Marred stud

[MINIz guy]

Well, when swapping the winter wheels onto the RL, I found that one lug nut had a difficult time coming off. When I finally got the wheel off to inspect, I found that one of the studs were marred!

This is a 1 week old RL and nothing has been modified. I decide to take it into service today and see if the stud could be replaced...one of the service guys told me that it isn't covered under warranty. His reasoning is that since the nut can still spin on/off (albeit with extra effort with the breaker bar and torque wrench), it is working perfectly.

Is this correct that something like this will not be covered?

This is why I hate dealers... Now off to find a email for Honda's customer support.

[schwejo]

I'm sure you will get better evaluations with a picture, but there is little chance I'd personally accept the dealers reply.

To get proper torquing you do need a proper fitting lug nut, and studs do break if over tightened or damaged and it may be impossible to ever know the history of what happened to fully evaluate things.

If the surfaces show galling or scoring, then Id definitely insist on a replacement. If there is just a very minor nick causing the tightness than I might just clean up the threads, but I'd always be concerned what trauma the stud might have had and whether it might fail under normal use.

In my view its better to have it replaced since its a new truck.

They are not all that easy to replace because there isnt room behind the stud to just press it out so perhaps that's why the dealer inst cooperating?

[Bethard728]

+1 to what schwejo said. I would add that a thread file goes a long way to clean up threads. but since its new, I would think Honda should replace it.

[MINIz guy]

I should have taken a picture showing the problem but didn't think of it, and I didn't think the dealer would turn me away either. Basically, there is a flat spot on a few threads that looks like somebody dragged the rim across the threads and flattened them out. I'm not motivated enough and too frustrated with the truck to take off the wheel again to get a picture now.

I have to drive the RL from NJ to STL tomorrow so I can't afford to let another dealership assess it or have the RL out of commission by tooling around with it anymore. I guess when I return to NJ some time in May, I'll have another dealer look at it.

[rollinhonda]

I hope you get it resolved.
Jeez.. when I first saw your post I thought it read 'Married Stud'.

[feetdry]

Sorry not all tire dealers are the same. My dealer here in the NW presses them out and replaces them at no charge as long as I keep buying my tires there.

[hopingforahonda]

The truck has a bumper to bumper warranty! If you radio knob has a scrape on it but still works, you can damn well bet it would be replaced! Anything that's wrong with that truck should be fixed , no question. Doesn't matter if something works or not, it's brand new! You need to be more assertive.

[chiph]

At the very least they should run a die over it to chase the threads. That would take all of 10 minutes.

Pretty sure the threads are 14mm x 1.50 (someone please verify).
You can get the die from Amazon:

Amazon

Amazon

Chip H.

[MINIz guy]

Eh, I'm on the road now and I'll at school with the RL until May. I can't really afford to take time to look at the truck anymore so I'm hoping nothing goes wrong in 5 months. I've driven it 800 miles on the truck so far and it is giving me no problems so far. The storage space is amazing!

[Parsec]

I don't understand the comment about you're at school so you don't have time to look at the truck. I had more free time in college than the rest of my life combined! At a minimum, I'd suggest taking some time to do what chiph recommended. Surely you have some in-state friends who you can drive home on the weekend to use their tools/garage?