I got a stock 03 wrx in which I decided to put my 18" rh rims on from my 02 wrx and all hell broke lose. At first the stock bolts where some reason to short to tighten down all the way. I decided to go and get a couple of sets of slightly longer lugnuts. That worked to an extent but I was having trouble with the socket around the lugnut as it was rubbing against the rim. After I finally got everything squared and torqued down properly took it for a test drive and everything was good. About an hour later I drove the car and soon as I hit 40 mph I heard this tunk tunk tunk noise, pulled over checked the lugnuts one lugnut on the front left and right rim was lose so I tightend it. Drove a little more heard the tunk tunk tunk again so I slowed down to 30 mph. As I applied the brake it got louder under any sort of acceleration the noise would lighten. Come to find out do to the lugnut loosening it self the right rim didn't seem as if it was sitting properly. When I got home I jacked up the car and attempted to remove the lugnuts and had great success at removing all but one. After i finally got the last one off it was brought to my attention that for some reason that one lugnut stripped the threads on the stud that the rim sits on.

So my question to you all would be......is there any way to get warranty to cover the replacement or rethreading of the stud?

I have never had this hard of a time changing rims on a vehicle ever. I am not sure if it was something I did wrong or if it was cheap product far as lugnuts or a subaru defect.

Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance

 

You need to get some better lugs for the car. You can just get some simple spline drives. Not too expensive and they should solve the problem. I certainly wouldn't expect warranty to replace the stud that failed when you installed aftermarket wheels.

 

the thing I don't understand is how this all even happened. My last car only had 3 lugs and it never did this. I am not sure what lugnuts were used because it came with the wheels when I abught it, but I had no trouble taking the rims off then and putting them back on . . . . so I just don't understand what went wrong. I really thing it was these lame lugnuts that I baught. Hopefully I can find a way to get it repaired under warranty. Not sure if there is a way to re-thread the stud or if it needs to be replaced. I just figure I had my old 18" RH rims sitting collecting dust why not put them on, but I guess that was maybe a bad idea.

 

Well, I don't agree with trying to get them covered under warranty. It seems that the parts you used to install the wheels - faulty lug nuts or installation or whatever caused the thread to strip. That doesn't seem like a workmanship defect on the part of Subaru.

 

yeah but at the sametime why would just that one mess up and not the rest?

 

Dude, my point is that everything was fine till you put these wheels on the car with goofy lugs and you broke something. Suck it up and pay the repair. Studs aren't that much to repair/replace.

 

qft

 

Or they weren't properly tightened when putting the lugs on the wheels.

Each step needs to be followed closely

Step one: Put wheel on car
Step two: Put lugs on, and tighten as much as possible before lowering car down.
Step three: Re-torque those lugs again, and again in the cris-cross pattern.

If all the lugs seated properly, and you torqued them down, then all should have been good.

 

Yep.