Do You Have Swollen Nuts??? - Lug Nuts?

[Illini Warrior]

direct lift from SurvivalBlog >>>> https://survivalblog.com/2021/06/09/...s-snippets-12/


Reader Bassinbob from Florida recommended this surprisingly pointed sermon from a megachurch in Atlanta:

Dr. Anthony George: Sunday Morning Livestream — On Consolidation. Jump forward to the 48:38 mark, to hear his message.
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Harold wrote us:

“After reading the article by CJ I wanted to add some information that most people do not know about.
I recently took my Tundra in for an oil change and when it was done they had a few additional issues they said I needed to take care of.
Typically when you take your vehicle to a dealer for any kind of service they always seem to find additional items that need fixing. I usually ignore their suggestions because most of the time it is just a way for them to generate additional revenue and there really are no problems. Seems like they never find any problems when your vehicle is under warranty. They only appear when you are no longer under any warranty.
This time I was sure they were pulling a scam on me because they told me I had swollen lug nuts.
I am 69 years old and been driving since I was 14 and I had never heard of anything so silly. I asked them how much to fix the problem and they said 300 dollars. I thanked them for their concern and drove home.
Once I got home I did google swollen lug nuts and found out that it is a real and serious problem.
Seems like starting in 2007 the car makers decided to change the way they make lug nuts. They all want shiny-looking lug nuts and the way they get them is by taking a lug nut and putting a shiny cap on it. You now have two different metals in contact with each other which over time results in corrosion between the two metals. This causes the cap to swell and you can no longer get your lug wrench to fit over it.
This is a serious problem if you happen to be somewhere and have a flat. You can’t change your tire because you can’t get the lug nuts off.
Amazon sells a set of half-size sockets that you can buy and hopefully one of them will fit your expanded lug nut well enough that you can get them off. But I didn’t want to fool with that. I wanted a permanent fix, something that I wouldn’t have to deal with later.
I visited a local tire store and asked them if they had heard about swollen lug nuts and they said they had experience with them. I had them order a set of single-piece chrome lug nuts for me for 90 dollars and they installed them for free. Three of my wheels came off fine but they had to work really hard on my left front wheel to remove the cap so they could get the lug nuts off.
You can find many youtube videos on how people have come up with ways to remove them but none of them are easy and most end up destroying the socket you use. Definitely something your wife or daughter wouldn’t be able to do by the side of the road.
This affects all manufacturers so if you have a vehicle newer than 2007 please check your lug nuts and if you have the two-piece ones please get them replaced, but not by the dealer. As I said my dealer wanted 300 dollars to replace them and they were going to replace them with the exact same two-piece ones that I had. Go to an auto parts store or a tire store and talk to them. I saved myself 200 dollars and got free installation by going elsewhere.
Again this was something I had never heard of before and everyone I talk to about it has never heard about it either. This isn’t something you would want to deal with in an evacuation situation or on a lonely road at night.”
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[Fidel MD]

I had a dealer tell me it would cost $800 to replace the lug nuts on my Expedition. Great.

So, I did some research, and found out that yes, it's a real thing, and no, it doesn't cost $800. I bought a complete set of Gorilla lug nuts (all the studs) for around $60, and the next time I was at the ALIGNMENT shop, I asked them to replace the old nuts with the new as they rotated the tires. They had no particular issue removing the OEM lug nuts, and were happy to replace them with the new, since the tires were off, anyway.

BTW, when I ordered the lug nuts, the Amazon website said to use one model, and to confirm I emailed Gorilla's customer service line - they said to use the next size longer...so I ordered those. Work fine.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

Guess folks are going to have to see if their nuts are shiney or dull, or maybe bi-metallic. then change them out if you can get them off. (sounds painful) Hell I only though you got swollen nuts during deployments.

OK, seriously! Great mechanic tip!

[bacpacker]

I always heard that as blue balls.
Never heard of that before on a vehicle.

[Twitchy]

Very well known and documented problem in modern Ford vehicles. There is a class action lawsuit for them in fact.

[Brownwater Riverrat 13]

You heard correctly Bacpacker. Painful......
As for the lug nuts, I've seen them in the past on vehicles I've worked on over the years. But I think they've been around longer than that. Doesn't matter. Pain in the ass, I remember tearing the metal off of some and finding a different size socket in the tool box to put it pack on.

[Domeguy]

My Ford RV has these, and I blew out my rt. front tire on the way to AL for Thanksgiving. Limped in to Daughter in Laws house with a HUGE piece missing from the tread. Tried to change it out, but we broke a extension for the socket wrench. I stopped before we broke a hand or two. We will be taking it to a tire shop to get replaced next week when we go back down there. I’ll inquire about my nuts then.

[Twitchy]

My Ford RV has these, and I blew out my rt. front tire on the way to AL for Thanksgiving. Limped in to Daughter in Laws house with a HUGE piece missing from the tread. Tried to change it out, but we broke a extension for the socket wrench. I stopped before we broke a hand or two. We will be taking it to a tire shop to get replaced next week when we go back down there. I’ll inquire about my nuts then.

Just have them replaced with aftermarket.