Subaru Lug Studs

The Critic

The Critic

Joined
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Neighbor has a 14 Forester. I have done the last few tire rotations. Every time, the lug studs shed an abnormal quantity of metal shavings.

At the most recent tire rotation in August, one of the lug studs snapped off when I torqued the lug nut. It was replaced with a Dorman stud and nut. I torque the lug nuts to 89 ft lbs per the FSM. All of the other ones were fine.

Several days ago, he went to Costco for new tires. Costco refused to touch the vehicle and said two lug nuts were seized.

Upon further research, it seems like this is not an uncommon issue with Subaru vehicles:
artsautomotive.com

Broken Subaru Lug Nuts and Lug Studs

Why do Subaru lug nuts seize and why do lug studs break? What can you do to prevent it from happening again?
artsautomotive.com artsautomotive.com
www.subaruforester.org

(All Years) - Problem with wheel studs? (merged thread)

www.subaruforester.org www.subaruforester.org

Furthermore, there was a recent TSB from Subaru about rusting lug nuts:

Honda/Toyota use 12x1.5 lug studs; Subaru uses 12x1.25. I wonder if the issue is a combo of the rust, finer threads and poor metallurgy of the studs? I plan to replace all of the remaining lug studs and lug nuts with the Dorman ones to prevent the issue from reoccurring. However, I am curious if others have experience with this issue and have any thoughts on why it occurs.
 
Last edited:
Rand said:
I thought those studs recommended 67ft-lb
Click to expand...
1633977167091.jpg
 
I wasnt questioning your reference material. Maybe they changed it? I swear the 2011 forester was 67ft lb.(in 2011) I always thought it was too low and would use 85ft lb.

Found an old manual it says 72ft-lb.. so I'm not totally bonkers... ;)
wt-11forester.JPG

Edit: I'm in that thread from subaru forester.org you linked 😀

@The Critic is pretty fast with the reply he beat out my edit or am I slow:LOL:?
 
Last edited:
I've had problems with the lug nuts in the Forester, a 2015 with at least 3 mangled lug nuts :sneaky:

67 or 89 lb ft doesn't matter as much as, say, 600+ lb ft that most shops use when zipping them on with an air gun :mad: :poop:
An 80 lb torque stick won't cause any problems. Even a 100 lb ft torque stick won't do any damage.

According to the first article you posted, Nissan uses the same size thread, yet Nissan doesn't have these problems.
 
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Subaru is one of my more common car lines. I have never had to replace a lug or stud on a Subaru that I service regularly. Probably only replaced a handful or so of subaru lugs total over the years.
 
benjy said:
a dab of anti-sneeze + i never had any issues! you might have an indy that uses it but good luck from a dealer!!
Click to expand...
My brother has one of those Chevy/Suzuki Trackers that have stubborn lug nuts. I too put a little NeverSeeze when I reinstalled wheels last time.
 
Funny, I was putting a wheel back on an '02 Impreza and wasn't absolutely perfectly careful about starting it dead-square and it cross-threaded. I swear, once that thing went on 1/2 a thread wrong it was all over but the cryin'

I had to make an early morning run to my FLAPS for a stud (Dorman of course - ya can't avoid 'em, what are ya gonna do?) and then I ordered a whole box from Amazon because they're literally 50% of the cost

Now I always gingerly start the nuts on that car with utmost care and feel and I learned NEVER tell a customer their car is ready until the wheels are on and torqued
 
The Critic said:
Neighbor has a 14 Forester. I have done the last few tire rotations. Every time, the lug studs shed an abnormal quantity of metal shavings.

At the most recent tire rotation in August, one of the lug studs snapped off when I torqued the lug nut. It was replaced with a Dorman stud and nut. I torque the lug nuts to 89 ft lbs per the FSM. All of the other ones were fine.

Several days ago, he went to Costco for new tires. Costco refused to touch the vehicle and said two lug nuts were seized.

Upon further research, it seems like this is not an uncommon issue with Subaru vehicles:
artsautomotive.com

Broken Subaru Lug Nuts and Lug Studs

Why do Subaru lug nuts seize and why do lug studs break? What can you do to prevent it from happening again?
artsautomotive.com artsautomotive.com
www.subaruforester.org

(All Years) - Problem with wheel studs? (merged thread)

www.subaruforester.org www.subaruforester.org

Furthermore, there was a recent TSB from Subaru about rusting lug nuts:

Honda/Toyota use 12x1.5 lug studs; Subaru uses 12x1.25. I wonder if the issue is a combo of the rust, finer threads and poor metallurgy of the studs? I plan to replace all of the remaining lug studs and lug nuts with the Dorman ones to prevent the issue from reoccurring. However, I am curious if others have experience with this issue and have any thoughts on why it occurs.
Click to expand...
Just had my 4th replaced today on my wife's 17 Forester! I called SOA and filed a complaint and asked if they'd help me replace all of them with aftermarket instead of what seems like poor quality OEM ones. I now have a "case number." We'll see what happens...
 
HowAboutThis said:
Just had my 4th replaced today on my wife's 17 Forester! I called SOA and filed a complaint and asked if they'd help me replace all of them with aftermarket instead of what seems like poor quality OEM ones. I now have a "case number." We'll see what happens...
Click to expand...
Knock on wood, 4 rotations later, no issues with the Dorman studs.
 
We replace them a lot at work. When we have run out of the factory replacements if the customer approves we will get a Dorman one or however many we need. Haven’t had any issues with Dorman ones. Typically I don’t advise using anti seize on studs but I’ve found it to help these out. I’ve had to clean the threads on many too when I do I put very light dab of anti seize on there and goes on fine after cleanup and it doesn’t give any issues on the ones we service regularly anyway. I will torque to about 80 or 85 with the anti seize.
 
I leave my split beam set to 100nm, and over the years done a lot of Subaru lugs and never had a problem with ones I have serviced. The trick is to use a small amount of never seize on the threads and a small amount on the cone part of the nut, you can use oil also but I much prefer the never seize.
If you don't and the salt or even wheels cleaner gets too them, its all done but the cursing and shouting.
 
Trav said:
I leave my split beam set to 100nm, and over the years done a lot of Subaru lugs and never had a problem with ones I have serviced. The trick is to use a small amount of never seize on the threads and a small amount on the cone part of the nut....
Click to expand...
That's what I do on my 2005 Subaru Legacy. The torque spec in the factory service manual for my vehicle is 110Nm (81 lb-ft).
 
A family friend just purchased a '15 Forester today and there was a slight shimmy from mud in the ID of the wheels. This is VERY common here with adobe clay plus mag chloride on the dirt roads.

I had to chuckle and thought of this thread as one of the rear lugnuts did a couple revolutions in reverse then FULL STOP. I switched from the mid-torque to the 2767 and snapped it off so I could get the wheel off.

Fortunately it was a rare occasion where I got to be the hero because I had the wheel studs and new (solid) lugnuts in stock from the last time a Subaru screwed me!
20230211_141140.jpg


I also got to use my actual stud installer for the first time. I gotta say -- it goes much more smoothly than stacking washers and hoping ;)
20230211_141208.jpg
 
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