Yes, bolts and studs definitely are wear items. I've had a few individual studs snap, but usually caught them on time. This summer, I didn't and had a wheel detach going ~90 through T9 at Big Willow. Actually got pretty lucky that it snapped close to the apex with most of the direction change done:
I've asked the local race shops around after this and most of the mounting hardware advice boils down to:
- replace them. I've heard every 25-30 track days, maybe more often if you do lots of wheel changes;
- if a single one snaps, replace all of them on that corner;
- check your torque wrench, 20-30% errors are apparently not uncommon on cheap ones;
- don't torque them when the hub is hot;
- don't click the wrench multiple times "just to make sure".
Anyway, I got away just a bunch of front suspension and bodywork damage. Which was a convenient excuse for some Very Wide changes:
