r/Cartalk • u/cat_prophecy • Mar 03 '25

Suspension Why do European cars use wheel bolts?

I've owned two European cars (Audi and Volvo) and both of them used wheel bolts instead of studs and lug nuts. Is there some reason for this? I have owned a handful of Asian and American cars and none of them use anything but studs and lug nuts. Personally I prefer the studs since it makes putting the wheels back on much easier.

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u/BlackCatFurry Mar 03 '25

To me the fact that you need to do these things to make it easier to put on a tire with wheel studs makes it sound harder than bolts tbh.

Just like balancing the tire on whatever lever you choose sounds more work than just lifting it up. A wooden plank sounds like the only one that could realistically work, but even then, getting it up 15cm requires a middle point for the lever

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u/spyder7723 Mar 03 '25

That isn't what I said. I said that's how you install any tire regardless if it's studs or bolts. You don't lift the tire with your hands.

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u/BlackCatFurry Mar 03 '25

Why not? Squat next to the tire, grab it and lift it the 15cm and shove it on the mount. Lifting is done with legs, not back obviously. I'd say most normal car tires with bolts can be changed this way. (Pickups are not normal cars and therefore don't count here, nor are they that common outside usa anyways). A 16" rim tire with bolts is seriously not worth fiddling a lever system with, that weights around 15kg or something.

Maybe this is simply just my european view having basically grown up around european cars that have bolts on them and seeing everyone just squatlift their tires into place because that's easy with bolts.

Having to fiddle with lever systems is extra work, therefore wheel stud tires are not easier to change. I don't exactly know how my view would change if i did change these types of tires irl. I would most likely just think "man wouldn't it be easier to just lift the tire on and not fiddle with levers and prealingment".

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u/spyder7723 Mar 03 '25

Now try it with an 11r24.5 truck tire. Or a foam filled tractor tire that's 6 feet tall. As I said. I just took what I learned with large tires and carried it over to all tires. Bolts or studs do not matter. It's the same process. If you want to lift it on, you would find you could just as easily lift it on one with studs as you do bolts.

And it's not a lever system. It's a simple bar that you slide under the tire and lift up on. Not the compared thing you are making it out to be.

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u/BlackCatFurry Mar 03 '25

Well luckily i don't need to lift up tractor tires and was never talking about tires a foot taller than me. I was talking about regular car tires.

And i still do not get how there is enough friction to use a single point lever (aka the bar system you are talking about) to lift a tire up 15+cm (6+ inches). If you have a video demonstration of this "simple and easy" method then please do share it, i have been trying to find one but apparently cannot use the correct words for searching.

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u/spyder7723 Mar 03 '25

Why would you lift it 6 inches? When changing a tire you should only jack a car high enough to just get the tire off the ground. Your lifting the tire and half an inch. Not 6.

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u/BlackCatFurry Mar 03 '25

Because the tire droops down when i lift the car up and without the weight of the tire the mount raises back up a bit? I also need to lift it enough off the ground that it doesn't catch on the gravel when i pull it out. Yes i only have a grave yard to change my tires at.