Just discovered the new lug nuts I purchased have a shank that is too large a diameter for my '92 XJS (lattice) wheels. Then I discovered that this is a common problem--who knew? (i guess this forum did).

So, since the wheels are hub centric, is there any reason I can't simply drill the wheel lug hole slight larger on my wheels? And how much clearance should there be between the wheel hole and the lug nut shank?

thanks folks!

 

Andy,

Assuming your lattices haven't been powder-coated, painted, or plated which has narrowed the hole diameter and caused the problem, wouldn't it be better, and safer, to get the correct size wheel nuts, and sell the ones you've got?

Paul

 

Are you certain you mean lug nut and not wheel studs?
Your car should not have lug nuts with shanks.

 

The “shank” being the area of the lug nut that goes into/thru the holes in the wheel.

The correct Jag lugnuts are silly expensive. I don’t see a safety or technical problem with enlarging the holes a bit. Seems a bit destructive tho!

Cheers
DD

 

Yes, what Doug says.

The holes in the wheels are clear, its just the new lug nuts have a slightly larger diameter where they pass through the wheel. about .75 of a mm. pics to follow

 

Here are the stock lug nuts.





and here are aftermarket ones.

 

Andy,

Also those new nuts don't seem to have a tapered shoulder. Is that an issue?

Paul

 

Paul
I do not think so, but it will make mounting the wheel slightly more effortful, as although hub-centric the rotational alignment of the wheel will be rather unforgiving!

 

I think I'd rather machine the nut than drill my wheels. Better yet, buy the right spec.

What happens when the next owner buys a new set of the correct lug nuts and they don't fit cause you've butchered the wheels?

 

Andy
OEM Lug nuts all over UK ebay, many at sane prices. If you contact Andy Harvey at Just XJS he will do you a decent fair deal, I am sure.

 

There are some decent deals on stock lug nuts but they're still used and ugly.

I can't drive the car just yet but will report back if there are any weird vibes but I'm expecting no problems considering that wheels are hub centric.

And I'm not sure "butchered" would be the right verb for drilling them 1 mm larger in the lug bolt hole.

But I do agree that if I could buy 20 new lug nuts for $40 that fit correctly without any mods to wheels then that's what I'd do.

 

Get the correct nuts, much better solution.

 

When the next owner replaces them with genuine and loses a wheel at 100km/h because the 1mm play caused the studs to shear, they'll call it more than "butchered"

This is dangerous, but it's your car and as long as it works for you I guess it'll be the next owner's problem huh 🤷 🤦

 

P.S. If you don't accurately centre the holes you will end up with your own play and the wheel might not wait til the next owner to shear the studs.

​​​​I hope you have the tools to find the exact centres 🤞 if you plan to just throw a hand drill through them then yes, butchered is the exact right word.

Good luck.

 

One time a guy got a flat tire in front of my house. I noticed because he was struggling to change it for a while and I offered to help. The car was new to him and he didn't have the locking key for a security lug nut. He was able to get the other 4 off and he'd tried to use a variety of tools on the security lug but ended up butchering it (there's that word again!).

So, you know what he did? He started driving around the block, jerking the steering wheel back and forth TRYING to break the lug/lug nut off. But he was unsuccessful, even with 4 lug nuts already removed and the wheel held on by a single lug nut. Amazing.

Another real life example is when I moved to Oregon in 2004 to complete an internship for my doctorate (psychology). I was towing my 2001 Bullitt Mustang (my first user name and one that even in 2023, is always available) on a car dolly (2 wheel dolly with ramps, don't know what the rest of the world calls them) behind a 1972 Chevy P20 Stepvan (think bread truck) with a straight six. In the mountains of Colorado I had to manually shift into 1st gear and drop my speed to about 20-25 MPH with the engine screaming (it wouldn't even pull in 2nd gear). Now THAT was dangerous.

Anyhoo, before the mountains, across the middle America plains, my wife, who was following behind in the family Volvo wagon with the cats, kid and dogs, hailed me on the walkie-talkie we used to communicate (remember, this is 2004) and said that the tow dolly taillight was coming coming off and then a little while later, had fallen off and was dangling by the wires. So I pulled off the road and discovered that I'd lost 3 of the lug nuts on one of the tow dolly's wheels and the other two were nearly off. Now, On the flat plains my rig would run about 65 MPH, and so that wheel had been bouncing around on the lugs at 65 MPH for who knows how long. But long enough to enlarge the lug holes in the wheels to 3 times their original size and the wheel lugs looked like pencils! But nothing broke, sheered or let go. Dodged a bullet there! Whew!

 

I just had a problem this week. I went to put the pads on my front wheels in the first night we went to take off snap and I’m bringing it to a tire shop and I’m sure they have a tool to get it out or drill it out or something maybe that’s your best bet is to go to a tire shop they gotta have certain tools to do that. Thank you.