I went to Discount Tire to have my tire rotated/balanced and a technician came out and told the lady next to me that her lug nuts had expanded and the tool size he was supposed to use for that car was not working and stated for about $45 he could replace them for her and she agreed. I have personally never heard of this, have any of you?
Swollen/Enlarged Lug Nuts?
- Thread starter Datarock
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Yes, it's a real issue, and based on some additional reading, tire shops come across this more often than you might expect.
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/s...rd-drivers-time-and-money-lawsuit-claims
https://www.caranddriver.com/news/s...rd-drivers-time-and-money-lawsuit-claims
Someone decided to be cute and call it swollen nuts when in-fact, they end-up smaller. This is not a new problem and has been going on for 40 years based on personal experience. The cheap chrome plated domes deform and fall off. The solution is to take a hardened impact socket one size smaller and beat it onto the existing nut. This takes every bit of 30-45 extra seconds.
In a way, I guess it's justifiable that a shop charge a little extra money but, I think they should absorb the cost as penalty for all the times mechanic shops have over-torqued lug nuts to levels worthy of ridicule.
Ray
In a way, I guess it's justifiable that a shop charge a little extra money but, I think they should absorb the cost as penalty for all the times mechanic shops have over-torqued lug nuts to levels worthy of ridicule.
Ray
ts typically chrome plated acorn ones. I had them on a 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I bought SS ones to replace them. A company actually makes a socket that is .5 mm larger (so a 17.5 mm socket for example).
$45 is not bad if she got SS ones. I would have skipped it if they were just chrome plated steel.
The tire places do not have the .5 mm larger sockets and take the normal size socket and beat it on with a BFH.
$45 is not bad if she got SS ones. I would have skipped it if they were just chrome plated steel.
The tire places do not have the .5 mm larger sockets and take the normal size socket and beat it on with a BFH.
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Most likely a Ford product. Ford has been putting those crappy lug nuts on their cars for years. It's smart to replace the Ford OE lug nuts with McGard or DP lug nuts.
You picked a bad example Donald. 17mm is the one size where all tire shops will have a slightly larger socket, a 11/16 in which is 17.46 mm.
Originally Posted by Datarock
I went to Discount Tire to have my tire rotated/balanced and a technician came out and told the lady next to me that her lug nuts had expanded and the tool size he was supposed to use for that car was not working and stated for about $45 he could replace them for her and she agreed. I have personally never heard of this, have any of you?
Yes I have, also witnessed at a Discount Tire store and posted about it in this thread about a year ago. So, I don't believe the DT tech was shining on the customer. And after watching the DT tech work on a set, $45 for lug nuts/bolts seems reasonable and a good investment imo.
I went to Discount Tire to have my tire rotated/balanced and a technician came out and told the lady next to me that her lug nuts had expanded and the tool size he was supposed to use for that car was not working and stated for about $45 he could replace them for her and she agreed. I have personally never heard of this, have any of you?
Yes I have, also witnessed at a Discount Tire store and posted about it in this thread about a year ago. So, I don't believe the DT tech was shining on the customer. And after watching the DT tech work on a set, $45 for lug nuts/bolts seems reasonable and a good investment imo.
Originally Posted by RayCJ
Someone decided to be cute and call it swollen nuts when in-fact, they end-up smaller. This is not a new problem and has been going on for 40 years based on personal experience. The cheap chrome plated domes deform and fall off. The solution is to take a hardened impact socket one size smaller and beat it onto the existing nut. This takes every bit of 30-45 extra seconds.
In a way, I guess it's justifiable that a shop charge a little extra money but, I think they should absorb the cost as penalty for all the times mechanic shops have over-torqued lug nuts to levels worthy of ridicule.
All correct, but the Chrysler ones in particular can swell too... corrosion under the chrome caps... before they fall off, then they are smaller.
Usually they are easy to replace and don't require the special socket. Just go up or down a size, sometimes switching between SAE and Metric.
Finally I had enough when I replaced them multiple times with OEM on my Dakota, got a mess of Gorilla Nuts and had done with it.
If that $45 included the cost of the new nuts, I would call that a good deal.
Someone decided to be cute and call it swollen nuts when in-fact, they end-up smaller. This is not a new problem and has been going on for 40 years based on personal experience. The cheap chrome plated domes deform and fall off. The solution is to take a hardened impact socket one size smaller and beat it onto the existing nut. This takes every bit of 30-45 extra seconds.
In a way, I guess it's justifiable that a shop charge a little extra money but, I think they should absorb the cost as penalty for all the times mechanic shops have over-torqued lug nuts to levels worthy of ridicule.
All correct, but the Chrysler ones in particular can swell too... corrosion under the chrome caps... before they fall off, then they are smaller.
Usually they are easy to replace and don't require the special socket. Just go up or down a size, sometimes switching between SAE and Metric.
Finally I had enough when I replaced them multiple times with OEM on my Dakota, got a mess of Gorilla Nuts and had done with it.
If that $45 included the cost of the new nuts, I would call that a good deal.
I broke my ankle working at a tire shop when a dodge dakota's swollen lug nut got stuck in my socket. It was about the 4th time it happened on that vehicle and I was losing my temper. Shop was laid out with about 9 inches between two bays' lift posts and while I normally could slither through, something got caught that time.
Worker's comp paid more for my surgery and lost work than if they just got that guy a new truck.
I now have a 20mm socket-- rare! It was thru sears and SYWR points.
As for that lady's situation, if you played with a typical extended chrome lug nut, there' s an 18mm nut about 7/16" tall buried in chrome that's an inch tall and 1/2mm thick. Idiots put their impact on the "top" portion not grabbing the meat of the nut and twist the chrome part, so the hex has something of a spiral and sockets don't fit right anymore.
Worker's comp paid more for my surgery and lost work than if they just got that guy a new truck.
I now have a 20mm socket-- rare! It was thru sears and SYWR points.
As for that lady's situation, if you played with a typical extended chrome lug nut, there' s an 18mm nut about 7/16" tall buried in chrome that's an inch tall and 1/2mm thick. Idiots put their impact on the "top" portion not grabbing the meat of the nut and twist the chrome part, so the hex has something of a spiral and sockets don't fit right anymore.
Originally Posted by HangFire
Originally Posted by RayCJ
Someone decided to be cute and call it swollen nuts when in-fact, they end-up smaller. This is not a new problem and has been going on for 40 years based on personal experience. The cheap chrome plated domes deform and fall off. The solution is to take a hardened impact socket one size smaller and beat it onto the existing nut. This takes every bit of 30-45 extra seconds.
In a way, I guess it's justifiable that a shop charge a little extra money but, I think they should absorb the cost as penalty for all the times mechanic shops have over-torqued lug nuts to levels worthy of ridicule.
All correct, but the Chrysler ones in particular can swell too... corrosion under the chrome caps... before they fall off, then they are smaller.
Usually they are easy to replace and don't require the special socket. Just go up or down a size, sometimes switching between SAE and Metric.
Finally I had enough when I replaced them multiple times with OEM on my Dakota, got a mess of Gorilla Nuts and had done with it.
If that $45 included the cost of the new nuts, I would call that a good deal.
That's a good point... If the $45 included new nuts, that's a fair price.
I just went thru this with my son's 2007 Matrix. He called one dark rainy night from about 2 miles from the house asking me to bring the small floor jack, hammer, long nose pliers and sets of metric and SAE impact sockets. I immediately knew what was up... We got that one off in less than 30 seconds I think. Cold rain running down your neck is a strong motivator!
Ray
Originally Posted by RayCJ
Someone decided to be cute and call it swollen nuts when in-fact, they end-up smaller. This is not a new problem and has been going on for 40 years based on personal experience. The cheap chrome plated domes deform and fall off. The solution is to take a hardened impact socket one size smaller and beat it onto the existing nut. This takes every bit of 30-45 extra seconds.
In a way, I guess it's justifiable that a shop charge a little extra money but, I think they should absorb the cost as penalty for all the times mechanic shops have over-torqued lug nuts to levels worthy of ridicule.
All correct, but the Chrysler ones in particular can swell too... corrosion under the chrome caps... before they fall off, then they are smaller.
Usually they are easy to replace and don't require the special socket. Just go up or down a size, sometimes switching between SAE and Metric.
Finally I had enough when I replaced them multiple times with OEM on my Dakota, got a mess of Gorilla Nuts and had done with it.
If that $45 included the cost of the new nuts, I would call that a good deal.
That's a good point... If the $45 included new nuts, that's a fair price.
I just went thru this with my son's 2007 Matrix. He called one dark rainy night from about 2 miles from the house asking me to bring the small floor jack, hammer, long nose pliers and sets of metric and SAE impact sockets. I immediately knew what was up... We got that one off in less than 30 seconds I think. Cold rain running down your neck is a strong motivator!
Ray
It's a real thing. Very common in Ford vehicles to the point that I replaced the lug nuts on our Fusion with McGard lug nuts before we ran into a problem. Having an alternate size wrench to use sounds simple but are you carrying it in your car? That's when you'll really need it - if you get a flat on the road.
I put on my dad's winter tires yesterday for him and the lug nuts kept getting good and stuck in the socket to the point I had to put the socket in the vice and use a hammer and flat screw driver to get them out. He bought them from Autozone in Buffalo when the OE ones wore out.
I found lubricating the socket with some penetrating fluid made them come out a bit easier on the next few I took off but I still needed to bang the socket on the floor a bit to get them to come out.
I found lubricating the socket with some penetrating fluid made them come out a bit easier on the next few I took off but I still needed to bang the socket on the floor a bit to get them to come out.
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Had it happen on both my old Jimmy and with the Dakota with the OEM lug nuts.
In my case, though, DT threw in the set of lug nuts for the Dakota for free - of course I think it helped that I was dropping $800 on a new set of tires.
Funny thing, though, I've had them on the truck for almost a year now and recently noticed that one of the wheels has a different set of lug nuts than the other three - the one wheel has a domed finish on the nuts while the other three have a concave surface. For free, I think I can live with it though.
In my case, though, DT threw in the set of lug nuts for the Dakota for free - of course I think it helped that I was dropping $800 on a new set of tires.
Funny thing, though, I've had them on the truck for almost a year now and recently noticed that one of the wheels has a different set of lug nuts than the other three - the one wheel has a domed finish on the nuts while the other three have a concave surface. For free, I think I can live with it though.
I take those nuts off when new and flood them with Fluid Film or motor oil and let them soak for a while. Then turn them upside down to drain off the excess. Unlikely they'll corrode or swell after that - mine never have. And I never use an impact gun on them.
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I've had that problem myself several times. A good regimen of Cipro did the trick.
I just replaced all the lugs on my son's Malibu due to this swelling/oblonging and purchased all new one piece ones from Costco. I purchased "40" of them for $24 dollars OTD.
It was another member/thread that suggested Costco so I looked into them and sure enough, they were super cheap. McGuards, for 20 nuts were $45 dollars.
It was another member/thread that suggested Costco so I looked into them and sure enough, they were super cheap. McGuards, for 20 nuts were $45 dollars.
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I got McGards for my Mustang and my mom's Fusion. Replaced them before it became an issue. I tried Dorman but it took buying 40 to get 20 that were 13/16 and they started rusting within a week.
Had it happen on a Pontiac. Tire shops and dealer were using 3/4 inch sockets instead of 19mm. Boogered them up just enough that they would stick in the 19mm socket and not come out without a vice and punch.
Cheap lug nuts like that are a pure liability. If you know they are on your vehicle, replace them with a proper set. Within your circle of friends, if the topic ever comes-up, warn them about these pieces of junk. I know quite a few people who faced a lot of hassle because of these things.
Ray
Ray
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