Wheel nuts too tight!

RevBillyG

RevBillyG

RevBillyG

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
2,522
Location
Netherlands
Hey all,
I need to get my front wheel off to investigate a nasty rattle my car seems to have developed.
However, it seems that when the wheels were put on, the garage used one of those pneumatic thingys to do up the wheel nuts. Thy're on so tight I nearly gave myself a hernia trying to get them undone!

Anyone know of a trick to undo them?
 
You need a long pole 1-2m that you can slot over your wrench.
Usually called a breaker bar I believe.
 
Put the thing that you use to undo the wheel nuts on the wheel nut. Then stand on it and bounce a few times and the wheel nut will come off nicely :)
 
Only do the above two suggestions if you have a "T-bar" lug wrench. I wouldn't really recommend it with the stock wimpy little things that come with the car. The ones that you use to raise the scissor jack with. They aren't exactly made with the best quality steel and aren't really that thick.

If you have access to a 1/2" drive ratchet and the proper size 6pt socket, then I'd say go for it with whatever leverage-inducing implement you choose, but just be careful if you're trying to use that wimpy fold-away thingy that came with the scissor jack.......
 
and then cross your fingers and hope that you dont break your cars nuts.

then, when you put the wheel back on, learn from this lesson and clean up everything properly and grease it
 
A gun would put them on at a set torque it's twits jumping up and down on bars that over tighten wheelnuts.
Do Not go jumping up and down on a bar !!!!
As stated get a proper wrench not a manufacturers monkey metal one and a breaker bar. If there is any scaffolding around then look for the bits they cut off as they make a perfect bar.
Use the bar to apply good steady pressure gradually increasing it till it cracks off.

Copper grease is needed to prevent this in the future. Just spread some on the threads before you put them back in.
If all else fails drive it down the exhaust place get a fiver out and ask them to crack them off with a gun and set them at the proper torque.
If they can't use the gun they will use some heat.
 
I now use a 'screwfix' extending wheel brace..

It extends to about 1M, which makes undoing easy, and just compress it when doing up the nuts, so you don't over tighten.. and as suggested copper grease works a treat, especially if you hardly ever undo them..

I only got one of these extending efforts after bending my plasticine vauxhall one trying to help someone at a wedding.. someone came along with one of these extending ones, and made it look easy..
 
malc30 said:
Copper grease is needed to prevent this in the future.
Click to expand...

Whilst copper greaes is useful to stop corrosion seizing the threads (and especialy to prevent the center of an alloy corroding onto the hub), it won't help overtightening. In fact, if the threads are well greased before some idiot overtightens them there is a even higher chance of snapping the wheel stud/bolt. To prevent this in the future, get the tyres changed somewhere that dosen't employ neanderthals, or do the final tightening of the wheel nuts with the wimpy factory tool, overtightening is then far less likely.
 
^^ I said copper grease is needed to prevent this happening in the future not to help with overtightening.
 
Spray a bit of WD-40 on it. Might work it's way up after a bit and make it easier.

If you jump, your likely to round the heads off. Stop being a sissy and use some strength! By the power of Grey-Skull!
 
You need a breaker bar, you can get them from halfords.
When you get it apply gradually increasing pressure to the nut to try and untighten it, if you cant get it to shift you are going to either need to kick it or stick some more leverage on it.
I only ever kick it as whacking anyother bar on the end usually ends in either ripping the heads off the wheel studs, breaking the socket or snapping the 12" connector on the bar.
 
malc30 said:
^^ I said copper grease is needed to prevent this happening in the future not to help with overtightening.
Click to expand...

Sorry, to prevent what happening in the future? I though the thread was about the O/P's wheelnuts being overtightened?
 
Zip said:
Put the thing that you use to undo the wheel nuts on the wheel nut. Then stand on it and bounce a few times and the wheel nut will come off nicely :)
Click to expand...

I broke my ford wrench when I tried that after some numpty over-tightened.
 
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