Frozen lug nuts

Anyone know of a trick to get frozen and rounded off lug nuts off? They are chrome nuts on aluminum wheels.

Heat, drill, air chisel, chisel and hammer. Sometimes heat and a little PB makes em come off with one of those damaged bolt removers. Other times the only way to get em is to drill out the nut and stud and all. I have chisled through some with an air chisel part way and then just chipped away with a regular chisel until I could remove the wheel.



Of course if you don't care about the wheel, new doors are opened.

The big problem with the nuts (2) is they have the chrome cover deal and they are inset into a hole in the wheeles. No room to get at them and not much flat surface to chisel and or get a bite on them.. My guess is I'll need to drill the stud, what a bugger!!

Tried Vice Grips?

Get the caps off and use an 18mm socket to get them off.

Okie Terry said:

Get the caps off and use an 18mm socket to get them off.

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Yep. Shouldn't be a problem. I'd replace all 20 with solid lugs after you get them off too.

Drive an impact socket over them, one just a tad down from the stock size and use a 5 or 10lb baby sledge. Then use a 6" extension and a big long breaker bar.
Had to take 4 locking lugs off my sons that way, he lost the key, what a PIA 20 min before closing at the tire store...they didn't have a key...

If they're OEMR nuts with the chrome caps on them, they should be 18m/m without the cap.

However, the first thing you'll probably want to do is take a brass or steel drift (just a straight rod, maybe about 3/4" in diameter) and give each nut ONE good solid whack with a heavy hammer - which should help break up whatever's sticking the things.

Get new "solid" nuts - ones without the sheetmetal cap, and have done with it. Some "never-seez" on the nuts is a good idea - but if you do that, reduce installation torque by about half (from 75 pound-feet to 37-38, to account for the lubricity of the never-seez.)

However, having the never-seez on the bolts will probably keep them from getting stuck again - mine haven't...

5-90

I hate having my nuts frozen. Take it to a tire shop and save yourself alot of grief, they have the tools and the experience. I broke a key for a set of locking nuts once and they took care of it for not much dough. They use an impact socket that threads onto the nut and gets tighter as you try to loosen the nut (lh threads). You could buy the socket if you have an impact wrench and do it yourself. Either the stus shears or the nut comes off, either way, you win.

5-90 said:

Some "never-seez" on the nuts is a good idea - but if you do that, reduce installation torque by about half (from 75 pound-feet to 37-38, to account for the lubricity of the never-seez.)

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An outstanding point, I don't think too many people realize there is BIG difference between DRY & WET torques for any bolt/nut. That any torque spec is automatically a "DRY" torque, unless otherwise noted. Therefore, if you lube up a bolt/nut and then torque it to spec, your actually overtorquing it.

I ruined an entire set of Studs and Lug Nuts on an old Mini-Van because I was soaking them in WD-40 and then torquing to spec, multiple times.

I've seen suggestions of reducing torque by 20%-30% if you lube the bolt/nut. In my experience, if you slather Anti-Sieze all over the threads, even a 30% reduction in torque still seems to high of a torque.

Some things that I've found, that seem to work.
*Treat the bolts/nuts, don't lube them: Lug Nuts is something I want to make sure I have the proper torque, so I always use dry lug nuts torqued to spec. If the studs/lug nuts look rusty or I suspect they're starting to sieze, I'll soak them in WD-40 while they are off for me to do what ever work I'm doing, then when its time to put them back together; I thoroughly dry them off, with rags, compressed air, even a little brake cleaner (if they still seem slippery). Works great, a short soak in WD-40 and cleaning with a cloth or brush, treated/cleaned any rust or gunk and keeps the bolts working well, then drying them off lets me use the full torque, for piece of mind, without them siezing the next time I pull them.

*Use Anti-Sieze Sparingly: Just a dab will do you. Rub it in and wipe it off, you just have to have the slightest coating for it to do its job. Slathering it all over, just makes a mess, I found the lightest coating of anti-sieze worked just as well. The difference, with a light coat, the bolts were much closer to a reasonable 25% reduction of torque than excessive anti-sieze that was so slippery you had no idea how much pull you were putting on the threads. Very nerve racking when working with aluminum.

*Use Alternative Methods to measure the proper "CLAMPING" force on the bolt/nut: The Champion Plugs I use, come with instructions on the box on how to tighten the plug if you don't have a torque wrench. i.e. for using a gasket in an aluminum head, finger tight, than a half turn with a wrench (thats for my aluminum head Neon, not an XJ). I use those instructions, and with anti-sieze I don't even come close to the spec torque. I'll go back a couple of days later of driving the car (the heat dries out the anti-sieze) and re-torque and I hit the spec torque with barely a couple of degrees of turning the wrench.

*Go back and retorque later: If in doubt, especially dealing with aluminum, use a lower torque, if your worried that its not torqued well enough, go back later, after some time and heat dries up that lube and re-torque the bolts. Incrementally increase the torque from the original figure and only turn the wrench a few degrees, if you don't hit the target torque, than just wait another couple of days and try again, repeat until you hit the spec torque. For Lug Nuts, the heat of the brakes will probably dry out the anti-sieze after a few hundred miles of stop and go driving and you probably can retorque them a couple of times to finally reach the spec torque.

Something someone touched on, but never really definitevely stated: NEVER USE AN AIR IMPACT WRENCH TO TIGHTEN LUG NUTS You'll destroy your lug nuts and studs, and get yourself into the situation that you can never get the lug nut off again without destroying it. If the mechanic you use does this, (unless he uses those special torque sticks) than find another mechanic.

If the threads on your studs/lug nuts have been damaged by corrosion or using an Air Impact Wrench to tighten them, then spend the $40 to replace all of them, lube and anti-sieze won't make them better, and they'll just chew themselves up more each time you take them off and put them on, finally leaving you at the point they sieze up together. The studs only a take a few minutes with a "C"-Clamp and socket to press in and out. I've never done it on an XJ, but most cars its pretty simple to do yourself.

Okie Terry said:

Get the caps off and use an 18mm socket to get them off.

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That was a good plan, BUT I guess I'd better buy a better grade socket...I just broke my 18mm in half.