Lug Nuts Will Not Budge

[BigBriDogGuy]

As you can see, the wheels and lug nuts look in good condition. I'm also using a pretty heavy-duty lug wrench. I've shot all of them up with WD-40 and am going to let them sit overnight. Is there something I'm missing here? Could they be locking in a way that I am just not seeing? Anyone run across something like this before? You would think that at least a few of them would move, but every last one is on solid.

My next move is to take it to Discount Tire or Les Schwab and ask them to rotate my tires. Maybe they have the tools and know how to get them off. If so, I'll just request that they put them back on loose enough that a guy (meaning me) could remove them by hand with a lug wrench. I might even let them know I'm planning on doing a brake pad change later that day and I want to be able to take the tires and wheels off.

 

[f1racer328]

Have you tried standing on the breaker bar?

Proper torque spec is 105 ft lbs for future reference.

 

[alldazed]

Do you have another bar you can slide over that one to provide more leverage?
When you get the nuts off you may find the wheel hard to get off still as they can corrode to the centre of the hub. A firm kick with the bottom of your foot at the bottom of the wheel with your back to the car usually works. When you put it back together put a smear of high temp grease on around the centre hub.

 

[alldazed]

If you plan on removing wheels often or changing over seasonally a decent quality cordless impact gun is a good investment. About $2-300 for a half inch drive Mikwaukee or dewalt . There is 1150 ft lb of undoing torque on the Milwaukee so be careful putting nuts back on if you go that route and hand torque as mentioned above.

 

[powershift]

They sound over-tight. Put a pipe over your breaker bar to extend the leverage. An alternative is to use a torque multiplier tool that is commonly used for big rig type lug nuts.

 

[BigBriDogGuy]

Followed up on the Les Schwab idea early this morning. Turned out to be a good move. They were able to get my lug nuts off without any problem in the process of rotating my tires (something that needed to be done anyway). While the tires and wheels were off, they also informed me that my front brakes had 70% pad left and that the back still had pad but was worn enough to trip the censor. They replaced the lug nuts with 103 lbs. of torque. I watched them do the last bit by hand with a torque wrench.

Bottom line, I now have lug nuts that I should be able to get off with a lug wrench or a cheap impact wrench from Harbor Freight. I also know that I only need to do my rear brakes and that the pads I have left are enough for me to drive safely right now. Finding out I only need to do the rear saves me a lot of time, effort and expense. I can return all that stuff I bought for the front brakes. Well worth the $30 and 1 hour of my Saturday morning. Thanks Les Schwab!

 

[txfromwi]

That happened on our 1992 Isuzu Trooper.
I could not get them off even with an impact wrench.
Dealership claimed that they were overtightened during manufacture - who knows.

Ever since then, after any time anyone touches the lugs, I take them all off and properly re-install to the correct torque.

I will never let NTB or Discount Tire touch a vehicle of mine again.

We have a local chain here in TX called Tires By Design, they seem to understand well enough not to do really stupid things. And I am happy with their customer service.

Are you aware that Rover now does tires?
On the LR4 that is away from home, we had the dealership up there do a new set of tires.
They charged the standard rate for the tires themselves, but they did add in the additional labor that the big box stores do not.
I'd rather do that than go to a big box store.

 

[powershift]

In Seattle Les Schwab does free tire repairs. They do a complete patch job and you don't have to pay a dime.

 

[dlimanov]

like others said, get a good 1/2” cordless impact gun and a torque wrench so you never have to deal with over-tightened lug nuts ever again.

 

[BigBriDogGuy]

The maddening part is that it's the little things that stop you dead in your tracks. Back in the day, I had an old, beat up, Chevy pickup. I was living in a remote area of Montana and would need to drive down a couple miles of dirt road to get to pavement. When they graded the dirt road that summer, it kicked up shale that was sharp as arrowheads. The day after, on a couple town runs, I had to change tires four different times from punctures. What was required? A hand jack and a lug wrench. Annoying, but not a major deal. Simpler times. Better in some ways.