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Car Forum / Dodge / Dodge Cars / February 2008WHEEL NUT PROBLEM
Took my caravan into a tire dealer for a wheel balance. Twenty minutes into it he tells me there is a problem with the nuts stripping. THe nuts have some sort of tin shield over them for purly estetic looks I believe but anyhow what happened was that the shields came off. The guy doing the job put the 19mm impact over the bar nut which is of course slightly smaller in size now because the steel shield is missing. He rounds the edges over on 5 of the 10 nuts holding the two front tires on and then procedes to use a nut extractor to try and remove one of the nuts. Now we have one nut that is totally round and stuck solid and nine that are somewhat rounded and stuck on. To make matters worse, I have alloys on the van. I stopped the guys from going any farther and took the van home, didn't see any point in digging the hole any deeper. I have been looking at the mess and it looks like drilling the stud will be the only way to get the totally rounded nut off the dam stud. Has anyone had this same problem and what did you do to resolve it. The dealer is an option but I would like to give this one a go myself first. If the nuts weren't down in a bit of a recess in the alloy rim a dremel would certainly be the answer, and may yet be but it will be difficult to cut the nut and not hit the rim. Suggestions please. Any info appreciated. Bill >Took my caravan into a tire dealer for a wheel balance. Twenty minutes into >it he tells me there is a problem with the nuts stripping. THe nuts have [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] >Any info appreciated. >Bill (1) Post the name and address of the tire dealer here. (2) If they are part of a chain of stores, talk to the main office. (3) California residents can report problems to the state auto repair agency. Does your state have an equivalent office? > Took my caravan into a tire dealer for a wheel balance. Twenty minutes into > it he tells me there is a problem with the nuts stripping. THe nuts have [quoted text clipped - 17 lines] > Any info appreciated. > Bill Happens all the time, it's either boogered up acorn nuts or lost puzzle lock keys... All that needs to be done is to weld a 1/2" nut on the end of the problem nuts, then remove via method of choice. It would have been nice if they had thought to use a 17mm socket on the nuts that were missing the tin covers, but tire busters aren't the brightest lot. If you have the room, try vise grips on the nut, as tight as you can. The place a pipe on the vise grips or even a long large box end wrench and see if you can back it off. If you want you can even use a hammer on the vise grips to get them moving. I had the same problem but caught them before they got past number 2 nut. Don -- Message posted using http://www.talkaboutautos.com/group/alt.autos.dodge/ More information at http://www.talkaboutautos.com/faq.html > Took my caravan into a tire dealer for a wheel balance. Twenty minutes > into it he tells me there is a problem with the nuts stripping. THe nuts [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > Any info appreciated. > Bill First off, that's exactly why you never want lug nuts with those dinky tin covers -- it's well worth the cost to replace them with real, solid acorn nuts. Also, always dab a little anti-seize on the studs before putting on the lug nuts. As for removing them now, you could try hammering a deep wall socket of an appropriate size down over the rounded nut -- Once it's jammed on, attach a breaker bar (maybe even with a length of pipe on it for additional torque) and go to work. (I've seen this technique used on locking lug nuts where the owner lost the key.) There are removers for rounded nuts -- sort of like sockets lined with sharp left-hand angled teeth -- as you turn them counter-clockwise they bite deeper onto the rounded nut. The only problem might be their not fitting into the little well your rims allow around the lug nuts (hence the idea of hammering a socket straight onto the nut). Before you start, soak them down with Kroil... Thanks for the suggestions. The nut extractor was successful on several of the nuts but at the end four studs had to be drilled out and let me tell you, that wasn't pretty. Anyhow all is done now and with very little damage done to the alloys. Thanks again for all the suggestions Bill >> Took my caravan into a tire dealer for a wheel balance. Twenty minutes >> into it he tells me there is a problem with the nuts stripping. THe nuts [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > around the lug nuts (hence the idea of hammering a socket straight onto > the nut). Before you start, soak them down with Kroil... What the problem is the lug nuts have an aluminum cover and the metal under them will rust and start to build up under the aluminum causing them to expand and the socket will no long fit right. > Took my caravan into a tire dealer for a wheel balance. Twenty minutes > into it he tells me there is a problem with the nuts stripping. THe nuts [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > Any info appreciated. > Bill |
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