Sheered off lugs while driving

I have a 2016 Ram Laramie 4 x 4 3500 HD. The mileage is 38,450. This is a definite Safety Concern. While driving home the other day at freeway speed here in San Diego, there was a vibration in the front and then I felt wheel wobble, luckily I was close to home so I limped off the freeway and to my home. It turned out that 7 of the 8 wheel lugs sheared off at the hub. I did check other forums and it appears that this has occurred not frequently enough to warrant a recall. I have checked and ordered the necessary part replacement and will do the hub replacement.

Have you had the wheel(s) off recently for any reason? These sorts of things are usually installation error.

rzr6-4 said:

Have you had the wheel(s) off recently for any reason? These sorts of things are usually installation error.

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And with an 8 year old truck, it might be a tough sell to expect that FCA will cover the repairs.

I have 2 questions for the OP.

Do you own and use a torque wrench religiously when installing your wheels?

And 1 more, who last installed the wheels?

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No the wheels have not been off recently. I read a similar incident in a Mopar forum, he too had not had any other indications. In fact, there was a Government Ram vehicle had the same thing occur and the accident that ensued resulted in a fire and the vehicle was completely totaled.

My guess is you had a few lugs loose.

I always use the torque wrench to tighten my lugs. This is just a weird occurrence that I want to let other Dodge HD drivers to know. I for sure will replace both front hubs.

The lugs were not loose, they sheared off at the hub.

Clayclyde said:

I always use the torque wrench to tighten my lugs. This is just a weird occurrence that I want to let other Dodge HD drivers to know. I for sure will replace both front hubs.

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Has anyone other than you ever had the front wheels off?

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Clayclyde said:

The lugs were not loose, they sheared off at the hub.

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Thats pretty crazy , not sure I’ve read many lug failures, but it’s usually either over torqued , or loose . Having the same truck as yours except a 2014, my wheels have been off numerous times , and retorqued without issue .

Clayclyde said:

I have a 2016 Ram Laramie 4 x 4 3500 HD. The mileage is 38,450. This is a definite Safety Concern. While driving home the other day at freeway speed here in San Diego, there was a vibration in the front and then I felt wheel wobble, luckily I was close to home so I limped off the freeway and to my home. It turned out that 7 of the 8 wheel lugs sheared off at the hub. I did check other forums and it appears that this has occurred not frequently enough to warrant a recall. I have checked and ordered the necessary part replacement and will do the hub replacement.

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Actually that has been a problem for a while now. Cause over torquing the wheels. Ram dealerships have a gauge they use to check the stretch of the lugs. For a long time they had the torque set up for 145 foot lbs. Then when it started to shear off lugs they dropped it to 128 foot lbs. But the damage has already been done.

There was a recall on the wheel lug torque spec for the HD trucks.

I'm really glad you caught the issue when you did and there was no accident. With that said, this type of issue is almost always because of the improper installation of the lugs, either under or over torqueing them. When was the last time the front tires were removed? Are these the original wheel hubs?
Will also say that hearing about a couple of other trucks with a similar problem on the internet does not mean it is a common problem. Ram has sold literally millions of trucks. Again, it sucks that you had an issue and I'm glad everybody is okay, but I would be more concentrated on fixing it and making sure it is installed correctly. I would not put all of my effort into trying to claim it was caused by a defective factory part.

Clayclyde said:

I have a 2016 Ram Laramie 4 x 4 3500 HD. The mileage is 38,450. This is a definite Safety Concern. While driving home the other day at freeway speed here in San Diego, there was a vibration in the front and then I felt wheel wobble, luckily I was close to home so I limped off the freeway and to my home. It turned out that 7 of the 8 wheel lugs sheared off at the hub. I did check other forums and it appears that this has occurred not frequently enough to warrant a recall. I have checked and ordered the necessary part replacement and will do the hub replacement.

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This might be a good time to start buying lottery tickets, I would be feeling vey lucky, if I were you.

While I sincerely appreciate you reaching out to others to give warning, my mind is usually focused on the 'how could this have happened and were the manufacturer's guidelines followed throughout the life of the vehicle'.

Or, what component failed to cause this outcome. Like a forensic analysis.

While I realize that the pictures posted are not the best source for detailed information and that we can't be certain that any apparent non-linearity in the studs isn't a result of lighting and camera angle, it still makes me wonder.

And, I must add that I am not a mechanical engineer and can't be certain of the failure mode on wheel studs. Maybe, we have an engineer that might provide their 10 cents worth.

Those are my disclaimers.

I did a bit of my own amateur forensics using the posted picture and noticed irregularities and lack of uniformity in several of the studs. A couple of them appear to have been elongated but I don't know if that was a result of the failure mode or the root cause. That determination is beyond my pay scale.

This is one of those studs that makes me wonder.



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Are the rims stock? The diesel shop I use removes the retainer clips on the lugs when installing aftermarket rims. I've frequently read where this has happened with aftermarket rims.

Clayclyde said:

I have a 2016 Ram Laramie 4 x 4 3500 HD. The mileage is 38,450. This is a definite Safety Concern. While driving home the other day at freeway speed here in San Diego, there was a vibration in the front and then I felt wheel wobble, luckily I was close to home so I limped off the freeway and to my home. It turned out that 7 of the 8 wheel lugs sheared off at the hub. I did check other forums and it appears that this has occurred not frequently enough to warrant a recall. I have checked and ordered the necessary part replacement and will do the hub replacement.

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Thanks for the report. Without a doubt it is something we all should be checking on our trucks.

Burla said:

Thanks for the report. Without a doubt it is something we all should be checking on our trucks.

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But how do you check for lug stretch? Torque is easy, but stretch?

Smokeybear01 said:

But how do you check for lug stretch? Torque is easy, but stretch?

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The lugs are not torque to yield bolts so there should be ZERO stretch to them. They can over time weaken if over or under torqued and eventually fail. I check all lug torque values monthly but I’m OCD like that.

I had to change all the studs on my 2004.5 2500 due to almost all of them being cross threaded or galled from the high speed air guns the tire shops use. 24 of the 32 were difficult to get started and I could not tighten them without considerable effort. When I went to NAPA for new studs and nuts they said I was the second person that week and the third in a month to order new studs for a RAM. Their input was that possibly the material was too soft to withstand the hammering of the impact guns. I have always hand threaded and used a ratchet to tighten mine before torquing. So I think it's the wannabe race pit mechanics that cause the damage. BTW, those studs and nuts are expensive. I recall something like $220.

Sandevino said:

The lugs are not torque to yield bolts so there should be ZERO stretch to them. They can over time weaken if over or under torqued and eventually fail. I check all lug torque values monthly but I’m OCD like that.

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They will stretch if you tighten them enough with an impact gun as we've all seen people do way too often.

Sandevino said:

The lugs are not torque to yield bolts so there should be ZERO stretch to them. They can over time weaken if over or under torqued and eventually fail. I check all lug torque values monthly but I’m OCD like that.

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I agree. So long as the nuts are never over torqued they shouldn't stretch. But how do you know they haven't been over torqued at some point if you don't know how or can't measure the stretch? I had an idiot over torque a stud on my coach because he didn't realize the left side of the coach were left handed threads. When he went to remove the first nut, he was actually tightening it. It stretched visibly before he figured out what the little 'LH' on the end of the stud meant. It was really a lot of extra work on their part to replace a single stud, but I wasn't leaving there until they did. Those were torqued to 450 foot pounds.