How to Remove OEM wheel studs?

[UP2MTNS]

Need to upgrade my wheel studs....they're press on, so how do you remove the OEM ones? drill them out? or whack the shizzle out of them?

TIA.

[KevinWelker]

sacrifice one lug nut by screwing it onto the studs, then line the stud up with the recess in the knuckle (front) and give it a good whack with a hammer, it will come right out.

Same process in the rear except you want to line up with the ABS sensor hole (remove the ABS sensor first).

Caution, longer studs will not *exactly* fit back in the same was as the short OEMs did. In the front you are fine with the NISMO length ones, but ARP requires removal of the hub from the knuckle (hello new wheelbearing). In the rear you have to dremel out the size of the ABS sensor hole and remove the bit of tubing tack welded on there to help support the sensor. On my street car I have the NISMO in front and ARP in the rear because I have been too lazy to pull the hub and subsequent wheel bearing swap. In the rear, since it is a street car, I dremeled out the ABS sensor hole to get the studs in there, then tack welded the bit of steel tube back in to support the ABS better. For a rally car obviously that is not always necessary.

I shoulda taken pics when I did it, but it's not exactly a clean process and my hands were too dirty to hold the camera, and well KMount only ever holds a wrench or a beer, so no pics....

You're a smart guy, you'll figure it out. be sure have those trick super light lug nuts also, preferrably the ones that require the special key that you can lose at the worst possible time!! :P JK

[WRXCMM]

i recently had to replace one in the front.

i just hammered it out, one good blow and it comes out.
to put in the replacement i used a spacer (bigger nut could work) and then a nut (it helps to have open end nuts for this) use some wd-40 and just tighten until the back is flush with the hub. and you're done.

and i guess like mentioned above you might have some clearance issues with the longer studs...

[409industries]

I remember subyspawn said it was a f-king bitch to do the long wheel studs.

[UP2MTNS]

sacrifice one lug nut by screwing it onto the studs, then line the stud up with the recess in the knuckle (front) and give it a good whack with a hammer, it will come right out.

Same process in the rear except you want to line up with the ABS sensor hole (remove the ABS sensor first).

Caution, longer studs will not *exactly* fit back in the same was as the short OEMs did. In the front you are fine with the NISMO length ones, but ARP requires removal of the hub from the knuckle (hello new wheelbearing). In the rear you have to dremel out the size of the ABS sensor hole and remove the bit of tubing tack welded on there to help support the sensor. On my street car I have the NISMO in front and ARP in the rear because I have been too lazy to pull the hub and subsequent wheel bearing swap. In the rear, since it is a street car, I dremeled out the ABS sensor hole to get the studs in there, then tack welded the bit of steel tube back in to support the ABS better. For a rally car obviously that is not always necessary.

I shoulda taken pics when I did it, but it's not exactly a clean process and my hands were too dirty to hold the camera, and well KMount only ever holds a wrench or a beer, so no pics....

You're a smart guy, you'll figure it out. be sure have those trick super light lug nuts also, preferrably the ones that require the special key that you can lose at the worst possible time!! :P JK




got a part # on the NISMO ones? I keep thinking the ARP ones are too damned long (and expensive). the NISMO 50mm ones are about 2" long, which should be perfect, right?

[KevinWelker]

why do you need longer ones in the first place? I swapped front calipers to something that wouldn't fit under STi BBS wheels so I had to run a 5mm spacer, I wanted the extra length and strength, the Subaru OEM ones are so soft and weak I was breaking them in the canyons even with hubcentric spacers.

Google can find you the nismo part number quicker than I can. The thread is 12x1.25

You are right the ARP ones are a big pain the ass for the front, same pain in the ass for the rear for the Nismo though and ARP is MUCH stronger than nismo which in turn is much stronger than subaru OEM.

[UP2MTNS]

why do you need longer ones in the first place? I swapped front calipers to something that wouldn't fit under STi BBS wheels so I had to run a 5mm spacer, I wanted the extra length and strength, the Subaru OEM ones are so soft and weak I was breaking them in the canyons even with hubcentric spacers.

Google can find you the nismo part number quicker than I can. The thread is 12x1.25

You are right the ARP ones are a big pain the ass for the front, same pain in the ass for the rear for the Nismo though and ARP is MUCH stronger than nismo which in turn is much stronger than subaru OEM.

didn't you just answer your own question? :)

with the TD rims and my gorilla lugnuts (open end) my OEM studs don't even come out flush with my lugnuts. Tech at Seed 9 actually made me pull a wheel off to count how many threads were on there to make sure they were safe.

I figure its worth it alone to not get that hassle at tech, plus, it is a good safety point, and all the reasons you mentioned above.



I asked for the part # because all I found was NISMO parts and they listed what cars they fit, none of them listed the thread pitch. no worries, I'll figure it out.

I'm torn between the ARP long ass ones which are $bank$ and, imo, a good inch too long (need a deep well socket...) and just getting these on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Wheel-Stud-Bolt-Extended-Subaru-12x1-25-50MM_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem518a28329cQQitemZ3 50210241180QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAcc essories

which are a whole lot cheaper, and 1 inch shorter.

[UP2MTNS]

btw, what the hell is a hubcentric spacer?

[KevinWelker]

google can answer the hubcentric question better than I can, but they are what you really want to prevent getting things on all wonky and over stressing the studs.

If you are using the gorilla or muteki lug nuts the "key" socket is deep enough to clear the ARP studs, no need for any fancy sockets. Gorill and Muteki also use the same "key" so they are pretty common these days. I have like four or five floating around and more at KMounts place.

[WAM]

btw, what the hell is a hubcentric spacer?

Hubcentric spacer has an ID to fit tightly to the hub, and a raised circular lip to provide that same support to the ID of the wheel. If everything isn't within maybe 10 thou of being perfect, it probably won't transfer load so isn't useful.

Here's a pic of what I use on my rabbit:

http://www.bildon.com/catalog/DetailsList.cfm?ID=BMS.234571&Nav=10&SubNav=none

[UP2MTNS]

google can answer the hubcentric question better than I can, but they are what you really want to prevent getting things on all wonky and over stressing the studs.

If you are using the gorilla or muteki lug nuts the "key" socket is deep enough to clear the ARP studs, no need for any fancy sockets. Gorill and Muteki also use the same "key" so they are pretty common these days. I have like four or five floating around and more at KMounts place.

no, I got rid of my 'tuner' nuts that required a key, and just got normal, open-ended, Gorilla lug nuts.

[DirtyBugEye]

I almost upgraded to longer wheel studs when I did my rear wheel bearings recently. I was checking these ones out:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TF-45mm-extended-wheel-stud-studs-Subaru-WRX-STI-Saab_W0QQitemZ220535705166QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotor s_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item3358f3ce4e

[UP2MTNS]

I almost upgraded to longer wheel studs when I did my rear wheel bearings recently. I was checking these ones out:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TF-45mm-extended-wheel-stud-studs-Subaru-WRX-STI-Saab_W0QQitemZ220535705166QQcmdZViewItemQQptZMotor s_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories?hash=item3358f3ce4e

yeah, I saw those as well....45mm doesn't seem very 'extended'.

3" = 76mm

2" = 51mm

I was going for the 66mm ones.