How to get rounded nut off the wheel

Hey Mike - in the last month, you've have asked 16 questions, some of them repeats, most of them pretty elementary and/or easily answerable using a shop manual. You've gotten many answers, and never given so much as a single response or thank you.

You might be serious in asking these questions, maybe you're just a young kid starting out with a junker that you're trying to fix up and you don't know a spark plug from an oxygen sensor - and that would be OK, or you may just be jerking us around.

If your serious and just lacking social skills, well, we maybe can tolerate that, but how about a little acknowledgement that you have at least read some of the answers. Sounds like you might also consider trading that van in and getting something in a little better shape.

So - bottom line - how about a little feedback. Otherwise my assumption is you're intentionally wasting everyone's time.

On your question, have someone weld a bolt to it, then turn it using the bolt head. Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")

Take the car back to whichever garage rounded off the lug nuts and make them remove them and replace them.

Matt

Actually, this is one question that you can't find in the shop manual, and the correct answer is with a cold chisel. Make a notch in the nut and drive the notch around and around with the chisel.

How about a pipe wrench?

Did you miss my suggestion of welding a bolt to any problem nuts and using the head of the bolt to remove them?

Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")

Sears sells a set of sockets specially made to solve this problem.

Gramps

I'd give vice grips a try first.

Matt

I guess my point was that there is not necessarily a single right answer

- may depend on the wheel and nut configuration. At least we have given the OP some alternatives to consider for what may work best for his setup.

Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")

"Bill Putney" wrote

I'll mention it again: Sears sockets made to address this problem DO WORK.

Grampd

In some cases, yes. But consistent with my previous point that there may not be a one-size-fits-all solution - not if, say, the lug is a lot longer than the nut (in which case you would effctively need the equivalent of a deep-well version of the Sears doo-hickey to be able to remove it). My own suggestion of welding a bolt to the nut may also not work in that case either unless there was room to weld to the side of the nut (which there may not be).

Once again, probably no one soultion that has been proposed will work in every situation either due to the lug being longer than the nut or the nut being recessed in the wheel details. It's up to the OP to figure out what will work best on his application.

Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")

Jim,

I'm realizing that if the Sears thingy is like a nut on its outside and has a thru hole so that you chuck a regular socket onto it (the socket could be deepwell), that it could very well work pretty much in ever case as long as the socket require to go over it isn't to big on the outside to clear the wheel structure, and if the thru hole in the center of the Sears thingy is large enough for a long lug to go thru.

If that is the case, then a kilo-pardon to you. It could very well be "the" solution for all cases. Hmmm - what about a domed nut? Probably.

Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")

True, there is seldom a single solution. However, I like to start simple and work up, and vice grips are easier than welding ... at least for most of us! A professional welder would likely disagree.

Matt

And if the lugs and nuts are deeply recessed in the wheel? 8^)

Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")

Well there's heat, special sockets and penetrating oil, and if that fails there's nut splitters. Your local garage can probably take care of that a lot faster than you can, it's a common problem.

Needle nose vice grips, of course! :-)

Matt

Yes, unfortunately there are too many monkeys who seem unable to use the right size socket and proper technique to install the lug nuts. And cranking on the nuts for 3 seconds with an air wrench isn't the proper technique.

Matt

Take a look at

I haven't been following this thread... but has anyone suggested using a cheap-O (cheaper is actually BETTER) 12-point socket wrench of a size that is just small enough to fit very tightly if you POUND it onto the nut (metric sizes for rounded-off SAE and SAE sizes for rounded-off metric bolts come in very handy). Put the socket on the nut, hammer the snot out of the socket so that it digs hard into the remains of the nut. Impact-wrench the nut and socket off, throw both away.

I've successfully used that method for removing wheel locks with lost keys, too.

Looks like they have addressed all problems that they could have. Thanks!

Bill Putney (to reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with "x")