Repetitive clunking noise from driver side only when in motion. How concerned should I be?

[NocturnalEmber]

On 2/27/2024 at 1:46 PM, Zed Head said:

You've been lucky.  Your wheel is probably wobbling and that can cause the nuts to loosen.  Once they get loose they spin off pretty fast.  I lost two lug nuts on about a 1/2 mile drive because I forgot to torque them down after putting a wheel back on.  The remaining two were trying to be free also.  

Stick the lug nut in the holes before installing the wheels.  If the nut sticks all the way through the hole it's too long.

 

Okay, so! I changed out the lugnuts on the drivers side, sound is gone. Thanks for posting that drawing, that helped a lot actually in determining if the lugs were the right size or not. 

 

However, I still have an issue:

I can not for the life of me get all four lugnuts on the passengers side front wheel on, it's not happening.

I think the machinist bent the studs when he put them in. I did take pictures to the best of my ability, but I'm not an expert to tell if they are bent.  Can someone with a better eye for these judge for me? I tried to get a picture from the front, left, and right.

Something to note: The studs on the drivers side stick out past the holes in the rim, they do not stick out past the holes on the passengers side. This is very odd.

I bought eight new studs of the same kind and had the machinist press out all of the old ones on the front hubs and press in the new ones.

Unless he mixed up the studs (or rock auto send me exactly four of the wrong length) these should all be the same studs, so why would one side stick out past the stud holes on the driver's side, but not on the passengers side?  I guess the length isn't super important so long as I can get the studs to go in right, but why would they stick out longer  on one rim if they're the same length studs? (unless these rims are different on the back versus the front, I believe they are factory rims? The picture after the stud photos shows the passengers side front rim.

The lugs will thread onto the studs no problem without the rim being on the hub, so I know the threads aren't damaged, but you absolutely cannot get all four on there, the studs aren't in the holes centered.  From what I can tell, they are pressed in all the way on both hubs.

 

If anyone could help me make sense of this..I'd really appreciate it.

Edited February 29 by NocturnalEmber

[dutchzcarguy]

You have to put the lugnuts all on before you tighten them..  Also i discovered there are different diameter shafts on these lugnuts.

I don't think your bolts are bend. These lugnuts with the shaft are a pain to install.. but it's do-able if you wiggle the wheel. but first take a calliper and measure the diameters from the holes in your wheel and the shaft of the lugnuts.

That there are also lugnuts with longer/ to long shafts is new to me! (So i leant something today.. Yay!! 😉 )

If the lugnuts shaft is to small, that can absolutely give some clunking noises!

Good luck!

Mart.

[NocturnalEmber]

11 minutes ago, dutchzcarguy said:

You have to put the lugnuts all on before you tighten them..  Also i discovered there are different diameter shafts on these lugnuts.

I don't think your bolts are bend. These lugnuts with the shaft are a pain to install.. but it's do-able if you wiggle the wheel. but first take a calliper and measure the diameters from the holes in your wheel and the shaft of the lugnuts.

That there are also lugnuts with longer/ to long shafts is new to me! (So i leant something today.. Yay!! 😉 )

If the lugnuts shaft is to small, that can absolutely give some clunking noises!

Good luck!

Mart.

Yeah, I fixed the clunking noise, that was coming from the drivers side, and was because the shank on the lugnuts were too long.

These lugnuts on the passengers side are definitely not going on. I've tried for about two hours. The lug nuts will thread on fine by themselves, but they will not all go on if the wheel is on the hub.  The most I can get is 3 and that was insanely difficult to manage.

No matter how you try to move/hold/align the wheel, you can not get all four of them on there, the space around the studs aren't even. I've tried about four different types of lugnuts before on just the studs themselves and with the wheel on the hub, something isn't right, it just won't catch, the other side went on fine.

Edited February 29 by NocturnalEmber

[Patcon]

So the shoulder on the wheel studs is all the way seated against the back of the hub?

Are the hubs the same thickness?

Yes, the studs look bent. I would thread a lug nut onto the bent one and tap it with a hammer to get it centered in the hole. The should move fairly easily. Don't get carried away!

[NocturnalEmber]

2 minutes ago, Patcon said:

So the shoulder on the wheel studs is all the way seated against the back of the hub?

Are the hubs the same thickness?

Yes, the studs look bent. I would thread a lug nut onto the bent one and tap it with a hammer to get it centered in the hole. The should move fairly easily. Don't get carried away!

I assume the hubs are the same thickness, but I didn't measure. Just by eyeballing it they look to be the same. I could very well be wrong but I'd guess if the difference was that significant it would be something I could spot right away? They both came off the car, but I noticed even before I had the old studs knocked out, the passenger side hub still only had 2/4 lugs on it.

[Patcon]

Do you have a speed square? Like carpenters use? You could set it against the face of the hub and see if the studs are coming through square to the hub face. Use the speed square to adjust the studs until they're close to square. Checking with the wheel as you go along. See if the shoulders are seated all the way on both sides. Measure the hub thickness both sides. Measure how much stud sticks out on both sides. Then you will be able to calculate if your studs are the same length on both wheels. Don't assume...

Another thought, set the speed square across the face of the hub to see if it's flat. Maybe the hub face is bent slightly making the stud point in the wrong direction

[grannyknot]

That one stud that you can't get a nut on, mark it, remove the wheel and spin a nut down on that stud as far as you can then tap it with a hammer in the direction it needs to go.  Chances are the stud isn't bent just misaligned, it happens all the time when new studs are installed.

Also, when you do get all four wheels on, take the car for a short drive, 4 miles then re-torque all the nuts again.

[Mark Maras]

The studs in the pics don't look like they're parallel with each other nor does one of the studs look like it's installed 90 degrees to the hub. I agree with Charles, put a nut on the offending studs and tap them.

[Zed Head]

8 hours ago, NocturnalEmber said:

I bought eight new studs of the same kind and had the machinist press out all of the old ones on the front hubs and press in the new ones.

He didn't do a very good job, obviously.

You can stack a bigger nut or washers or a socket over the lug/stud and pull the lug all the way in using the lug nut.  It should square up as the bottom of the lug seats.  Do each one separately.  Those aluminum wheels don't like high torque, it will deform the metal around the hole.  

[NocturnalEmber]

11 hours ago, Zed Head said:

He didn't do a very good job, obviously.

You can stack a bigger nut or washers or a socket over the lug/stud and pull the lug all the way in using the lug nut.  It should square up as the bottom of the lug seats.  Do each one separately.  Those aluminum wheels don't like high torque, it will deform the metal around the hole.  

 

Looking at the studs from behind the hub, they look like they are pressed in all the way;  But I honestly have no way to know that they are aside from that simple visual, and if they're the same length, I'm thinking there's either a rim difference, which I don't see, or they aren't in all the way like you are saying (but they are all sticking out the same length on that wheel.)

 

I did order a stud installer, would that work better or should I stick with the nut or lug to draw it in?  Anything I need to watch out for in terms of deforming the metal around the hole?

 

Here's the stud tool I bought:

 

https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=2784232&cc=0&pt=1001095&jsn=5

[Terrapin Z]

My picture won't load, but it has been noted here about the safety factor. 

I agree as well, the studs don't look seated in the back of the hub. Perhaps there is some built up in the hole or the stud has some extra metal around the head of it. 

I always hate to back track like taking the hub back off and seating the studs correctly. This is an area of safety in the wheel spinning true and not falling off the car when making some spirited turns.  

The knocking noise you mentioned at the start of this thread might be the lug nuts were bottoming on the stud before securing the wheel to the hub. That is also a safety issue I would not want in my car, plus you would never get it aligned. This sounds like the studs are too long. did you compare them to the old ones first?

These studs don't look squared up to the hub as others have said. It is hard to put a right angle in a picture but I think you'll get the idea. 

 

Edited March 1 by Terrapin Z

[Zed Head]

17 hours ago, NocturnalEmber said:

Looking at the studs from behind the hub, they look like they are pressed in all the way;  But I honestly have no way to know that they are aside from that simple visual, and if they're the same length, I'm thinking there's either a rim difference, which I don't see, or they aren't in all the way like you are saying (but they are all sticking out the same length on that wheel.)

Take some measurements.  Measure the opening of the rim.  Maybe it's not meant for a Nissan.  Measure the stud lengths.  Use the method I described and be sure that the studs are pulled all the way in.  

Besides the problems you've had there's a lot more wrong with what you're doing.  Those hubs are flithy.  The area where the rim contacts the hub should be clean, on both the hub and the rim.

No offense intended, but there are more people than you and your wife/girl friend at risk here.  Get some help from somebody who knows cars.  People get killed by wheels that fall off of vehicles at speed.  Not the ones in the three-wheeled car, the people that get hit by the 50 mph wheel.  Besides the guilt, you'd be financially liable.

Sorry to be a downer, but there's quite a bit wrong in this thread.