I was changing my wheels and the covers of two wheel nuts came off is it time for new wheel nuts or am I using the wrong socket






I'm thinking about getting this solid design

 

Generally it is better to use a 6-point wrench if possible rather than 12, but in your case the lugnuts are absolute crap. Get solid lugnuts, as you suspected, and you should be okay. I and many others purchased Gorilla solid lugnuts specific for our Jaguars and they work great. They sell them in chrome or black.

 

Hi Jaguar XJL15,

The stainless-steel covered two-piece lug nuts are considered a luxury part because they have greater torque/tension characteristics when used with alloy wheels, are better protected against corrosion on their threads, and won't pit or flake like chrome.

Jaguar is not the only automaker to use stainless-covered nuts. Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Aston Martin, Lincoln, Cadillac, Lexus, Porsche and others also use them. Here's a set of M-B stainless-capped lug bolts:



MacLean-Fogg, the global Original Equipment Manufacturer that patented the stainless steel-covered lug nut, claims to sell 220 million lug nuts per year around the world. Here is some information from the company:

"Chrome plated wheel nuts are typically constructed from two carbon steel components, a threaded nut portion and a small end cap. The cap is welded to the hex end of the nut and this assembly is chrome plated. Due to the nature of racking in the chrome plating process, the threads are not fully covered with plating. The result of this incomplete plating coverage is the introduction of rust in the threads during the plating process.Stainless steel capped wheel nuts are constructed from two different components, a carbon steel nut and a stainless steel cap. The nut is plated with the customer’s preferred plating and friction modifying topcoat prior to assembly with the cap. The cap serves to cover the entire hex portion of the nut, terminating at the bulge, where the crimp is achieved. Since plating is accomplished prior to assembly with the cap, full plating coverage exists on all surfaces, thus preventing the occurrence of rust in the threads."

"The torque/tension tests show that the stainless steel capped wheel nuts clearly exhibit a distinct advantage over chrome plated wheel nuts in all but one application, that of steel wheels. Chrome plated wheel nuts installed on steel wheels showed marginally better performance. SAE J2316 requirements were met in all of the stainless steel capped wheel nut tests, whereas chrome plated wheel nuts failed in one of the three categories."

The two-piece lugs will last virtually for the life of the car if they are always carefully removed and installed with a quality properly-sized 6-point socket and torqued properly by hand. In 30 years of Jaguar ownership, I have only had to replace a couple of these lug nuts that were damaged before I purchased the cars.

The problem is that too many tire and repair shop techs are careless and use incorrect sockets or excessive impact wrench torque, so your lug nuts were probably damaged even before you used a 12-point socket, which is a no-no on any lug nut or bolt, whether one- or two-piece. I use 6-point sockets for all mechanical work unless the fastener specifically requires a 12-point socket (as some fasteners do these days, particularly on Audi/VW vehicles).

For those of us who like the appearance of the stainless-covered nuts and can take care of them, they'll last decades. They are not "junk" until they are abused (like premium leather seats, for example). For owners who rely on third-party shops for service, or whose lug nuts are already damaged, replacement solid nuts make sense. Of course, the time to discover they are damaged is before a roadside emergency...

Cheers,

Don

 

Thanks Don, that’s helpful context. It makes sense that chrome could peel or chip and is perhaps undesirable as a lug nut material.

Regarding the gorilla lug nuts, they are listed as one-piece hardened steel and come in a chrome color or black color (not actually chrome plated from what I can tell). I have not heard of anyone experiencing issues with these particular one-piece lug nuts. They feel very durable.

 

The general advice to anyone with a Jag on the UK forum (where our roads are wet and salted for a lot of the year) is chuck the OEM lugnuts as soon as you can and replace with solid. Lots of stories of OEM nuts failing then it becoming a battle to get the wheel off without damaging the alloy

 

Correct the stock lug nuts are junk and have been for 20+ years. I always throw away ALL sheet metal capped lug nuts when I buy a car.
Life is too short to NOT fix things forever if possible!

We have hundreds of threads on these failure including getting stranded on the side of the road unable to remove the lug nut.
Here is a quick search with 237 results?
It's all in there!
Junk Capped Lug Nuts
.
.
.

 

I am with Don B on this one. Always use a good 6 point socket, by hand, with a 24 in breaker bar for taking off and 24in hand torque wrench set at 90ft-lbs to install. Never had to replace a wheel nut or lost one on the the road. Only 12 years and 4 Jaguars though.

 

I think it was my DeWalt impact wrench it has crazy amount of torque and vibrations and possibly the 12 point wrench
Will not be using it to loosen and tighten anymore

 

20 new lug nuts from Gorilla Automotive, problem solved......

 

I'm of the same mind as those condemning the stock nuts. We also had them on my wife's Lincoln LS. Get a defective nut stuck in your wrench at roadside, and you'll be a convert also.
L.A. Wheel and Tire sells chrome-plated lug nuts. I've used them for decades without issues on these two cars, in Maryland, where 5mm of snow gets treated with 10mm of road salt.

 

OK, just my experience. (I've owned multiple Jags at the same time, I have 4 at the moment).

E-Type owned for 31 years. (I'll excluded this as it has been fully restored). Still mine.

3 x XJ-S owned for 3, 5 and 9 years each. = 17 years total
1 x XK8 owned for 13 years.
2 x X351 owned for 12 and 4 years = 16 years total
1 x F-Pace owned for 5 years.

Total number of wheel nuts replaced in 51+ years of Jaguar years = 1. That was because I was rushing and cross-threaded the stud on the XK8 (There might have been gin involved too).

I use a 6pt socket, and torque by hand. When I have tyres replaced, I ask the tech to do the nuts up hand tight, then I torque them myself.

wombat

 

I agree.

I remember those "tin foil covered" lug nuts from as far back as the early 1970s, on a couple of GM cars that I owned, that had the factory "sport wheels", with exposed lug nuts..........

 

I was also with Don until a tyre place ... OK an STR but similar issue when the idiot at the tyre place wrecked one of the nuts (bolts). Not as badly wrecked as the OP's pic.

 

I don't think these OEM wheel nuts are as much of a problem if you live outside the rust belt. Also, the people having to drill out their wheel nuts are probably victims of mechanics, as said above, that set their impact wrenches to 1000ft/lbs and then play NASCAR pit crew when putting back on your wheels (hint, most of them like doing that).

 

Yes I avoid that by taking my wheels off in my garage and taking them to the tire shop for whatever needs to be done, replacement, leak repair etc. then pick them up and install them myself.
I have a quick lift so can take all four wheels off at once. Years ago when I had my RX7s I used to drive to South Bend, Indiana to buy tires and installation at the Tire Rack and they allowed me to observe the removal and installation by hand.

 

For those that use the common "Toyota" upgrade nuts, you'll have 13/16" as opposed to 3/4". Gorilla makes an adapter, part number 341316. I like this as opposed to replacing the lug wrench, as it is thin walled and fits nicely into the wheel without damaging it.
Bonus points (at least in my 2016) for a cutout that seems custom made to hold it in the trunk.

 

Hi Josh,

Toyota lug nuts are metric, not SAE/inch-fractional. They are most often 21 mm, which is slightly larger than 13/16".

The stock Jaguar lug nuts are 19 mm. If you use a 3/4" socket on them, the stainless steel covers may be damaged because 3/4" is slightly larger than 19 mm.

Cheers,

Don

 

Maybe stock Toyota lug nuts are; the bulk of the aftermarket sets on eBay and Amazon dual-list the size metric and SAE, and I prefer to use the 13/16" as it's a better fit.
19mm is the equivalent of 0.748", that thousandth of an inch is negligible.

 

I, too, was stranded by the stock lug nuts on the next day after I bought my XJ. Similar story- aftermarket wheel shop, Timmy Bolt Turner with his "ugga dugga" gun torquing the stock lugs to 1,000,000lb/ft and the stainless covers simply deformed and spun when I tried to change the tire that had just been split by a brick at highway speed. I had to pay $250 for a mobile mechanic in a minivan to come remove the lugs off that wheel with a special remover tool. Never again!

I replaced all my lugs with the 21mm aftermarket set. A $15 Harbor Freight collapsible 4-way lug wrench fits in the spare tire area, not snugly, but it hasn't been rattling around. The extra leverage of the 4-way T-shaped wrench makes it easy to change a tire on the roadside (which I've had to do twice since then).

 

For clearance purposes, wrench and socket openings are actually larger than the fasteners they are designed to turn, and vary due to manufacturing tolerances.

As the ASME B18.2.2 Wrench and Socket Openings for Hex and Square Nuts chart below shows, a 3/4" socket can have an actual opening of 0.755" to 0.763", or even larger if the socket is worn.



Cheers,

Don