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tim said:All the broken studs we are seeing are with closed lug nuts. A customer just sheared 3 off the rear of the car drving down the highway. Factory studs, torqued, aftermarket wheels(TSW) which required tiny lug nuts to fit into the wheel holes. Care needs to be taken with closed lug nuts. Looks should always be the last consideration. If the stud is shearing off in the lug nut area the cap of the nut was likely bottoming out and you are getting a false torque. The wheel is not clamped but the stud has been what amounts to being twisted off...think of trying to remove a rusted nut from a bolt, you twist the bolt to the shear point. The wheel not being clamped in place is now flexing at the same point you just overloaded the stud at. Fortunatley the stud fails somewhat in the wheel hole so the wheel hopefully stays attached to the car.
Stay safe my friends!
I thought I posted earlier on this, Tim is exactly correct, many (most) sanctioning bodies won't allow closed lug nuts for 2 reasons, #! they want to see the depth of the threads into the nut and #2 the closed nuts, even if only a few thousandths of an inch off, will not properly clamp the wheel and cause a stress moment on the stud. Closed nuts might be OK for the street but are bad juju for anything track related.