I have swollen lug nuts

[Rick in PA]

I got my car inspected today and when they phoned one of the things they told me was I have swollen lug nuts. (???) They mentioned it could be a problem if I had a flat out on the road. I had never heard of such a thing.

Anyway, this evening I took a few of the lug nuts off and examined them. I was surprised to find they are a two-part design with a chrome cover pressed over a steel lug nut. I hadn't noticed that before. And yes, there appeared to be a fine line of corrosion at the joint between the two. So I measured them with a caliper. And yes they are about ~.005 to ~.010 over the nominal 3/4" hex. Surprise, surprise, I do have swollen lug nuts, but just mildly swollen.

Ah, all my lug nut wrenches (including the emergency one in the car) fit on the lug nuts. I'll keep an eye on it.

The garage I go to is very sharp, and very picky. OK maybe they were looking for an up-sell, but I can't blame them for doing that. Swollen lug nuts, who would have thought?

 

[Lubener]

Try an anti inflammitory.Seriously, maybe if they were over torqued maybe they can distort.

 

[Poohbah]

Now that is a title that made me laugh!

 

[clinebarger]

I can see the lugnut rusting under the Stainless Steel cover & it bulging out.

Must be a Rust Belt issue?

 

[kschachn]

Sure I've seen it. The plain steel nut corrodes under the (usually) stainless steel decorative shell, and increases the diameter to the point a wrench will no longer fit.

 

[OVERKILL]

This has happened to many of them on the Charger. Every time it is in we have a couple of the originals replaced. Subsequently, there are only a few of the original ones left.

 

[Warstud]

That's a little to much information.

 

[Planb]

I have gone as far as to make a special socket to remove the internally corroded lug nuts. Just take die grinder and wallow out the flats until it fits. Or sometimes you can use the metric or imperal equivalent to the swollen lug, but that depends on the initial size.

 

[Donald]

Usually they are acorn style lug nuts. Believe it or not they do sell .5 mm oversize sockets for this very reason. So if the lugnut was a 18 mm they sell a 18.5 mm. I got one socket on the internet. Double sided, maybe 17.5 on one side, flip it to 18.5.

For my Jeep I am replacing them slowly with SS lugnuts.

The tire shops do not seem to have these .5 mm over sockets, so they just pound on a 18 mm socket. After they pound on a 18 mm socket there is little chrome left if there was any before.

SNAP-ON sells one, so do others. Mine is not a SNAP-ON.

 

[ram_man]

the previous generation Ford Focus was terrible for this best thing to do is replace them all and be done with it in my opinion

 

[Donald]

Anyone with half a brain at Chrysler would have realized that after a few tire rotations the chrome plating would start to allow in water (salt water in the winter) which will then cause rust and corrosion under the thin layer of chrome.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Anyone with half a brain at Chrysler would have realized that after a few tire rotations the chrome plating would start to allow in water (salt water in the winter) which will then cause rust and corrosion under the thin layer of chrome.


After a few rotations? Snapped 4 or 5 the first time we went to take the off the 08 wrangler when it was brand new!!

 

[oldhp]

I replace the factory stuff with McGard lug nuts. No more problems.

 

[JHZR2]

I recommend rusteze medicated bumper ointment.

 

[IndyIan]

I would replace the whole set with solid ones. Once you have to tap on the socket, What can happen is the cap comes off the nut getting good and stuck in the socket or lug wrench. If you don't have a multi tool in the car, it could make a simple flat a bigger pita to fight with the lugs as well...

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
I recommend rusteze medicated bumper ointment.


lol, and you won't stink!!!

 

[Kestas]

Interesting thread. Way back when I worked at Chrysler and owned an Omni. One time I complained to my coworkers about swollen lug nuts on my car. It turns out one of my coworkers worked in a department that made sure parts were made to spec, and he was interested in seeing the lug nuts. He asked if the wrench supplied with the car fit the lug nuts. They didn't.

He put it through the system, and to my surprise, the same lug nuts came to our lab for me to examine for evaluation and failure analysis.

It's not often one gets paid to examine the parts on his car!

 

[Volv04Life]

Chryslers are the worst for this.

 

[hansj3]

Seen it a bunch, its best when the chrome falls off just go a size down.

When its swollen a size up seems to work well as well

 

[HangFire]

I just replaced my Dakota's lug nuts with Gorilla. We'll have to see how they hold up, but at least they can't fail in some of the ways that the 2-piece Chrysler [censored] nuts fail.