Wheel lugs are breaking off on my 4runner

Took the 4Runner in to the dealership for normal oil change and tire rotation.. 2022 4Runner..

Left the dealership in a loaner..(2022 rav4)

Most of my lugs on the rear were cracked at the base and a couple actually broke off when they were removing the lug nuts.. I had them inspect all the lugs front and rear and yup they are now replacing all of them.. my Toyota dealership has never seen anything like this.. and my 4Runner is a year old..

the 4Runner is gonna be at the dealership for a few days because there are not enough lugs in the local area and they have to get them from California at the depot.. (not a common fail item so each dealership in my area only Carries a couple on hand and I’ve got 24 bad lugs).., and no they dont use an impact to install... they use a torque wrench to tighten ..

 

Aftermarket wheels with wrong lug nuts allowing wheel movement? Some fucked up spacer mod? Or serious serious over torquing. Or a bad run of parts but that's highly unlikely.

 

factory tires and wheels.. torqued to factory specs.

 

Wondering if you get your lug nuts torque checked and retightened a second time after installing wheels, something our mechanic does on alloy wheels after rotating tires, installing new tires etc.

 

Was this your first tire rotation? To have that kind of systemic failure across the board, feels like operator error on an impact driver. As mentioned, not a common thing to happen to even one lug.

If you haven’t had a tire rotation, I’d still suspect whoever installed them last (though a manufacturer mistake is less likely). Hoping it’s not an issue with a part we all share.

 

@universalfrost - who installed the Pro wheels on your SR5? If you had the stock SR5 wheels, this would really be a mystery; but since the wheels were changed somewhere in the process, that seems to be the most likely place something was done to cause this issue. If the lug nuts were so tight that studs broke when attempting to remove them, it sure seems the Pro wheels would also need to be checked for damage.

 

No matter how bad you went at it with an impact you would never be able to screw all of the fasteners up. I'm guessing you mean the studs and not the lug nuts. Sounds like a material defect to me. Maybe a bad heat treat or tempering.

 

i said the lugs.. never said the nuts.. . no wheel damage... already inspected them when i was made aware of the issue... my 22 is at the 35K mile mark and had normal rotation every 5k miles with normal service (oil, filter, etc) ...

and yes at this point we are all assuming defect... hence the reason they are replacing all of them... and Toyota didn't bat an eye when they reported it yesterday

 

factory installed by dealership

 

Sure seems to point to a bad batch of studs from the factory. Weird for Toyota. Anything's possible I guess. Glad you didn't have a wheel fall off on the road.

 

I've had this happen to me with a rented Landcruiser in Australia. By the time we got to the edge of town to meet the rental company wrecker, we had one stud holding the left rear on. By this time, we were only going 20 mph down the highway. All the wheels lost at least one stud.

 

The chances of 24 wheel studs being defective all on 1 truck at the same time is highly unlikely and pretty much impossible. This would be a recall real quick. Normally if there's lots of stock it's a problem. Dealers don't stock what they don't sell. Something else going on here. Over torqueing at some point most likely the culprit. You've owned since it was new? Would not be the first time I've seen a dealer tech installing wheels with a 900 ft lb Snap-on 1/2 drive impact gun. The factory torque with aluminum rims is a surprising low 76 ft lbs. due the style of wheel nuts used. Do you do any hard 4 wheeling? Over torqued wheels with the added stress of 4 wheeling is a good way to break studs.

 

owned since new (took delivery of it right off the truck)... no off roading.. only highway miles... babied not abused... dealership only torques on with torque wrench.. impact is only used to remove lug nuts... these all look like a manufacturing defect and majority of them have stress cracks at the base... they (dealership) are also very concerned as to how this could have happened and first thing they did was report to Toyota (i was actually standing in the office of the service manager when he made the call)... they are replacing all the lug studs as a precaution since there were so many that had cracks or the few that actually broke off .

 

This is the reason I stopped using the dealership for any service, including the free Toyota care. The dealership had done this to a few of the wheel studs on my 2016. When I went to do a torque recheck after 50 miles, 2 of the studs just snapped right off. The dealer checked a few more and replaced 6 of them. Your dealer may tell you that they only torque by hand, but I’m pretty sure it’s the new lube tech laying on the impact gun without using the torque limiting stick. They probably finish off with a hand torque. If they hand installed every lug, it would take them 4-5 times as long for a quick lube service.

 

This is not directed at any one person, but to all normal vehicular traffic on all roadways.
Light and even mild off highway driving is less stressful on a vehicle than driving on a pothole ridden highway at freeway speeds.
Those sizable potholes can cause tire failure, wheel damage, lug bolt and stud failure and even loss of control.
Who or what to blame is not for me to guess at.
Before I retired, I was on a road maintenance crew that repaired such offending potholes.
We could have worked 24/7 year round and not kept up with such crappy roads.
When we did repair short distances of road, some people would complain that traffic was traveling too fast.
And that's a different complaint dept.

Kind of a shake your head and laugh moment.

 

I agree that it’s almost inconceivable that so many defective studs would end up on one vehicle.

It’s very likely the dealer screwed it up. Since they know they’ve been the only ones to touch the vehicle, it looks like they are being honest by taking care of the problem. But since it’s a dealer, deception often seems to creep in, hence the “phone call to toyota”. The guy probably was on the phone with his mom. I’m almost sure it’s about saving face, and trying to get you to return a survey where you say the dealer took on toyota hq.

I’d just roll with it…wink wink, nudge nudge, and all that.

 

I think the advice that we all want to give, without casting any doubt on the OP’s own knowledge or BS-meter, is to find a new and reputable shop. I’m awfully glad you’re getting it fixed, but it seems too fishy.

I only use discount tire, and I always watch them re-torque the bolts. “Oh, the techs will hate you for that!” I was a tech, tip them a $10 (on a free tire rotation) every time and you can follow them around with your hand in their pocket and you’ll still be their favorite customer. Just my .02