would you be, and are miata wheel studs press in?
 

WARNING: LONG POST!@!!!

So yesterday, I decided to do something nice for my wife. She wanted to drive the miata for the last 2 days of school before summer. (She's a middle school teacher), Since she drives 35-40 miles each way, I was not comfortable with her driving on my bald ass tires.

So, I went and bought 4 new tires from our local wholesale tire place.. I put 3 of them in the pass seat, and 1 in the trunk.. I love my car.

I also stopped and renew my tags, because they were expired, and that's how I roll.

Normally, I would take the wheels off the car, and take them across the street to the general repair shop and have them mount and balance them. However, our shop was busy, no lift was available, I decided to drop the car off and have use their lift.

I get a call about 20 minutes in, for me to come over..

The guy used an impact on my OEM wheel locks, and broke one off.. Not the key, the lock.. SO they can't get the wheel off. His resolution was to offer to fix it, at his normal hourly rate, plus materials. I told him in much nicer terms to get fucked.

So he charges me for the 3 tires he did mount, and sends me on my way..

So we spent an hour last night drilling the stud out of the car.... almost all the way through..

My question is; I don't have the wheel off yet, so how hard is it to replace the stud once I have it off?

stud replacement is an easy task. just push it through, and tighten a lugnut down over the stud.... presses it right in :)

cool.

He didn't have a wheel lock removal kit?

One avenue you could've pursued would be to find an expendable socket and hammer it over the broken lock, I've done that one before, sure beats drilling.

It's completely bogus that he expected YOU to pay for it, I'd be upset. But for the record, I used an impact on every wheel lock I ever came across (working as a tire tech) and never broke one, only had to forcibly remove them when the owner had misplaced their lock key.

I had one wheel lock different than the rest :dunno:

We welded a bolt onto the wheel lock and used an air impact to spin the bolt/wheel lock out.

To Re&Re the stud....

Get the lug off .... then you can BFH the stud out.... Wack from the front, to drive it out. You might have to shoot it with some penitrating oil to be safe. Also.... you'll probably need to bend the splash guard out of the way to get it out (I did).

Install new stud, from the back of the hub, then, use an Open lug to pull the stud tight to the hub.

It took me about an hour to get mine in and out, without previous knowledge... from start to finish.

Dave,

That's the thing, the way it sheared off, there was no way to hammer a socket over it.. the only thing left was a little piece on one side, and the acorn part of the nut, which sits flush with the wheel.

You're not supposed to use an impact on lug nuts at all, let alone a wheel lock. That's not to say that I've never done it, but I can rest assured that if we as a company broke a customer's car like this, it'd be fixed before the customer ever knew about it.

Well on the bright side, if someone tries to steal your wheels with those exploding locks, they're fucked.

That's bullshit about the other shop. I screwed up your car. I'll fix it at $75/whatever an hour.


Frank

that's a pretty good business model...i screw up shit all the time....nobody's paying me.

dude i had my oe wheel locks airchissled off at sears when i had no key no stud damage came from it but i did have to get 4 new lug nuts. I am sorry you got fucked man.

Lug nuts are all I ever used an impact on.. I guess maybe your shop doesn't see the volume of cars a busy tire shop would?

Granted, when re-installing lugs you must start the thread with your hands and at least use a torque stick, if not run them down with the gun (loosely) and finish with the torque wrench.

most of the time you can get just one lug on the car, and break the bolt using the leverage of the wheel. That's what thieves do.

Man, what an asshole. "Yeah, I broke your car while I was working on it, but just for you I'll fix it for the special rate of . . . my standard rate. And I may not even break anything else I'll charge you for while I do it!" I would've come unglued. My car wouldn't leave that shop till it was fixed under my supervision for zero dollars.