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swollen lug nuts?

mleunm

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Jul 4, 2012
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40
my brother recently brought in the car for the winter tune-up and tire change and he told me that the garage had to change the nuts for all the wheels because they were swollen....they were swollen because they use cheaper materials to make them now...i've never heard of swollen nuts!....is this just the garages way of gouging the customer for extra bucks or is this for real?
 
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Soultribunal

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my brother recently brought in the car for the winter tune-up and tire change and he told me that the garage had to change the nuts for all the wheels because they were swollen....they were swollen because they use cheaper materials to make them now...i've never heard of swollen nuts!....is this just the garages way of gouging the customer for extra bucks or is this for real?

This happens because a lot of times the lugs are bi-metal, and coated with chrome or SS and cored with regular steel. When the steel is comprimised you will have the outer head swell up to the point where getting most regular sockets you either have to hammer on, or break off the existing ones.

It is more becaues of the 'style' of nut than cheaper materials. Single metal lugs do not usually suffer from this nearly as bad.

What kind of Car? Chrysler by chance?

EDIT - Please keep responses clean folks, its a legit question.

-ST
 
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3.0charlie

3.0 "I kill SR2's" Charlie
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May 22, 2007
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Well, I was about to write 'If Peri and ChrisK see this, it's going to be a wild ride...'

Guess the party-pooper - yea, you ST - chimed in quickly knowing too well... :haha:
 

Soultribunal

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Sorry guys, already nuked and PM'd a bit.

Trying to give honest help, one day, I won't have a thread derail.

I told myself that....3 years ago next week.

-ST
 

KaptCrunch

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Feb 23, 2008
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Ontario
mleunm the garage use a torque wrench or used a air-impact gun to put on nuts ?

most garages use air-impact gun that 99% of the time are over torquing lug nits, steel rims spec's 90 Ft lbs and most air gun pounds out 240 Ft lbs

wonder why you can't get them off when got a flat out in the middle of no where with car wheel wrench
 

b1lk1

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Feb 3, 2007
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Lindsay, Ontario
mleunm the garage use a torque wrench or used a air-impact gun to put on nuts ?

most garages use air-impact gun that 99% of the time are over torquing lug nits, steel rims spec's 90 Ft lbs and most air gun pounds out 240 Ft lbs

wonder why you can't get them off when got a flat out in the middle of no where with car wheel wrench

I beg to differ here, I see most garages using a torque wrench as of late, well more than 50% and even those that don't tend to use torque sticks and they are relatively accurate.
 

LarkStarr

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Oct 4, 2007
Messages
1,625
^ And even impact torque wrenches are usually set to stop wrenching around the 72-90 range. But yeah, sometimes nuts just get swollen given the difference in materials. We all like shiny nuts.
 

Bloodystumps

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Feb 3, 2011
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Location
Uxbridge
CHRY do tend to swell up more then most I see that a lot and even if you torqued them on they would still swell up(hammering them on with a airgun can distort the caps ) . Kapt Crunch you can't just hammer the nuts on any more the torque varies widely now , even in the 90's some cars were as low as 50 lbs like Volvo and some Cadi's and throw in the fact the aluminum wheels corrode so bad now you have to take particular care in cleaning and installing the wheel. you would be hard pressed to find a wheel that was at 240 after using a airgun .
 

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