BITOG Quirky Car Fixes....

[Ihatetochangeoil]

My daughter drives an older vehicle, which is "BITOG maintained" by me. It has zinc plated lugnuts with plastic lugnut covers (GM OEM). I cannot see any purpose for these plastic covers other than cosmetic, and on eBay and I'm sure other places, I can buy a bag of 20 for $13, cost of ~$0.65 per. But every time I replace a few, they literally fall off on the road within days. I got tired of this, so I glued them on with blue RTV. Let's see how that works. What BITOG or weird quirks have other done in response to stuff that aggravates them?

TIA, I'm sure I'll learn something here.

 

[Zee09]

I walk the road often and I see these on the shoulder daily...

 

[SC Maintenance]

My daughter drives an older vehicle, which is "BITOG maintained" by me. It has zinc plated lugnuts with plastic covers (GM OEM). I cannot see any purpose for these plastic covers other than cosmetic, and on eBay and I'm sure other places, I can buy a bag of 20 for $13, cost of ~$0.65 per. But every time I replace a few, they literally fall off on the road within days. I got tired of this, so I glued them on with blue RTV. Let's see how that works. What BITOG or weird quirks have other done in response to stuff that aggravates them?

TIA, I'm sure I'll learn something here. View attachment 156907

They are designed to hold the salt in and make things rust faster. Planned obsolescence.

 

[billt460]

The easiest and best solution is to quit wasting your time / money / and effort on all of that cheap, plastic crap. Go on Amazon and buy a set of nice chrome plated, solid steel, one piece lug nuts that fit your vehicle. They're not that expensive.

Change them all out and you will never have to mess with them again. I did that on all 3 of my vehicles. Because they were all equipped with those cheap, sheet metal covered lug nuts from the factory. (Ford, Toyota, Jeep). One removal and installation with an air gun, and they will begin to deform.

And unless you check all of them with your lug wrench every time they are removed and installed, you won't know the wrench doesn't fit until you get a flat, and find yourself unable to change your tire.

 

[D60]

The easiest and best solution is to quit wasting your time / money / and effort on all of that cheap, plastic crap. Go on Amazon and buy a set of nice chrome plated, solid steel, one piece lug nuts that fit your vehicle. They're not that expensive.

Change them all out and you will never have to mess with them again. I did that on all 3 of my vehicles. Because they were all equipped with those cheap, sheet metal covered lug nuts from the factory. (Ford, Toyota, Jeep). One removal and installation with an air gun, and they will begin to deform.

And unless you check all of them with your lug wrench every time they are removed and installed, you won't know the wrench doesn't fit until you get a flat, and find yourself unable to change your tire.

Wait for it, wait for it......

 

[Mickey D]

The easiest and best solution is to quit wasting your time / money / and effort on all of that cheap, plastic crap. Go on Amazon and buy a set of nice chrome plated, solid steel, one piece lug nuts that fit your vehicle. They're not that expensive.

Change them all out and you will never have to mess with them again. I did that on all 3 of my vehicles. Because they were all equipped with those cheap, sheet metal covered lug nuts from the factory. (Ford, Toyota, Jeep). One removal and installation with an air gun, and they will begin to deform.

And unless you check all of them with your lug wrench every time they are removed and installed, you won't know the wrench doesn't fit until you get a flat, and find yourself unable to change your tire.

They hold the hubcap on. Different that what you described.

 

[billt460]

They hold the hubcap on. Different that what you described.

The lug nuts hold the hubcap on?

 

[dogememe]

The lug nuts hold the hubcap on?

Yes

 

[D60]

The lug nuts hold the hubcap on?

I actually didn't realize the cars - much less Buicks - used them but am very familiar with the system from GMT800s and GMT900s.

These are a compelling reason to never let a tire shop touch your wheels. The plastic "strips" (really it just expands and jumps a thread with no permanent damage, usually) too easily. I take them finger tight with a socket only- no additional leverage.

I like the idea of blue loctite but it seems overkill and maybe single use. I wonder if a non-hardening "goopy" sealer might be better? Hylomar or something similar? PTFE paste? I dunno, just thinking out loud....

And from a machinist 101 perspective I've always thought the system was ingenious: a nut that accepts a nut. Better than a lot of other methods of center cap retention. If they had just doubled the wall thickness of the plastic nuts it might have been more robust.

 

[ecotourist]

Couldn't you remove the plastic parts before letting the tire shop touch your wheels?

My Tesla has plastic lug nut covers. I prefer that look to the aero wheel cover. I'll just remove them before taking the car to a tire shop.

 

[ArrestMeRedZ]

Had a Colorado that someone tried to siphon the gas from and ruined the hose that goes from from the filler to the gas tank. It was a special hose that had a smaller diameter size on the filler than the tank. The part was discontinued and I couldn't find one that wasn't 10 times what I was willing to pay.

The truck had a universal hose on it (it was that way when I bought it), oversized for the filler tube and just clamped hard. That would set the evap DTC. I could still get it smogged by clearing the DTCs, then running a couple of drive cycles and passing smog before the CEL came back on. Not an ideal solution.

I ended up doing a BIOTG special fix by using 2 sized hoses, fitting the larger one over the smaller on the filler tube, allowing a tight seal and no evap code. I almost had to hire a circus contortionist to complete the job, though.

 

[billt460]

Couldn't you remove the plastic parts before letting the tire shop touch your wheels?

My Tesla has plastic lug nut covers. I prefer that look to the aero wheel cover. I'll just remove them before taking the car to a tire shop.

I take the center hubs off my truck before getting new tires. That way they won't scratch up the cutouts for the sockets when they remove the lug nuts.

When I get home, I put them back on. It's one less thing they can screw up. That's a bad attitude, but it's the sad truth most of the time.

 

[Mickey D]

The lug nuts hold the hubcap on?

The plastic nut covers hold the hub cap on.

 

[paulo57509]

Everyone knows of the lug nuts securing both wheels and wheel covers. But nuts holding the wheels and nut covers holding on the cover is a new one.

I laugh when I see fractured wheel covers where the evidence shows someone took an air wrench to the fake, molded-in nuts.

 

[Timmastertech]

Believe it or not GM actually has a service bulletin where you are instructed to use permatex form a gasket #2 on lug covers that have worn threads