[gman005]

I have 1 stripped lugnut on my 2012 Jeep Wrangler. So I have tried heat, pounding a smaller socket on,a extraction tool. I started to drill it out and the bit broke. No what?

[ID67goat]

You might need to use a cold chisel to break the remaining lug nut piece off there...of course at this point there is a risk that the wheel will get damaged.

[mgarblik]

Deal with this crap often. You took all the right steps up to this point. When I get to where you are now I generally get the gas ax out next. (acetylene torch) Heat up the nut and stud to just before liquid and pull the hell out of the wheel. sometimes you can pull it over the almost liquid stud and nut and not damage the cone seat in the wheel too bad. Sometimes I have to replace the wheel. See this about once every couple weeks. Customer is informed they may be buying a wheel before I begin.

[gman005]

I got a carbide cutting bit from work. I'm going to try that first.

[mgarblik]

That process will carve the nut off with little damage and save the wheel. Need a nice sharp burr with a 4" shank if possible for best control. I like to use an electric die grinder with a speed reducer for best control. Air grinder can be tricky. Takes too long for me at a commercial shop with the labor rates I have to charge. But a good way to save the wheel. Good luck with it.

[padgett]

Just a stroopid thought but if a front has anyone ever pulled the hub with the wheel on it and drilled out the stud from the back ?

[Murf]

Originally Posted by padgett

Just a stroopid thought but if a front has anyone ever pulled the hub with the wheel on it and drilled out the stud from the back ?

Don’t work too good with disc brakes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by padgett

Just a stroopid thought but if a front has anyone ever pulled the hub with the wheel on it and drilled out the stud from the back ?

That's not a bad idea in limited situations. Front drum brakes yes. Rear drum brakes: C-Lock style, sometimes you can push the wheel/tire drum in enough to get the locks out and extract the assembly, but not always. Bolt-in style, no. Disc brakes no.

[Lemans64]

Been a 4 whdr you would never get the axle nut off if it was on the front.

[gman005]

It was a rear wheel and i got it off. It took a while. What a PITA.

[TAKerry]

Glad you got it off. On a side note, many years ago my daughter called after attending a movie. She had a flat tire. There was a guy that stopped to help but he couldnt get the wheel off. When I got there she said he told her the lugs were all stripped! I thought OMG what did this bozo do to her car. Found out the car had plastic caps on the ugly steel lug nuts, he did who knows what and had all the plastic lugs rounded off!!

Took me all of 5 minutes to change the tire.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by gman005

It was a rear wheel and i got it off. It took a while. What a PITA.

Slow and steady won that race. It's hard to charge a customer $80-100.00 to cut a lug nut off, but what choice do we have? We didn't strip it on there! FWIW, Chrysler/Jeep products with the stainless capped nuts are among the worst to deal with. The aftermarket replacements from Ebay and such are total crap. The caps are just slid over the steel nut and begin falling off almost immediately. The Dorman replacements through parts stores including NAPA are crap also. I haven't found good replacement nuts other than OE.

[gman005]

The wheels were last off 4 years ago when I had the tires replaced. They must of over tightened them. Time to finish the brake job.

[padgett]

Couple of years ago I had a trailer that some ape with a bigger air gun than IQ managed to install 12mm nutz on 1/2" studs. Broke three getting them off and replaced all five studs.

Fortunately the hub was easy to remove.

[mgarblik]

Worst lug nut situation I have ever had. An Isuzu Trooper came in that had just had new tires and brakes installed a week earlier at a National Retail Tire store. They sold this poor woman the works, well over 2K in tires, brakes and alignment. She brought it to me with a scraping noise from a couple of the wheels. I wanted her to take it back to the shop that had done the work but she wanted me to look at it. I couldn't get ANY of the 24 lug nuts off the wheels with my Snap-On 1/2" drive impact. Ended up switching to my IR 3/4" impact. Some of them did come loose but over half of them I had to snap off intentionally by going forward with the impact and just snapping off the studs. All the new rotors were ruined, was able to save the wheels. All new studs were installed and weird shaped factory decorative lug nuts. She went to court and was awarded the entire cost of the improper repairs and the costs to me. But it took about 8 months to work through the system. Factory torque specs. for the lug nuts was 85 ft. lbs. My Snap-On 1/2" impact break away torque was 650 Ft. Lbs and wouldn't touch them. Yes, there are some lousy mechanics out there.