Samething happened to me. I had a slow leak from a nail in the tire and went to the place I bought my tires from because they would fix it for free. While I was waiting around I noticed that the guy working on my car was spending way too much time trying to get one nut back on. When I brought the car home I saw on the wheel he was working on a stud that looked like it was so mangled I couldn't even image what he was thinking when he did that to the stud.

After a lot of work to get the nut off I drove back down to the shop and put the nut on the counter and told the manager to take a look at it and imagine what the stud looks like. He then went on to tell me that this happens all the time and that he will foot the bill if I take it to his buddy down the street to replace the stud for me. He also told me that happens all the time on old Volvos. As if the steel for the studs or the nuts were inferior or something!

I asked him if "it happens all the time" is an acceptable failure rate? My question is, wouldn't it be cheaper for them if they replaced the nut if they felt like it was cross threading? It is only a dollar and they could charge the customer. I guess not because most people would have never noticed and they wouldn't have to pay for it. Come to think of it, I was lucky to have been watching the guy struggle with it. Otherwise I wouldn't have noticed.

All I have to say is damn Tire Monkeys and their power tools! It still makes me made at how careless they were. Anyway, I didn't have his friend do the repair becuase I had a siezed right rear caliper that had a decapitated bleeder valve from the PO that I was waiting to replace with a rebuilt one from RPR and the Bently suggested the removal of the caliper which means a bleed would be in order. So, I had to do it myself rather than take it and have them get air in the brake line and make it undriveable until my part came in.

Anyway, it was pretty easy to replace. I did wish I had a small sledge hammer though.