Do forgive my rant. It turns out that the last mechanic to touch my car (before I bought it) cross threaded one of the wheel nuts in a rather severe way.
I tried undoing the nut and it busted where the spline sits in the wheel hub. Now it's time for a new hub at a cost of $600 + labour 🙄. I'm wondering whether I can keep driving around on 4 studs for a while...I always keep them torqued up. The answer will be no but I've not heard of a wheel falling off with one missing.

Not the car's fault at all, just a bit of poor workmanship and perhaps the wrong tact on mine. This is her majesty's third undisclosed major fault I've uncovered since purchase, may it be the last!

 

I mean you can but it is dangerous, and you would need to drive very carefully. The dangers definitely out-weigh the drive a little longer aspect, also depends on how long you plan to drive it like that. Also did the hub break or the wheel stud. If the wheel stud broke you just need to replace the wheel stud, which is about $3 I think.

 

The stud rotated inside the hub and wore the splines away getting the nut off. They mechanic couldn't install a new one.

 

Ok, yea that sucks. I would get the part number and check online before you purchase at a dealership. maybe cheaper online not huge savings.

 

Have you checked a wrecking yard? Seems like it would be easy to find un undamaged one on a totaled car.

 

I don't know what the actual likelihood of catastrophe is driving on 4 out of 5 lug nuts but having worked for a nationwide tire shop years ago, broken and stripped out lug nuts were not uncommon and nobody stressed about being 1 down on a 4 or 5 lug vehicle. Obviously 2/4 would not be good and 3/5 is pushing it. Sometimes it happened when we worked on them and sometimes you could tell that the person had been driving that way for months or years. If if it happened while we worked on it we would refer them to a local brake/alignment shop to replace the stud on us and we would send them on their way. I would be more worried using only 3 lugs on a 4-lug car but even then, unless you're racing or consistently corning at high speeds, the odds of ever having any problems are slim to none in my opinion and you'd probably be ok with 3 as long as they were opposite each other. Every lug you lose puts more stress on the remaining lugs but they're probably all way overrated so that they're able to handle the extra load.

 

Not that I am suggesting you should do it, but a buddy of mine rode on 4/5 nuts for a couple of years without any issues. I mean the car was a total POS electrically, but it never affected his tires or other nuts.

 

I recommend that you get it replaced too, but you won't have any problem with one lug nut missing...even if you tracked the car every day for the rest of its life.

 

I appreciate the level headed responses from everyone, it would have been easy for you all to tell me I'm going to crash haha.

I checked out the UK store I used to buy my major service parts and it's actually cheaper from the dealer...I don't know why they're so expensive, my last car's hub was $80. Unfortunately there isn't an online parts store in Australia with lexus parts.

Unfortunately there isn't a single current shape GS or RC wrecking in the whole country. Here they cost almost double what they do in the US so maybe they're always repaired.

That's what I was hoping haha...I'll keep an eye on the remaining nuts until I can source a new hub. I have a torque wrench to keep them right on spec.

 

check rockauto.com Hubs seem to be not THAT expensive there

 

Thanks for that link, I had no idea aftermarket hubs were available. I wonder if they are pretty much the same. I know the control arms are aluminium but I assume these hubs weigh roughly the same as genuine, I wonder if I'd need to chance both. It's a shame I don't have an AWD GS , their hubs are very cheap. I appreciate the help.

Moog at amazon
WH590513 Hub

 

I would not trust the aftermarket wheel bearing. If they removed the factory hub or just with the rotor/caliper off wouldn't there be enough stud left the knock off or press out the broken stud. Then all you would need is a replacement stud.

 

The problem is that the replacement stud has no place to sit, that's been stripped away. The thought of using Loctite 660 to set it has crossed my mind, if it sets it'll be as strong as any of the other studs and shouldn't affect the load bearing capability. As long as I don't torque gun the nut off, it shouldn't present issue when taking the wheel off.

 

Can confirm success with loctite 660ing the stud back in. Applied 50nm of force on the nut, everything looks great