lugnuts on a tacoma. what were they thinking?

[vash]

man, it is my daily driver. and i dont drive it daily. one of the GREATEST benefits of owning such a "vanilla" vehicle is that i can simply drop it off for random maintenance..i get free annual tire and balance at Costco. bought my tires from them. rotating tires on this thing is less than fun. tires heavy, truck rides high and pushes the upper limits of my floor jack, etc. i like the costco option. this isnt my 911 where i roll in for bald wheels and just keep the car safe in my garage. ironic, i dont have another vehicle that FITS four dirty wheels except the toyota.

well. i am 3 for 3 with costco destroying lugs. toyota makes them look pretty by covering a 20mm nut with a chrome cladding..effectively making the lug a 21mm. the cladding swells when the nut underneath corrodes a bit. costco guys cant handle the problem and will send me home with one or two messed up lugs. i am done with it..i just bought Gorilla factory replacements that are so superior in every way. (dont know if they fit yet..they are on my desk. insert nervous laugh here)..

i cant see a reason for this idea from toyota engineers. you? my stock lug nut wrench is useless. i have to carry a 6-pt 22mm in the truck with me on long trips. dumb. rant over. hated spending money on lugs.

[vash]

Here are the gorillas.

[A930Rocket]

Had a 1976 olds cutlass with same. Sheetmetal covers would strip off all the time. Stoopid idea....

[JAR0023]

Look for a suitable alternate. Had a Lincoln LS with the same covered lugnuts. Can't remember the exact model but there was a run of the mill Chrysler car whose lugnuts spec'd the same but without the crappy cover. -J


ETA: RIF: You've already secured replacements.

[intakexhaust]

That's nut's!

[fastfredracing]

Man, if I had a nickel for every one of those sonny beaches that I have had to chisel off in my lifetime, I could retire. I usually take a sharp chisel, and cut off the chrome covering and they then become one size smaller , 21 mm becomes 20, and 19mm becomes 18mm. The bigger ones on the dodge trucks really bite it. they are bigger, and always twice as hard to get off.
Not just Toyota, GM, and Chrysler as well.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

Man, if I had a nickel for every one of those sonny beaches that I have had to chisel off in my lifetime, I could retire. I usually take a sharp chisel, and cut off the chrome covering and they then become one size smaller , 21 mm becomes 20, and 19mm becomes 18mm. The bigger ones on the dodge trucks really bite it. they are bigger, and always twice as hard to get off.
Not just Toyota, GM, and Chrysler as well.

Hopefully you charged more than a nickle to remove them.

I would bet those chrome lugnuts came from the marketing folks not the engineers.

[Gogar]

It would suck to have to lug around an extra wrench just for those.

[MBAtarga]

Our 87 Jeep Cherokee had the same issue. I removed the chrome covers and had a local welder weld a smaller size socket (don't remember the size) on the end of the factory tool.

[onewhippedpuppy]

My LR Disco had the same issue. Fortunately the PO took a Dremel to them. Stupid design.