[chalupalicous]

Hey everyone,
Just rotated my tires on my 2018 Impreza and found that the rear drivers side wheel studs are corroding. The rest are fine, just that one set of studs. The studs have a white powder on the threads and some rusty flecks too. It smelt like rotten eggs. It was odd to find it only one one set of studs. Anyone else seen this? Worth bringing up go my dealership?

 

[NoSlushbox4Me]

What are you using for wheels and lug nuts?

Aluminum, steel, and water coming together results in steel corrosion. If there's salt, the corrosion is faster. Zinc plating can protect the steel for a while as the zinc corrodes away.

 

[chalupalicous]

All stock

 

[peaty]

Galvanic reaction of two dissimilar metals I think is the issue. Why it's only on one wheel is odd, maybe a dog peed on it? The only thing to do is hit it with a wire brush and maybe a scotch bright pad. Don't put any sort of lube on it like anti-seize. Torque specs are for dry threads. The hub isn't supposed to be lubed either from what I've read. I know a lot of people do use anti-seize, I use to myself but after reading around I've decided to stop using it. This video convinced me it's not a good idea.

With two used Subarus I've owned both have had big issues with the wheel studs breaking. I suspect it was due to over tightening the lugs by the PO. One outback we had to have them all replaced.

 

[rocksalzer]

I have a 2018 outback. Just replaced 4 lugs on one rear wheel, one lug on the other rear wheel . These were very heavily corroded. Rest of lugs looked fine. I'm in Florida, but I don't live at the beach or drive on the beach. I suspect subaru received a bad batch of lugs and we won the jackpot.

 

[BruceP]

My base Impreza with steel wheels is also doing the same thing. This is because the lugnuts do not cover the exposed threads.

As a short-term solution, I removed lugnuts one at a time and applied antiseze to protect the steel from corrosion and possibility from being rusted when I have a flat tire. Everthing was re-torqued using my calibrated torque-wrench. (accounting for lubrication of the antiseze)

As a longer-term resolution, I am considering ACORN lug-nuts which protect the threads by keeping them covered.

Example of ACORN lugnuts ==> Lug Nuts - Bulge Acorn | Lug Nut Guys

 

[Alex_Rochester]

I realize this WAS a long-dead thread, but let me just add my $.02 to the usage of anti-seize: I don't put it on the studs, but I do put a very thin layer on the base of the wheel, where it presses up against the rotor center, as well as a bit around the center cutout. I got tired of having to bang my tires with a sledge hammer to remove my stuck wheels when changing from snows to summer wheels.

 

[BruceP]

I realize this WAS a long-dead thread,

Nice catch
I usually see when this happens and try to not contribute to zombie threads... I messed up this time

 

[Alex_Rochester]

Eh, you should see the 'zombie threads' that get dredged up on a trucking forum I occasionally go to; sometimes more than 20 years old!

 

[Lonelydriver_95]

Yeah I'm also on a Chevy S10 Forum and its almost a daily occurrence that 10-20 year old threads get revived. The mods on there are pretty annoyed at this point lol