Lug nut issues

[irv]

Hi, so I was going to inspect my brakes since they started making a squealing noise on a recent trip. I thought the stock lug nuts were 21mm but my sockets wouldn

[Abejohnson]

I had the same problem recently. I do agree that they swell, could even see the bulge on some of mine. In the end I used a lug nut remover to twist some off. Had to replace 6 on one wheel so far.

[irv]

Weird, 4 lug nuts fit the stock wrench, all the rest were too tight. But they were loose on the 22mm. They all look stock to me.

[andy_george]

Same issue here. I change to winter wheels every year, and this spring when I went back to the summer wheels I had to buy a different socket. Wierd!

[Mark Rogers]

Could the swelling be the result of over-torquing?

[andy_george]

It

[radin2son]

Has anyone asked tire shops about this swelling? Discount tire appears to pay attention to torque and I haven

[irv]

I tried to post pics of the lug nuts but I kept getting a server error. So here's a link to the pics instead: 1, 2.

 

I watched several youtube videos on how to remove swollen lug nuts. Most were on Fords, but the lug nuts looked similar (chrome cap lug nuts). There was a lot of hammering and chiseling on the videos, I'm not looking forward to that with our 8 lug nuts per wheel :|

 

Does anyone have recommendation on what kind of lug nuts would be better to use instead of OEM that could swell again?

Edited May 22, 2019 by irv

[bbq]

21mm sure,but the nut material is too soft?some tire shop use incorrect socket and over tight by air gun make it out of shape ,if not too bad try to grind it to fix.

Edited May 24, 2019 by bbq

[irv]

21.5mm socket arrived in the mail today. But it ended up fitting only half way on most of the swollen lug nuts so I ended up using the 22mm socket anyway. The 21.5 and 22mm sockets still weren't able to remove the lug nuts when I used them with my Ridgid impact wrench, rated for 620 ft.-lbs for Max Breakaway / Nut Busting Torque (those numbers could be inflated, but the impact wrench can easily remove lug nuts from my other vehicles). I bought a 25in. breaker bar, but that still wasn't enough. I had to use a cheater bar on it, and 5ft of leverage finally did the trick. I only removed a few nuts to test it out so far. Hopefully I can remove all of them this weekend.

 

cheater and breaker bar pic.

swollen nut.

Edited May 29, 2019 by irv

[CaptainLarry]

I'm fed up with it.  I'm looking for an aftermarket set of nuts that work right.  I spent a very long time rotating tires Friday because the nut would get stuck in the socket.  Now I've crushed the dome on a few just trying to get the nut out.  In recent past I've also had to use the forbidden anti-seize just to be able to move the nuts on the thread by hand.

 

I don't believe in swollen nuts.  I think it is just poor quality nuts to start with.

 

Repeat of IRV's request: Anyone recommend a decent replacement for these nuts?

[andy_george]

I HATE when the threads are rough and you can hear the nut squeal all the way down them. I know anti-seize is a bit of a no-no because it can lead to over-tightening, but I love the way the nuts slide down the threads. I

[ASD Dad]

Just dealt with this on our old Sienna.  They were all swollen so much that a 22mm fit tight (they are 21 stock).  I hate those chrome caps, they are near identical to the NV lug nuts.  I ended up buying a full set of Dorman OEM replacements on Amazon.  Figure I got 8 years out of the first set.  I didnt see any decent alternatives that had good ratings.