Kishanptl1

Hello everyone,

I have a weird one for the community, today I went to Sam's Club to get my tires rotated. They tried to take off the lug nuts and said I had "Swollen" lug nuts. They could not fit the 21mm socket into the lug nuts. They told me that they would not help me remove these. I went back home and tried a 22mm socket, which did fit, and managed to remove two tires. However, one tire has them torqued crazy tight and the other tire's one lug nut is rounded. I need to be able to access these two tires in case of an emergency, any tips, and also do shops charge for removing lug nuts (mainly asking if Lexus dealership does)?

Thank you for your time!

daddiojigg

Okay, I've dealt with this many times. First find a socket that JUST fits over the top of the nut . You want this to be as tight as possible because you will hammer it on all the way .Now get a 24" breaker bad and attach to socket that has been banged on. From here i use an extension on my breaker( usually the top handle of my floor jack.SLOWLY but steadily lean on the bar. You don't want to jerk it and have it round off the head.You now need to hammer out the nut from the socket . I use a vise . Throw this lug as far away as you can-- you don't want to ever see it again. Put the new ones on manually. I've sworn off my impact gun but the other day i thought an impact use might be okay if i use a long deep socket. Not sure though. I had to do this last weekend and, come to think of it, my nut is still stuck in the socket.
I should add that a 12 point socket is best. Good luck.

Kishanptl1

Thank you for the tip! I am going to try this out, if not, an expensive trip to the shop is upon me.

mandyfig

Suggest you put in WD40 on the bolt (saturate it), wait at least a day or so and then try unbolting it. Good luck.

daddiojigg

With all due respect, Mandy i think you're wrong on this one . I read your post yesterday and did not agree with it but since you've given me years of great advice, i thought i would leave it alone. But , alas , the emperor has no clothes. I've been thinking of your suggestion for the last 24 hrs and i can't see how that would help. ASSUMING the nut is tight to the rim and it;s a closed nut, there is no way for fluid to get onto the threads. I guess since they are swollen , you could make the argument that wd40 should be able to get through the opening but i(humbly) think it is a waste of time and product.

DavidTB

Pretty sure this is caused because the nuts have a chrome cap over a steel nut. Water gets under the nut and rusting causes the nut to swell under the chrome cap. This was a real common problem with a lot of Lincoln wheel nuts.

Margate330

I started off years ago changing tires and never in my life have I heard of a tire store sending someone home for swollen lugs what a bunch of panzys. lol

We saw this daily and like daddiojigg above said we just use next size up socket and tap it on and impact it off- not a big deal for a tire store- and yeah must replace with new lug nuts.
And like DavisTB says this is very common when they chrome cap over steel lugs that's why I never let a tire store impact them on I make them torque them because overtightening them destroys them.

Kishanptl1

Thank you everyone for your help. I ended up using WD-40 and the 22 mm tire iron for the tighter lug nut. One of my friends ended up removing the rounded lug nut for me. Next time, I will have to bring my torque wrench and ask Sams to not use an impact gun. Their is no way these lug nuts were tightened to 76 foot-pounds. In the future, I am going to just replace the chrome tipped lug nuts with solid ones.

iMSQ

lug nuts should be tightened with torque wrench only. NOT impact gun

Margate330

We were allowed to Impact on lug nuts for steel rims but for Aluminum rims we had to hand torque them and were not allowed to use an impact.
My managers at 3 different shops insisted that using an impact on Aluminum rims can warp/damage the rotors & rims so who knows if that's true but that's what I've always done.

daddiojigg

And you should only do the speed limit but... People will always look for the easy way. Best thing to guard against this is to do them yourself. I hate to admit it-no, hold on . i don't hate it -- but i will still run them in or out with my impact gun. I will try to stop short of engaging the hammer.