| Subject: | Wheel stud |
| Question: | I have a 94 Talon TSI
AWD. I've been missing a wheel stud, on the passenger front, for quite
a while (I know it's not safe) Every repair shop I take it to is telling
me it's gonna cost a ton of $. I usually do 75% of my own repairs,
but I've never really gotten into this area. I would just like to know
what is involved and how complicated it is before I attempt this myself
if it is possible. |
| Answer: | John, The reason why a repair shop quoted you such a high repair cost is because it's a pretty big job. It is possible for you to do the job yourself, but you have to be careful not to break any adjacent suspension parts. The best way to do it is first remove your entire hub assembly. You will need to remove your drive shaft nut, steering knuckle bolts, caliper bolts, and a few other surrounding nuts and bolts. You will need to detach the hub from the lower ball joint and tie rod as well. If either of those components get hyperextended, they will be damaged and will need to replaced. Now that you have the hub assembly taken off the drive shaft (a gear puller is needed in most cases), you will need to remove the front hub off (gear puller needed again). The front hub is what the wheel studs are attached to. The entire front hub needs to be replaced (not cheap). i don't think you can get the wheel studs seperately. Along with the front hub, you will need to buy a new wheel bearing. Remove the old and install the new. Once everything new has been reassembled, you need to reinstall everything in the exact reservse order. No matter how well you get everything reassembled (you must re-torque all suspension components to spec), your car will most like require an alignment (not cheap for the AWD). Now you have an idea of the difficulty with this project, and why
the repair shops quote such high prices. They will probably estimate
this as a 4-hour job. That can be a minimum of $250 in labor alone
if everything goes well; and that's not including the alignment cost.
If you have a GOOD set of tools, strength, TIME, and a factory service
manual, you could handle this job. But if you take your car to a
mechanic, all you need is a lot of money. Which ever option you take,
just get that wheel stud replaced asap. |