Are The Lug Nuts Really Stuck? Year 2004 Series GL 300 or 350

My 2001 Elantra had a problem, where during a tire rotation, the mechanic(?) stripped the thread on the stud, had to have another stud insert installed, plus a lug nut which was a big chromed job that did not match the others.

If the lugs are cross threaded, a tire place won't mess with them. They don't have the means to replace studs on all cars. Take it to a Hyundai / Kia shop.

You won't cross the threads taking off a lug nut. If the threads are cross-threaded, it was done by whoever last installed the lug nuts ... probably using an air wrench. I had my tire replaced last year and when I went to rotate them I could not remove one lug nut with normal torque. So I reefed on the breaker bar and twisted off the stud. It was easy to see that the lug nut had been cross-threaded. I put the wheel back on with the remaining 4 lug nuts (plenty for normal conditions anyway) and drove the 5 miles to where the tires were replaced.

I suggested they had improperly installed the nut and they replaced the stud and nut without an argument and admitted they use air wrenches to install the lug nuts. I suggested that was a bad idea and they should stop doing that, but I'm sure I was wasting my breath.

Matt

Thanks to all of you. I started thinking about my wife's comfortable, used 2004 350 G, and here is an obvious that I hadn't even previously thought.

I am elderly fart, so this has been s.o.s.b., standard operating semi brainlessness.

Well, would ya believe the spare is a full size (not donut) and was never applied--it's "new" (hopefully not too dry-rotted-deteriorated, as my bicycle tire apparently got from non use).

So, as per advice here, I went to a nearby (approx 25 miles) Kia dealer, and for only $16 they changed the tire after I explained about that reluctant tire place's fear of stripping something.

The tire with the white s is now the spare. Eventually doesn't that white s escape and maybe add to the alleged global warming, so let's see how long it will hold-up.