Lug Nuts
Veteran Member
Joined: Feb 2014
Posts: 9,016
Likes: 3,657
From: Adelaide, South Australia
My tyre shop does the right thing - does the nuts up snug but not over tight with an impact on the weakest setting then drops the car to the ground and torques them up to spec using a manual torque wrench.
So yes they all use an impact wrench but some still do it right.
So yes they all use an impact wrench but some still do it right.
Senior Member
Joined: Dec 2013
Posts: 978
Likes: 275
From: Kansas
OK, should have said impacts set on high. I use one myself to snug the nuts up, then torque them. But I grew up in the racing world so don't let everyday tire guys near my cars 😁
Last edited by kansanbrit; Jan 29, 2023 at 09:18 AM.
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2019
Posts: 195
Likes: 57
From: Cumbria, UK
The other problem with clad lug nuts is that, if the car is used on salt-laden winter roads, the nut inside the cladding can corrode because it is just mild steel. The rust that forms expands and distorts the cladding outwards so that the normal 19mm or 3/4" socket won't fit. Then you're reduced to hammering it on or trying to use a larger socket which will probably slip.
Junior Member
Joined: Jul 2024
Posts: 1
Likes: 0
That must be painful. Yes, many of the lugs do have the decorative cap. I have yet to learn if the actual OEM lugs have the caps, OR if just the lugs that mechanics along the way working on your car REPLACED on your wheels whenever they damage your original lug with their impact power-wrenches.
Early in my ownership, I elected to buy TWO things for myself to keep. One, a bag of TRUE chrome-finish lug nuts (you can get a bag of 16 or so on Amazon-UK). A reckon, as long as I am the one putting them on, they won't be chewed up so fast.
The second thing was a SPOKE-style lug wrench, with the 17 thru 20 lug sizes on it, and the plastic collar on the ends to keep from scarring your wheels. I chose a chrome-molybdenum metal wrench because it's so light compared with the old grandparents' wrench. Check out the wrench from Motamec.
Keep these two items in your home, not just for this, but for most of your future cars. Damn those mechanics, with clumsy hands like glazed ham shanks.
Early in my ownership, I elected to buy TWO things for myself to keep. One, a bag of TRUE chrome-finish lug nuts (you can get a bag of 16 or so on Amazon-UK). A reckon, as long as I am the one putting them on, they won't be chewed up so fast.
The second thing was a SPOKE-style lug wrench, with the 17 thru 20 lug sizes on it, and the plastic collar on the ends to keep from scarring your wheels. I chose a chrome-molybdenum metal wrench because it's so light compared with the old grandparents' wrench. Check out the wrench from Motamec.
Keep these two items in your home, not just for this, but for most of your future cars. Damn those mechanics, with clumsy hands like glazed ham shanks.
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