Yesterday, I changed the oil and did the maintenance for my wife's GX470 15,000 check up. After rotating the tires, I snapped the wheel stud on the passenger rear wheel when tightening the lug nuts...by hand! I didn't tighten it too hard, but it snapped.

It cost me $6 for a replacement stud from the dealer, and I had a pain removing the rotor. I had no idea that the GX470 had drum brakes as well as disk brakes on the rear.

Does anyone know an easy way of removing the rotor from the rear? What a pain in the b*tt! I couldn't adjust the self-adujting screw because there was no slot to stick a spoon or screwdriver through.

 

Is it possible that the drum brake was the parking brake? Maybe this is one to take to the dealer or a mechanic with an easy out.....

 

My guess is that you may be able to take the truck to the dealer and have the problem fixed under waranty.

~ Cap

 

Kurt,

I just pulled this quote from www.lexus.com - GX470 spec sheet:

Four-wheel ventilated power-assisted disc brakes

The sheet makes no mention of the DRUM brakes Just wondering how you came to the conclusion that it has both?

(about 3/4 down the page under SAFETY section...)
http://www.lexus.com/models/gx/specifications.html

Thanks in advance!



-Alex

 

You either have drum or rotor but not both on each corner, I think he talking about the deep rotor hat, it look like a drum.

How can you snap off the wheel stud , they can take up to 120ft lb. easy. That hard to do with the stock wrench.

 

Most vehicles with 4-wheel disc brakes use the inside of the rear rotor hub (which is shaped like a drum) as a drum for the parking brake.

 

This is exactly the type of parking brake system the GX utilizes.

 

Exactly as caha14 said. The drum is the inside of the rotor hub. I managed to pull it off the first time to replace the stud by brute force. After I replaced the stud, I wanted to readjust the self-adjuster on the drum brake and couldn't get the rotor off. I made the mistake of putting the key in the ignition and turning it on to move the gear shift from park into neutral, and I could hear the brakes moving. I snapped to key to lock/off as soon as I heard it but it was too late. The caliper for the disk brake completely closed and I had to use a c-clamp to recompress the piston. After that I couldn't remove the rotor again.

 

I was on my knees with the lug wrench, and I'm under 180 lbs (after my crash diet). So, I didn't put a heck of a lot of pressure on the stud when I was tightening.

I Googled a search on the 4Runner wheel stud snapping and found someone else who did the same thing on his 4Runner (same part as the GX470 stud). He was using a torque wrench to tighten his lug nuts and came nowhere near what he wanted to tighten the nut to (70lbs?) and snapped his right off. So, when I bought the replacement stud, I bought an additional just in case this happens again.

 

Just curious why you would try and do any maintenance yourself on a brand new $50K car/truck? My first guess would not be the lack of money (since you did spend that amount to get the vehicle in the first place). I am sure your capable of it yourself (your descriptions elude to the fact you know what your doing), but is it really worth the hastle? I was just curious why would anyone do this type of thing when, in the long run, there could be some warranty issue with the lack of service records. I am personally comfortable with the knowledge I have worked on cars in my youth, but I would really hate to hear that something was installed incorrectly and violate the warranty replacement. Again, I was just curious as to the reason ....

 

Why? Its simple. We WANT to and don't like others to do what we can do ourselves. Maybe I am dating myself, but I always thought there are some things a man should know, like basic automotive repair, how to drive a stick, how to shoot a gun and how to fix things around the house.
Also, I am a cheap bastard and decline to pay someone $100 for a simple task I can do in 15 minutes for $20 of parts. Sometimes its faster to do it than drag the car to the dealer for a 3 hr production.
This said, not everything is worth doing oneself. While I'll rotate tires & do oil, etc, I am not about to change the diff oil as I lack a lift!

 

I'm still curious if this fix could have been done by the Dealer, under Warranty ?

~ Cap

 

I'm guessing that it wouldn't be since I snapped it off. :-(

You can try calling your Lexus dealer and see if they would replace it. My dealer is el cheapo.

 

Agree with JWS53. We want to do our own maintenance. I'm the yardman and handyman too. It's a challenge and very very satisfying. Despite my aggravating missteps, I still push forward.

 

The Dealers bill Lexus for any warranty work. So it is nothing out of their pockets.

~ Cap