& I thought wrong.

I did all the greasing, (twice on the right rear wheel, because after the first time it still didnt go away &the right rear is where I THOUGHT the noise was coming from.).
But still no success in getting rid of the noise.

So I decide to do the rear left wheel, I go to loosen the lugs before lifting car, & to my amazement a wheel stud is broken obviously with the lug nut gone & the other 4 are loose! WTF.

What couldve caused the stud to break?
Could them being loose in the first place actually put enough stress to where they break?

Last time anything was done to the car was around october, firestone alignment.

Click noise started 3 weeks ago.

 

A good warning to check them once every week or two.
(whenever the wheels come off an old rule is to re-tighten them after 100 miles)

Someone may have been trying to steal them ?

 

I check all my vehicles every couple weeks.

 

Yeah im going to stay on top of things like this now.
I do re-tighten a bit after driving i'm just baffled as to why it was only that one.

Also, I doubt that someone was trying to steal them since one of my lugs is a lock lug, that one was loose aswell.

 

In that case the alignment place forgot to torque tighten them up, that's the only explanation.

 

I thought removing the tires wasnt involved with an alignmentwhich is why i'm real confused as to why it just happened out of nowhere.

 

Ugh.

No, no it's not.
1) They wouldn't come off for an alignment.
2) ALWAYS check torque and re-tighten at 50-100 miles. Always.
3) It's a stress point. Things break.
4) Hub-seat.

Not to place onus on the OP, but I hate when people peddle the sh*t excuse that the shop didn't tighten properly. It's common knowledge that you are supposed to re-torque within 50-100 miles.

 

You can hate it all you like, it's still worth checking them when you get back home anyway.

 

They were perfectly fine before the alignment Syner, & i'm sure they were perfectly fine after too.

I'm just stating the last time my car had ANYTHING done to it was when I got that alignment, it hasnt been jacked up since.
I'm stating this to try to identify /eliminate possibilities as to what could've caused the loosening & breaking of that one wheel stud.

But even then i'm not even placing the blame on the shop as I said it's been a while & something like that wouldve happened shorly after not 4 months later.

So I have no idea where you got assumption that i'm trying to discreetly blame the shop.
Basic reading comprehension, I know you have it.

 

To say it's the only explanation though?

 

lol no... I was replying to Rob's comment that the shop not tightening properly was the only explanation for what happened.

 

They were probably never torqued

 

I'm going to catch **** for this but of the 8 vehicles I've owned, with a dozen plus sets of tires and wheels, brake jobs, suspension modifications, spacers, etc, and never once have I ever had a wheel come loose and never once have I rechecked a lug nut after driving any distance. Of all of my family's vehicles and countless times their wheels have been off for whatever reason have they ever had a loose lug nut or checked anything after driving for any distance.

The only time that you should need to retorque lug nuts after driving is when you get brand new wheels, brand new lugs, or brand new nuts. Otherwise you shouldn't have to touch them again if they've been properly torqued on.

 

Seeing as I dont own a torque wrench this might make sense, but I don't think I know much or have even heard of a lot of people using a torque wrench to apply their lug nuts.

I'm still at a loss for what could've caused it.

Yet glad I caught it on time before i'm driving around & my wheel falls off & I get my **** rekt!

 

Under- and over-torquing can both cause problems.

I haven't heard of people avoiding a torque wrench for their lugs...

 

I always use a torque wrench on my lugs. A cheap torque wrench can be bought at Harbor Freight for under $20. It may not be the best but it is certainly better than nothing so there is really no excuse for not having a torque wrench.

 

Get them good and tight and roll on down the road. Again, 99% of people on the road don't retorque their lug nuts, own a torque wrench, or even know that their lug nuts require a specific torque. Tighten them until they don't go any more and be done with it.

For the record I've recently had to replace every lug on my car because of an improperly calibrated torque wrench so saying any torque wrench will work is a false statement.

 

 

Internal motor parts and my wheels are the only thing I torque. I have a quality wrench for the engine and a $20 version for lugs. My minivan, and SUV even get their wheels torqued