Ditching Wheel Lug Bolts for Lug Nuts and Studs

Many European cars come with wheel bolts. A common modification is to replace the wheel bolts with more common wheel studs and nuts.

Personally I prefer lug bolts to nuts. But I’m the odd one. Most people prefer nuts! #humblemechanic #vw #shorts
~~~~ Recommended Tools ~~~~

~~~~ Playlists ~~~~

~~~~ Be sure to follow me at ~~~~

disclaimer:
The content of this video is available for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for the professional advice of a mechanic who has personally inspected your vehicle, nor does it create a relationship of any kind between the Humble Mechanic and you. Every situation may be different, and the Humble Mechanic does not make any warranties, whether express or implied, as to the accuracy, fitness, or applicability of the information or automotive parts portrayed in this video to any project and makes no guarantee of results. The Humble Mechanic and any sponsors of this video will not be liable for any damages related to personal injury, property damage or loss of any kind that may result from the use or reliance on this video and/or any automotive parts represented in this video. You are using the information and automotive parts portrayed in this video solely at your own risk.

[Krauser]

Of all the legitimate gripes with euro cars, this one never seemed to bother me. I change my wheels and tires out for the winter every year and rotate them myself as well and I actually prefer the bolts to studs. Sliding the wheel off of studs against the threads irks me lol

[SECX]

I prefer bolts too. Mainly because it's easier to clean the hub before mounting a wheel.

[dangoldstein]

I'm with you. 20 years working on euros bolts by far. I track my car and have seen studs fail. had my bolts come loose and not had the damage the you see with studs!

[BowtieForLife]

Absolutely hate lug nut studs. And today I had to pull the strut wheel caliper rotor and spindle because a lug lock got stuck and couldn't get it off. So had to torch is from the back.

[DouglettDD]

If you ever worked on something with large wheels you’d be thanking your lucky stars for those studs

[AiOinc]

Don't worry, my Yugo uses bolts too. You're not alone

[raiderjohn]

I prefer bolts, one big advantage is that if your wheel hub face ever changes thickness or if you end up using spacers you just swap bolts. With studs you'd be removing hub assemblies, then pressing out the studs with a hydraulic press, then you gotta press in new studs. Another great thing for bolts is if one snaps you can take out the shaft by hand, so no presses no matter what.

[zacklangley]

Typically in higher performance applications, bolts will be thrown out in favor of studs and nuts. (See 6.0 ford powerstroke for example) due to the clamping force so things don’t flex as much. For a normal daily driver, it really doesn’t matter too much though. I’d prefer the wheel bolts instead of this type of stud and nut setup since there’s nothing on the other end preventing it from backing out besides thread locker and torque, as opposed to a flange.

[miketeeveedub]

My Mk1 Jetta was my first experience with wheel bolts. I'll admit I was irked at first when taking wheels on and off. Lining up the brake rotor and hub was kinda a pain when lifting a wheel and trying to thread a bolt. But I bought a wheel bolt spud like Charles showed in the video and I haven't looked back since. I'm indifferent to them now.

That said; studs are typically better since force is transmitted to the shaft of the stud instead of the hub threads like with a bolt. I imagine if you do a lot of tracking racing with a high horsepower vehicle they may be useful. But for the street with a mildly tuned car I'd just stick with bolts. VW, Porsche, BMW and Mercedes have used them forever. I imagine they know what they were doing.

Thanks for the video Charles - always a pleasure to see a video from you! Cheers!

[dogpy]

The main reason I’ve always liked the lugs and not bolts is it’s just easier to line up to swap tires, I swap them for every service and season

[TwisNinja]

the thing i like about wheel bolts is fast brake swaps you can use the old rotor to pry the pads almost all the way open no matter lining thickness allowing replacement of pads and rotors without caliper or bracket removal

[bijdikh]

I get why lug bolts are annoying to some people, but I actually prefer them a lot more than lug nuts. The biggest plus to lug bolts is how easy it is to get a stuck wheel bearing off. You literally just put a smaller bolt through one of the holes in the wheel bearing and a nut behind it, and tighten the nut and bolt and it prys the wheel bearing off. You can technically do the same with other wheel bearings, but you need an angle grinder and a drill to drill out the stud. My only issue with lug bolts in that if you strip one, they're expensive...

[StarHunter]

Love my studs, the bolts are a pain in the ass with extra steps, especially with a heavy wheel/tire combo.

[FoolOfATuque]

The only benefit to studs/nuts versus bolts is the tire shop is less likely to cross thread the bolts. Tire shops have done this to 3 European cars that I’ve owned.

[posiomoot]

Murica seems to be a place where everything has to be special.



And with spacial i mean just dumb

[davidwright]

Thank you for describing the differances on the lug nuts I found this out years ago ina. Chevelle that I lost a wheel in

[vex]

I love the bolts. It makes cleaning the hubs so much easier when doing brakes, don’t need to fiddle with sandpaper between the hub center and the lug studs like on normal cars.

[LynxStarAuto]

Charles! Don't fall for the peer pressure.

[gmctech]

Been a GM Tech all my life but have and always will only drive VW cars... I too actually prefer the wheel bolt as I've had less issues with seized bolts than corroded, stripped and/or seized nuts along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean up here in canuckistan.

[funnypranker]

When you snap or strip a wheel stud easy to replace but if you snap off a lug bolt and it’s stuck or you strip out the bolt hole you are fucked and need to order a new hub assembly. I prefer the studs over the bolts but after snapping a wheel bolt on my bmw I backed off on the impact power which solved my problem. The threads are very durable and can take a lot of abuse which I like but I’ll still take a stud over a bolt especially when you are on the side of a road