Wow never break these! So much headache for it. According to dealer the whole rear axle/hub has to come off to replace it. 2 and a half hours of labor they say.

But which is good for me hopefully is that they said I only stripped the top two threads, and they said they can grind off the stripped part and still use the existing. Is this possible? Is it safe? Im running with only 4 lugs on right now and is it still safe to still drive around?

I can probably grind it myself actually.

 

Just buy a new stud. Make sure YOU torque the wheels properly. I see in your photo from what I can tell you have stock wheels which is good. Sometimes after market wheels that are the wrong weight, or dimension or built wrong can break studs or hubs.

On that note just buy a new stud and even if you have someone else balance and rotate the tires make sure you torque them on your own. I have seen wheels as high as 150+lbs when they had paperwork that read torqued to 85lbs tested.

 

i bought a new stud but finding out that you have to remove the hub and axle is making it a pain, as well as a lot of money to have mazda replace it.

I feel like grinding it to temporarily fix it until I decide to spend the arm and a leg to replace it.

 

well option b is if you decide to do that buy a set of Gorilla locks and nothing will even be noticed.

 

whats the gorilla locks for and do?

 

http://www.gorilla-auto.com/gorilla.guard.locks

 

Thats just a Wheel lock, it doesnt have anything to do with the stud

 

you have options with this company though. Instead of going with lug nut that you pulled off which is designed for the length of the cars stud. With Gorilla you can get a stud thats a mm shorter for the mm you cut off the stud. at least you could the last time I bought from them.

 

if I were u I will replace all the studs. but mind you, this is a one time deal, if you break it again, then I will come and slap u for stupidity, and you have to buy a complete new hub.

Cuz its not recommend to replace the stud more than once, the reason is that you need a press to push it out, more than once its going to get loose, not good.

and yes, you have to take the hub out to press the studs out, its not hard to do if you have a shop press, its all labor work. 2-3 hours sound about right.

 

Grind it flat and smooth. Use a thread file or a knife file to return the start of the thread. Screw lug back on to the right torque. If you only mangled two threads I would not worry about it. Yes you can drive with four lugs on. Three lugs in a pinch but thats pushing it.

 

If you grind off about a quarter to a third of the head of the new stud, you can get it in there. I have done this myself. Not sure the wisdom of it, but it worked for me. But in your situation, yeah, just cut off the offending couple threads and clean it up and be on your way. Shouldn't be an issue.

Phil