Do You Have Swollen Nuts??? - Lug Nuts?

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Harold wrote us:

“After reading the article by CJ I wanted to add some information that most people do not know about.

I recently took my Tundra in for an oil change and when it was done they had a few additional issues they said I needed to take care of.

Typically when you take your vehicle to a dealer for any kind of service they always seem to find additional items that need fixing. I usually ignore their suggestions because most of the time it is just a way for them to generate additional revenue and there really are no problems. Seems like they never find any problems when your vehicle is under warranty. They only appear when you are no longer under any warranty.

This time I was sure they were pulling a scam on me because they told me I had swollen lug nuts.

I am 69 years old and been driving since I was 14 and I had never heard of anything so silly. I asked them how much to fix the problem and they said 300 dollars. I thanked them for their concern and drove home.

Once I got home I did google swollen lug nuts and found out that it is a real and serious problem.

Seems like starting in 2007 the car makers decided to change the way they make lug nuts. They all want shiny-looking lug nuts and the way they get them is by taking a lug nut and putting a shiny cap on it. You now have two different metals in contact with each other which over time results in corrosion between the two metals. This causes the cap to swell and you can no longer get your lug wrench to fit over it.

This is a serious problem if you happen to be somewhere and have a flat. You can’t change your tire because you can’t get the lug nuts off.

Amazon sells a set of half-size sockets that you can buy and hopefully one of them will fit your expanded lug nut well enough that you can get them off. But I didn’t want to fool with that. I wanted a permanent fix, something that I wouldn’t have to deal with later.

I visited a local tire store and asked them if they had heard about swollen lug nuts and they said they had experience with them. I had them order a set of single-piece chrome lug nuts for me for 90 dollars and they installed them for free. Three of my wheels came off fine but they had to work really hard on my left front wheel to remove the cap so they could get the lug nuts off.

You can find many youtube videos on how people have come up with ways to remove them but none of them are easy and most end up destroying the socket you use. Definitely something your wife or daughter wouldn’t be able to do by the side of the road.

This affects all manufacturers so if you have a vehicle newer than 2007 please check your lug nuts and if you have the two-piece ones please get them replaced, but not by the dealer. As I said my dealer wanted 300 dollars to replace them and they were going to replace them with the exact same two-piece ones that I had. Go to an auto parts store or a tire store and talk to them. I saved myself 200 dollars and got free installation by going elsewhere.

Again this was something I had never heard of before and everyone I talk to about it has never heard about it either. This isn’t something you would want to deal with in an evacuation situation or on a lonely road at night.”
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Dodge had a big problem with this about ten years ago. The biggest problem with them was that once deformed (swollen) you couldn't just pop the chrome cap off and use a smaller socket.

Two major contributors are people using impact tools without a torque stick to tighten the lugnuts, and corrosion between unlike metals. It's no fun, and can make a simple tire rotation into an all afternoon job.

 

I have not heard of this ,, is this 1 brand specific, or are all model cars and trucks possible culprits of these lug nuts ??

 

Buy new lugnuts and use a nut cracker to get the old, frozen ones off. If you don't have a nut cracker or two, you are not a mechanic. (And, of course, have one in your trunk GHB.)

 

Not just brand specific. The issue has been around for years. My 1979 Buick Regal had the chrome beauty cap lugnuts. Yep, they had the issue. Nothing that couldn't be solved with by taking an appropriate impact socket and hammering it down over the mess and then torqueing off.

Ditto for my 2015 ford sedan. Just swapped the winters over to summer tires. the OEM lugnut chrome caps 6 out of 20 had started separating and required the same attention. Replacements are like 60 bucks for all of them.

 

I had my swollen nuts replaced last year, I then cautioned the service manager that his tire monkey probably F'ked em up to begin with using an impact without a torque value. He just looked at me and said nothing?

 

happen to me with my BIL's Dodge - had a flat in his garage and wanted to just take the tire in for repair - he got a few off but had two that wouldn't budge with his OEM tools - I went over with my arsenal - broke one lose that sounded like the Crack of Doom - one just tore the chrome off and wouldn't budge with two men on a 6 foot pipe extension >>>> I told my BIL it was the Dodge dealer's tire guy's fault to now fix - you'd be really screwed on the road without a plug kit and a 12V compressor - I don't see a roadside dispatch doing much either ....

 

Galvanic Corrosion is the term your looking for, and YES, it's real, and it's far more dangerous then folks realize! In the Aviation world, we have very very specific requirements on mixing materials and what can and what cannot be mixed, AND, there are fines and punishment for breaking those standards. The Automotive world hasn't ever addressed this issue, and it's getting folks killed! Steel and Aluminum are the two biggest concerns, but there are many other areas we see things go wrong! Carbon Fiber, especially aftermarket trim and accessories is a very dangerous one, Carbon doesn't get along with ANY alloy, and the metal always becomes the Anode, at best, the two parts separate and continue to rattle along, worst case, the metal erodes away and costs a structural part which can cause major issues! Think of all those cars running around with a major percentage of Carbon Fiber, that's a scary thought! I know Lamborghini has actually addressed this in it's cars, but no idea about all the others, I do know BMW got it's ass handed them in a major lawsuit because of this, and I think V.W. did as well!

This deal with the lug nuts is an annoying and stupid excuse of a problem, and it would be cheaper to have done it correctly when the cars and trucks were new!

You can also use those "Spiral Broached" Impact sockets to remove pretty much any fastener that you cannot remove with normal tools, but it's usually a one time deal for the fastener after that! Find the right size socket, drive it on with a BFH and let her rip with the impact gun!

 

After my first encounter with two piece lug nuts I've always replaced them at the first opportunity - usually the first rotation or winter tire swap. Mechanical parts that can't do their job have no place here.

 

Liquid hot wrench and melt the outer cap is what I have done ,, my tools are worth more than a POS nut.

@Ura-Ki
Agreed ^^^

Sloth

 

Working for Goodyear I see this problem every day.

 

Just make sure to get the solid replacements rather than more of the covered nuts...and make darned sure to get the correct angle and style. 60 degree nuts on a 90 degree rim don't work well...or tapered mixed with ball...or mag style on a taper...you get the idea.

Another cause of the swelling is using SAE sockets on metric nuts...3/4 vs 19mm, 13/16 vs 21mm and 7/8 vs 22mm seem to be the worst.

 

Can't say that I do.........oh, lug nuts. I better check those next......

DW

 

Had those on my Jeep. Since I live in a dry climate, corrosion was not an issue but separation of the beauty cover was. Replaced them all with chromed one- piece solid or "Chrome-Dome" nuts from Vato Zone or similar. No issues since.