Yesterday I replaced the front struts on my good neighbor's 2002 Grand Caravan. Compared to our 92 Accord, replacing the struts on the Caravan was relatively easy, but as my impact gun was removing the driver's side front wheel lug nuts during Step Number 1 of this job, TWO of them seized on their studs. They started to back out narmally, but then seized, and no matter what I then did, the nuts remained seized and, eventually, the studs broke -- one while I was using the impact gun, the other while I was trying to loosen the nut while using a socket and breaker bar.

This job had two "firsts" for me:
1. The first time in my life I ever worked on a Dodge product.
2. The first time in my life I ever had a lug nut seize on its stud while being removed.

I have only one question: What gives?! Have any of you technicians ever experienced this problem with Dodges in general, or the Caravan in particular?

Thanks.

 

Interesting; we've had not one, not two, but three Grand Caravans, all three were bought new and had at least 180,000 miles on the clock when we sold them, and all of them had the factory original struts in them at the time. Needless to say, I'm curious as to why the struts needed replacing.

As for working on them, I've done all of our maintenance, and the only bits I ever broke were the rear shock bolts (I always assume they're going to break anyway, regardless of make of vehicle, and always by new before starting the job), and an exhaust manifold to cross-over pipe bolt. As for the lug nuts, I don't know how many times I rotated the tires, but I never had an issue with them. It could be that the ones you were working on were previously cross threaded by someone who put them on with an impact wrench.

 

Naw Tony..nuts is nuts...

 

I didn't drive the vehicle before doing the job. My neighbor said that the vehicle was doing the typical things that vehicles do when they need struts -- wallowing badly when going over bumps, etc. He took the vehicle to somewhere and they told him that he needed new front struts and rear shocks and that it was going to cost him $1500 to $1600. After he told me this, I offered to help him replace them. After the job he said there was a dramatic improvement in bump-handling with no more wallowing, so I assume that the job was necessary. I was in the vehicle on the the first test drive after the job and, to me, the vehicle took bumps exactly as a big van should.

After writing my first post, I joined a forum devoted to Caravans and other such vehicles. I am not the only person who has experienced first hand problems with the nuts and studs on these vehicles.

I just ran a search on the HAF forum for "nuts" and "studs". There are far fewer results than on the other forum, although occasionally I guess even Accord owners crossthread their nuts . But at least they know what they've done.

I always install the nuts at least the first few turns either using a hand-held socket, or the bare nut with my fingers. Then I "lightly" thighten them with the impact and then finally tighten them with a torque wrench. I guess not everybody does this and the person who suffers the consequence is not always the person who crossthreaded them. This is yet another good reason to do tire rotations and snow-tire swaps yourself rather than trust someone you're paying to do that job and to do it properly. Yikes! Can't these people even be trusted to put a nut on a stud?! Are things really that bad nowadays?!

Anyway, I'm not the person who put on the lug nuts that, when I tried to remove them, broke the studs, so it is possible that whoever put them on crossthreaded TWO of them on one wheel.

(Can you imagine the response of the place that last installed the wheel if you went there a few months down the road and told them that they had crossthreaded two nuts and that, when you took the wheel off the car to do some maintenance, you broke the studs and now you wanted them to replace the two studs as well as give you two new nuts? Yes, I can well imagine their response-- "get out of here or we'll call the cops.")

I notice that the torque specification for the nuts is 100 ft-lbs, even on a wheel that has 5 nuts/studs. That's a bit extreme, isn't it?

 

Interesting; I'm a global moderator over on The Chrysler Minivan Fan Club forum and have been active on that forum for over six years; in all of that time I've only heard of one broken stud (not saying I didn't miss a few). Given the vast number of these vans on the road, and given the tens of thousands of vans represented by the membership base over there, I'm thinking a few broken studs would be pretty much par for the course. That said, it doesn't sound to me like an issue indemic to the Chrysler minivans; more like they were put on incorrectly before you got to them.

Sounds pretty normal to me; I've had many cars with the five hole pattern and they've ranged a low of 80 lb-ft (our 2001 Accord) to well over 100.

 

I broke a stud on my 95 Integra, after buying tires. It was a struggle getting the nut off, I figure someone used their impact wrench to start the nut & cross-threaded it. I always start em by hand so I can feel they're straight. I wish I'd checked for that immediately - not waiting until the first tire rotation...