Thread: wheel nut buster

Was just thinking the same thing. Try doing the nuts up by hand with a tension wrench and see how easy it actually is.

The wifes xtrail had a stud spun in the hub after havinf new tyres fitted. Took it back to the tyre place and made then hacksaw it off by hand with three fingers between the spokes of the wheels. That was a fun 6 hours for me, not for them. Plus they cut into the wheel so I made them replace it as well. Then the stud hole was flogged out too far to hold a new one so they had to buy a new hub.

6 hours labor
1 New wheel
1 New hub

Total just short of $1400-

cost of tyres $700-

Then I made them do up another nut on one of their cars as they said it wouldn't overtighten. Told them to set it for the xtrail (which is 96lb) and do it up. Then checked it's tension. Done up to 169, relesed at 173.

But they don't overtighten and they walk around with correct tension figures for everything evermade in their head.

[QUOTE=Urban Panzer;1433751]Well depending on where you live, removing the wheel locking nuts is not something I would do or advise tbh.

Now Urban I know we are all convict stock out here but the market for Land Rover stolen bits would hardly make the effort feasible. LR only have a small fraction of the 4wd market and only LR owners would be the target buyers and they are all honourable citizens and would suspect anything sus.(I hope). Now bits off the mega numbers of Toyos & Nissans here would be a different story--mass market. I reckon the risk of the locking nuts & associated user gear stranding you somewhere remote outweighs the security risk and I have replaced all mine. The other thing I always automatically do is a "undo" test on the nuts straight after someone else has put the wheel on--too late to find their too tight when you have to change a wheel.
Cheers Discolaw

I agree with Discolaw on this one.

To counteract any potential of there being any issue in getting the wheel nuts off, I have replaced my standard nut brace with a breaker bar. No need for jumping on any nuts to remove them, or doing them up. As well as that, it stows away nicely in its plastic container in the rear door pocket.

Hello canblogerra,
from memory, 103nM of tension is needed to correctly torque the wheel nut on.
Try doing it with a torque wrench, you would be amazed at how little exertion is needed to do this(it feels like just a bit more than nipped up, like just before you crank on a wheel nut to tighten it on a steel rim).
Also get rid of the lock nuts on all your wheels and replace it with the non-locking ones. I mean who is going to steal your stock D2 rims?The only reason to steal them is for a set of new tyres not the rims.
I keep the lock nut on the spare only as it is easier to steal than one of the rims sitting on terra-firma.If anyone is going to the trouble of stealing all of your rims then there isn't probably much you can do to stop them anyway.

Cheers,

Jason

Individual preferences apply to your security comfort zone so go with what your comfortable with.
Just adding to my previous post regarding the over tightening of my lock nuts, using car stands and blocks of wood, the breaker bar this young bloke used was about 4 foot long so you can imagine just how tight they really were.
I have always, as Discolaw indicated previously, undone all nuts when someone else has played with them and re-tighten each one to my "nip up then half turn" by hand. I have never had any issues regardless of vehicle make or type using this personal preference. It also tends to extend the life of such flimsy things as lock nuts.

Cheers,

Peter.

BTW I still have my lock nuts fitted now that I have control over the tension.

Thanks everyone, I had an urgent need to solve the nut issue because of bald tyres and my imminent NSW rego blue slip inspection.

I bought new nuts - not realising until too late that that little scratch was actually an "I" - so simple!!!

Anyway I thought it worth mentioning that at least my locknuts came off easily with (??? a pair of ???) stilsons.

Cheers

Lads, had a similar problem when trying to remove the lug nuts a week after getting new boots. Was fitting new shocks. 3 nuts were so tight, the supplied wrench bent and 2 of the lock nuts were stripped out. From advice here, I got the lock nuts off using a cold chisel. I was dubious but it worked well. I've ordered 4 new standard nuts from a supplier for just $10.00 each. Again, thanks for the handy tips. Disco58

I bought one of those 12V impact drivers (but still had to buy an additional socket to match the D2 nuts). When I couldn't loosen a couple of nuts some time after the tyre shop had finished replacing a puncture/rotating wheels, the rattle gun loosened the nuts with a little effort. For the size and weight of the case, highly recommended (to help others in need of course)