I am sure this situation has been brought up before on many occasions.. But I purchased a lift with new tires and wheels. I went to pull my driver side rear off and I couldn't get them son of a guns to break free for nothing. I was cranking on them so hard they would start to warp/strip. I even took them to a tire shop and they couldn't get them to break free.. We tried impacts, air tools, breaker bars, smaller sockets and nothing worked. Anyone have any other ideas how to get them off? I am on stock wheels and I am sure they are the stock crappy Chrysler lug nuts.
Bolt breaker then get new ones. If you can squeeze the breaker on it anyway. Otherwise just get a grinder/Dremel and cut them off and replace the studs too, which may be the easiest way .
Same, I've never had a lug stick that I couldn't use a breaker bar on. I've got a 5ft long pipe that slides nicely over my breaker bar, takes off crimp style axle nuts with easy, never needed it for a lug. But maybe that's what you need
Just use a breaker bar and if they break, replace the wheel lugs (make sure to have new ones on hand when you do this obviously ) Sounds like you may want to replace them anyways with how tight they are...
I tried this with about a a 4' breaker bar and the tire shop tried with their own breaker bar. NO Luck! It is crazy, I have never had this kind of trouble with lug nuts. But today, these lug nuts are going down lol I am getting them off one way or another.
Good luck. Two things I hate about working on my Jeep... seized bolts and squeezing my meat hooks into tight spaces while holding onto a 1/4 nut or bolt.
Just be mindful there is a cap over the actual nut which will probably give up the ghost before the actual lug does. If you can get the cap off without damaging the nut, the nut is one socket size down from the lug nut assembly.
Step one... spray the heck out of them with Kroil, Liquid Wrench, or Break-Free penetrants which are good in those situations. Give it time to work into the threads. No, not WD-40.
If that doesn't work, step two would be to heat the lug nuts until they are darned near cherry red and then they should unscrew rather easily.
I've had seized bolts over the years where I resorted to welding a nut or bolt onto the fastener that was seized. Invariably, after the intense heat of the welding processing, the fastener would then unscrew so easily I wondered if I had welded onto the wrong nut or bolt lol.
I usually just break them off with a 4-way lug wrench whenever discount tire has touched my tires. As in, every time and every store I have gone to always strips at least one of my lug nuts since apparently they don't know how to use an impact driver. Never going there again. Ok...rant over.
Update on progress.. Went to Autozone they had some fancy socket with threads inside (supposedly made for this situation). i thought I would give it a shot.. put it on there and started with the impact, it didn't work so I got the breaker bar out with a heavy duty ratchet and a small extension. I was cranking on it and the darn extension snapped :atomic: and got lodged into the socket which is in turn stuck to the lug nut.. :rant: lol I finally gave up, went to another tire shop and they are not thrilled about it, but said they will take care of it Monday morning. Positive- At least no one can steal me wheel :lmao:
I used a small dab of axle grease with a toothbrush before I put on my McGard locking lug nuts , so I'll be sure to get them off when I need to . Come to think about it , I ought to do that on all my lug nuts next time around . :bop:
Whenever I had frozen lug nuts (back when I was a tech), I just put a 3/4" impact on them and snapped them off. Some of the newer 1/2" guns are strong enough to do it, too.
I also use oil on the studs, always (but I do live in the salt belt, where it's more important). Just keep that oil in mind when torqueing them, so that you don't overtorque.
You guys using antiseize or grease on your lugs remember that the recommended torque values are for for dry threads, not lubricated. Make sure that you adjust the torque applied for a lubricated stud. I am not sure but I believe that a lubricated stud takes 10-30 % less torque value. Don't torque a lubricated stud to 110 ft lbs.
I had the same issue when I took off the stock rubi wheels, the shitty lugs were the hollow ones. Lucky for me I was doing the project with my brother who is a mechanic, but we tried everything... Hammering on star sockets etc, everything just stripped, eventually just drilled the stud and replaced it. Word of advice on replacing the stud, granted it this was on a rubi with rear disk, but take the brakes off, punch out the drilled out stud, then with a new one, get an oversized nut to act as a spacer, and use an impact with an old lug nut to draw it through... remember to toss that lug nut you just used to draw it.
I have had this problem a few times. I use a 3/4 deep well impact socket. If it doesn't fit tap it on with a hammer. Then a 1/2 breaker bar and a 4ft pipe as a cheater bar. If that isn't enough get a longer pipe. You might need a 8ft pipe. You can try stepping on the end of pipe using all your weight. It will break free one way or another.
I don't want to have a flat that can't be replaced on the road. So, I have been using a little grease on studs and lug nuts for many years. To make sure I don't over torque the nuts with the grease, I reduce the torque value by 20% or so. No problems.
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