Lug nut cracket and is now stuck.......

Diablo360

Diablo360

Experienced Member
Joined
3 October 2006
Messages
420
Location
Beverly Hills, CA
So I picked up a pair of Volk LE37's and had them put on at some shop in the middle of nowhere up near Fresno, CA. The guy ripped a hole in one of my front tires by accident, so he put a temporary tire on for my drive down. So I went to my local Just Tires today to put on the correct size/brand of tire to match the rest of my tires. So when the guy goes to take the wheel off he takes the lock key and notices that the lock has a hairline crack in it...... It looks like the shop either overtorqued the lugnuts or the one lugnut was bad. Probably the latter and it ended up overheating and cracking from my high speed driving. Well, long story short we tried to get it off with a remover tool and the nut broke along the crack, so now I have half of the nut stuck on the bolt. It's still fully threaded....... Damnit!

The wheel was almost new when I picked it up and has already been scratched somewhat when the guy tried to remove it. What's the best way to go about taking the rest of the nut off? I'd like to avoid scratching the rims even more........ Any ideas or suggestions? I'm in socal by the way.

Thanks in advance, Simo
 
I have had this happen to me before, twice! First time I had to cut the wheel off the car. Second time I sold the car.

Anything that I know of trying will ruin the wheel.
 
Can you cut the lug off with a Dremel-type cutting tool? Also, heating the lug with a torch could expand it enough to put some vise grips on it to remove it.
 
I had the exact same thing happen and all I can say is good luck! I had to use a drill bit and drill down the side of the lug all the way around it until there was nothing left. Really messed up that lug hole on the wheel.
Here's a pic after I painted it.
4291DSCN0253-med.JPG
 
This has not happened to me before, but you can try the shadetree method for getting a wheel lock off of a wheel.

You could try tapping (hammering) a piece of metal pipe/plumbing over the remaining nut so that it fits snugly over the nut. Don't know which size, maybe 1/2"? Then w/ the pipe sticking out, you could clamp some vise grips on it. The length of the pipe will give you a torque bar to work with and the the force you apply by turing the pipe w/ the grips may get the nut off. There has to be enough remaining nut for the pipe to "grab" on to when you hammer it on.
 
Couple of things:

Use a chisel with a small sharp bit...just hit it on the counter-clockwise side and slowly unscrew it. An air or hand chisel will work.

or

try hammering a cheap but smaller socket over the remnants and undo it?
 
well... this has happened to me many times,SO if you dont want to damage your wheel,the only method i would,and have used is to take off all the other lugs then drive the car around very carefully listening for the wheel to start coming loose(not in traffic,preferrably in a large parking lot) you'll be amazed how long this might take,i've had a car that i had to drive for 2 hours before it came loose,once this happens you can get out and put all the other nuts on then use your hand/needle nose pliers to spin the broken nut off. Beleive me it sounds crazy but it works!!! I must caution you,YOU NEED TO LISTEN FOR THE WHEEL COMING LOOSE CAREFULLY WHILE DRIVING IN CIRCLES TO SIDE LOAD TO WHEEL. good luck!
 
Thank you guys for all of your help and suggestions. Since the half that cracked off went all the way to the bottom it looks like there is about 2-3mm at the base of the lug nut that is not threaded. I'm going to go ahead and use the approach that angus has suggested and see how that works out.... Here it goes........
 
Good luck! Just have patience any dont drive too fast,remember when the clunking gets loud, put the other lugs back on and tighten them up,you may have to try this, then take them off,then try again if it is not loose enough.Don't get dicouraged,this is the only way i have ever heard, to remove a lock/lug without damaging the wheel
ALSO... BE AWARE THAT IF YOUR LUG NUT IS SPLIT ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM,I.E. THERE IS ONLY HALF OF THE NUT ON THE STUD YOU SHOULD HAVE ALL THE OTHER NUTS ON BY JUST A FEW TURNS TO PREVENT THE WHEEL FROM COMING COMPLETELY OFF IF THE HALF NUT POPS OFF!!!
 
I've had a similiar issue before on a past truck. I just used a cheaper deep socket and hammered it on to the nut. Which provided PLENTY of tension for the threads to grab each other. A quick blast with the air impact and off it went.

BTW, what is the name of the shop or the town? I live not far from fresno and actually am in that town pretty often. Just want to avoid the place just in case.
 
That's a pretty guttsy way to get the wheel off. I would be to scared of the wheel coming off completely and end up causing more damage to the car.

I would consider this a last resort and try the other methods first.
 
Mask off the rest of the wheel to reduce further damage with say the blue painter's tape. You can also put tape around the outside of the socket as well. The tape will probably start to come apart once you start to torque, but it might provide a little protection. Try either blue painters tape or maybe electrical tape.
 
How about putting the car on jack satnds and then taking a 20lb sledge hammer and whacking the back of the wheel. If there's only 1/2 of a lug nut on the stud it should pop off if enough force is given to the wheel. I'd also leave the car in gear with the parking brake on if it's the right rear tire.

I would not drive the car without the other lugs on at least 3/4 of the way. That is a sure diaster just waiting to happen. :eek:
 
I would advice you one of the following 2 methods:
-use a special removal tool IE socket with left cutting threading on a air impact tool
-buy a cheap metric socket 1 size too small or or a inch size socket just a little too small and hammer it on, it will deform and grip/slide over the remainder of the nut after which you should be able to remove the nut quite easy using a long ratchet, have done that lots of times on damaged nuts/bolts and works great.
I would never drive the car to force it loose or hammer on the rim, big chance for damage!!

Good luck
 
angus said:
Good luck! Just have patience any dont drive too fast,remember when the clunking gets loud, put the other lugs back on and tighten them up,you may have to try this, then take them off,then try again if it is not loose enough.Don't get dicouraged,this is the only way i have ever heard, to remove a lock/lug without damaging the wheel
ALSO... BE AWARE THAT IF YOUR LUG NUT IS SPLIT ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM,I.E. THERE IS ONLY HALF OF THE NUT ON THE STUD YOU SHOULD HAVE ALL THE OTHER NUTS ON BY JUST A FEW TURNS TO PREVENT THE WHEEL FROM COMING COMPLETELY OFF IF THE HALF NUT POPS OFF!!!
Click to expand...

I'm sure this has worked for you Angus, but it's also extremely risky and dangerous. What can also happen is one or more of the studs themselves will break, causing the wheel to come off as you drive, which will really do a number on other parts of the car. I've seen it happen right in front of me and it's not pretty.

Remember, the studs themselves are not made to take the weight of the car, it's the friction of the wheel face against the hub when the lug nuts clamp it down. So driving around with one cracked lug nut holding on the wheel is quite dangerous.
 
I'm strongly against the driving around method, UNLESS it is a last result.

Do NOT whack the wheel with a hammer, you'll introduce fractures into the wheel.

**

Please try one of the following:

hammering on a socket
OR
get out a punch/chisel and move the nut around with a hammer. An air chisel makes quick work of this.

Drew
 
Gansan said:
I'm sure this has worked for you Angus, but it's also extremely risky and dangerous. What can also happen is one or more of the studs themselves will break, causing the wheel to come off as you drive, which will really do a number on other parts of the car. I've seen it happen right in front of me and it's not pretty.

Remember, the studs themselves are not made to take the weight of the car, it's the friction of the wheel face against the hub when the lug nuts clamp it down. So driving around with one cracked lug nut holding on the wheel is quite dangerous.
Click to expand...

Uh, yeah. What he said. I've had a wheel come off and pass me on the road.
As well as being embarassing, it did a ton of damage to the car! :eek:
 
Diablo360 said:
Thank you guys for all of your help and suggestions. Since the half that cracked off went all the way to the bottom it looks like there is about 2-3mm at the base of the lug nut that is not threaded. I'm going to go ahead and use the approach that angus has suggested and see how that works out.... Here it goes........
Click to expand...

DO NOT DO IT THAT WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Geeessss. :eek:

Do not remove all but one lug nut - especially if that remaining lug nut is broken. If it lets go, there will be nothing holding on your wheel. You will not be able to listen close enough and react fast enough.

If you are going to try anything close to that method, just "slightly" loosen the other lug nuts.

I was going to suggest tack welding a large nut to the top of the broken lug nut if there is room.
 
KooLaid said:
I've had a similiar issue before on a past truck. I just used a cheaper deep socket and hammered it on to the nut. Which provided PLENTY of tension for the threads to grab each other. A quick blast with the air impact and off it went.

BTW, what is the name of the shop or the town? I live not far from fresno and actually am in that town pretty often. Just want to avoid the place just in case.
Click to expand...

It was some shop in huron, right off of the 269....
 
I haven't done anything yet. I just found out that it's still threaded. Apparently this is a volk lug nut, so it rins a little deeper than I thought at first. Oh, well, it's off to Ramon to see what he can do...... Thank you guys for all your help so far.
 
aww come on guys! did no one read the part where i said to thread the other 4 nuts on a few turns? anyways i realize that yes , the studs are not meant to hold the weight of the car but five breaking all at once is pretty unlikely, - not to mention that i've had this happen at least 5 or 6 times,including cars where other shops had already damaged the really expensive/irreplaceable wheels by trying various commercially available tools,SO like i said if you drive in a parking lot,and use caution this will work for sure -you only need it to come loose enough to create some clearance so that when you tighten up the other 4 nuts it'll come off by hand/pliers even if by some strange twist of fate you break the stud(problem solved BTW) you are still gonna have 4 studs to keep the wheel on(although it'll wobble)
also- i pretty much only deal with cars equipped with high dollar wheels,so ya i'm pretty gutsy,but driving slow ina parking lot is not very dangerous

nsx1 has the right idea, just loosen the lugs so they're not touching the wheel-i was wrong to say"take them off" ,sorry! also the volk nuts extend through the wheel so maybe swapping them to 4 regular "tuner" nuts just for the "operation" would be best
 
have you tried one of those blue-point tools? It has a socket on one side and a revese helix that acutally cuts into the damaged nut when you losen it. just make sure you hammer it onto the nut so it can bite down on the damaged nut. i use this all the time at my cousins old shop when people lose there key or the tuner lugs get rusted onto the stud.
 

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