Bolts Vs Studs

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Im sick of big silly rusted bolts so looking at TPI Polarised wheel bolts or a black stud / nut conversion.

Looking at the pros and cons of bolts and stud / nut kits.

Can anyone advise what they use and why ?
 
I use studs and nuts. As it’s primarily a track car and the wheels may come off regularly I went with this option. I also prefer the look.

Downside is I’ve yet to find matching locking nuts (not that I’m bothered)
 
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Ease of fitting and removal is my main one.

I’ve had bolts back out on long journeys, and lost 2 on 1 wheel before on a trip back from Germany one time.

Downside to studs being a lot more care needs to be taken when installing them, and also when fitting wheels. Imo it’s best to crack them loose with a bar before going anywhere near them with an impact gun...... don’t have that issue with bolts.
They’re also serviceable items. Clio cup car book, and I’m pretty sure Pure motorsport recommend to change annually.
 
I tried repainting bolts they don't last get two sets of TPI 19mm plastic caps the removal tool is good and you will have 20 spare caps for the future if you break or loss one which has never happened to me at a fraction of the price of studs.
 
Bolts are nice because you can whip them out with an impact gun, but the downside is that it's more of a balancing act to get the wheel back on.

Studs are nice because you can align the wheel on the studs whilst you grab the nut with your other hand, but the downside is that you can't impact gun them off because it loosens the studs as others have said, and you need to keep checking them and replace periodically.

Depends what's important to you and how often your wheels are on and off. Mine's a track car so the wheels are swapped regularly, hence I have studs.
 
Stud and nut kits don’t stay black for long but I am frequently changing wheels as mines predominantly tracked. As said you need a breaker bar and a torque wrench and if you’re flush an impact wrench as well. All gets a bit of a faff but I’d still go studs over bolts
 
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So I have just went and bought the TPI Polarised bolts from sixonetwo

Had to e-mail them direct with the correct size of bolt as its not listed on there site.
 
Can anyone confirm my workings to make sure my wheels aren’t about to fall off?!

I’ve just installed a stud and nut kit on my 197 and from what I could find online the recommendation for torquing the stud is 15lb/ft, which I calculate as about 20nm.

(https://www.k-tecracing.com/show_product.asp?id=5089)

My torque wrench only goes down to 28nm so I loosened it off slightly further using the gradients as a guide, but to me that seems loose especially considering the nuts get torqued to 120-130nm

When doing some of the studs up they still seemed like they could be wound in a bit further and we’re moving relative freely. (Not loose, but with the leverage of the torque wrench they were winding in without much effort.

This was on the fronts where you can’t see that you’ve tightened up until the collar.
 
TheRealDaveHedgehog said:
Ok. So I wasn’t missing something or miscalculating wildly, they just don’t need to be that tight!

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Yep, I didnt trust it either but did a track day recently and they are good with some 270 loctite, had to tighten the nuts up a few times but by the afternoon everything stayed tight.
 
Just don't gun your nuts off the wheel, as sometimes they shock the loctite loose, a few people I know and on this forum have done it and not realised and heard noises to find them coming loose from the hub!
 
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Yeah, I’ll be using my torque wrench to release them and then a gun (drill) to spin the nut off.
Studs are supposed to be quicker for a wheel change but if you have to sling the nuts on by hand you’d be there for ever!
 
Sorry, I obviously meant breaking them off, can then use gun to spin it totally off.

Also I was always told never to use a torque wrench to undo as it can damage the torque wrench, I don't know if it was mechanics BS, or facts, but I've always stuck to that lol, I just use a breaker bar, but I always do things in routines.
 
Yeah you can damage the torque wrench if you use it as a breaker bar, it makes the calibration wrong. I remember reading about it a while back when I was trying to stop a bloke at work using our £600 3/4" drive torque wrench as a power bar :tearsofjoy:

I picked up a long handled 1/2" drive ratchet and use that to undo my wheels then get the impact gun to take them off completely.
 
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If you can’t use them as a ratchet to undo bolts that you’ve used to torque them, then why does it have a switch to change direction?

I absolutely get that you shouldn’t be using it to release bolts that have seized or not been released in a decade but if it can apply 120nm torque one way, why should it not apply 120nm the other? Especially if it’s rated 200nm+

Fortunately, my torque wrench was about £25 so I’m less bothered if it goes wrong. If it were £600 I might take a different view (as well as keeping it in a velvet lined mahogany box!)
 
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Changing of directions is for opposite threads....not for undoing, not all threads are "righty tighty".

It's the long term use that will cause damage, not just once, at the end of the day you can use it for whatever you like, just advising what we've been told not to do, like you should rag a car cold....but people do and get away with it....
 
I get that, but 120nm of torque to undo a bolt is the same pressure and stress on a wrench as 120nm torque to tighten a bolt.

Sure, If a bolt is hot it might take more to release it than initially did it up, but like I said, the bar is rated 80+ Nm more than I tighten them.
 
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