Lug Nuts Overtightened and NOW STUCK
 

Hi All- My local Porsche shop over tightened my lug nuts and I have tried everything to get them off. Heat, breaker bars, shop impact wrenches after heat applied ect.

I finally decided to just get a 19mm saw and drill them off...so i thought. I now have only one nut off, the rest are snapped and there is a little metal left that is holding the wheel to the car. See pics.

Any thoughts on how to fix this? Can't believe that paying thousands for brakes a few years ago would have caused so many headaches when i went to go get new tires.

call the Service Mgr. there and see what he says

better yet send an Email so you have a record ...

Nuts.
 

Sorry,

Don't see pics.

Gerry

here are a few pics
 

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1567368410.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1567368410.jpg

I am guessing there is corrosion between the lug and wheel. Did you try liquid wrench, or equivalent?

I recently did something similar on someone's KIA where we were able to drive the studs back in enough to loosen what was left of the nuts ...

Not ideal but if they're aluminium lugnuts it might work , best case scenario is you won't damage the rims as compared to trying to cutt of the remains of the nuts with a dremel !
I used a 4X air riveting gun with a large brass snap connected to a 3/8 air hose with 125 lbs air pressure.

Anti-seize lubricant........
 

I don’t see any trace of anti-seize lubricant on any of the lug bolts (?). What a nightmare you got there. Be careful not to ruin the wheels. Hope you succeed with minimal damage on that wheel. BTW, how many wheels are stuck?

Tony

Use the hole saw gently to get rid of the rest. Back off when they are through, then use a sharp point punch to get the remains off the studs. No other choice really. done lots of them, GRRRR.

Next time, don't go to extraordinary means. Instead, take a pic of the wheel, drive it back to shop, talk to the manager/supervisor/owner, tell them you want it to look just like it did when you dropped it off and let them deal with it. The pics are important in case they screw up the wheel.

They’re corroded, not overtightened...

I put on some recently sandblasted and powder coated aluminum lug nuts on, no anti-seize.

6 months later after rain and some car washes, took a huge breaker bar to get them off...

Aluminum, steel, and rain, don’t play well together...

your local Porsche shop seems unfamiliar with the TSB on lug nuts put out by Porsche

I would keep going with the hole saw as you have a remainder of one left to gauge how far to go before contacting wheel. I would even go so far as to put some other lugs on with a 1/8 inch or so distance from remainder and do some slow figure eights, stopping often to check. Everyone seems to think the nut in good condition is going to back off/fail (they won’t). If there is a next time, stop before you get this far!

Too bad there’s no such thing as a left handed holesaw...

Good point, but there's one that's close, with the diamond teeth on it used for granite and stone. But I don't know if they come in 3/4".

3/4" is readily available along with any number of other sizes.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/LENOX-3-4-in-Diamond-Arbored-Hole-Saw/50073333
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-3-4-in-Hole-Dozer-Bi-Metal-Hole-Saw-49-56-9605/202327742
and other sources of course.

Ugh. Nightmare! Looks like there is (was?) a factory hole saw tool for this application...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1567435019.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1567435019.jpg

+1

anti-seize is a must, but I've never seen a shop use it on lug nuts/bolts.

anti-seize and they will never be stuck and never fall off.

You don't need their flunkies doing any more damage. Best take your time.

Anyone ever use the candle wax and lighter trick? I've only seennit on YouTube. Melt some wax and let it drip onto the threads. Supposedly the wax works its way in between the threads and voila, what was stuck is no longer unstuck.

It the only one wheel that I have attempted to remove. this is a nightmare. I am thinking of just having it towed back to the shop that did the work.

Good thinking...*might* also be easier to prevent wheel damage if used during the last little bit of cutting.

Being new to vintage P-cars, this aluminum lug thing has freaked me out from the beginning. Luckily I had read the tech manual like a nerd and found out about the anti seize thing. But even that seemed a bit weird as that’s usually a no no...

And yes, sincere commiserations to the OP, this is indeed a nightmare scenario...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIunR4VL5vc

If they were so stupid to over tighten the lug nuts, would you trust them to remove the nuts? Use a hole saw, slow and careful.

Trust John.

The one time I did it I used a 3/4 inch hold saw and put a plastic sleeve inside it to ride on the stud. I also took the hole saw to the grinder and ground the teeth to taper to the inside of the hole. Go slow, you have all day.

You have to be careful, but it will take most of the bottom of the bolt out, and not leave that shelf. If you have some punches and or nail sets and a grinder, you can fashion about any kind of little chisel you want.

Even on Porsche forums, there are even those who don't agree that anti-seize is needed at this location. Unless you're out in space, there will be some level of galvanic reaction when different metals are in direct contact, with or without moisture.

Must wade through the wive tales.

Sherwood

id take a little drill bit 1/8" or less and go around it to weaken it more and use a punch to finish it off. Or recut the teeth on the holesaw so it cuts in reverse. I once had to use a 12' long pipe on a breaker bar with all my weight on it to gt the lugs off. they can get pretty stuck

How long ago did the shop do the work?? If it was more than 90ish days, forget trying to blame them... And I agree with above, probably corroded, not over tightened.. Very common.

Dremel or air tool with a small carbide deburring bit (McMaster Carr) will also do the final fiddly work on these. But, I would continue with the saw and a punch. Too bad they cannot be heated on the other wheels to possibly prevent more misery. BIG breaker bar in the arsenal?
Sounds like it's time for a new set of nuts and some anti seize for reassembly. Ideally, some cad plate on the studs would minimize the galvanic corrosion issue but just not practical.

Just an idea , if you take your hole saw and put it on a grinding wheel and taper the saw teeth from the outside in , finishing with a very thin tooth . that may cut the nut enough to free it from the wheel .
Just an Idea

I had to do two because a shop over tightened and they broke when I went to remove front wheels. Shop was 2k miles away so not an option. Bought a bunch of the hole saws as they would dull easily and just got through it . I also replaced the studs when done. I first tried with a dremel...no go. Hole saw got it done but a PITA. pain in the ass.

Chris

welp...thats one way to do it...

john walker have given the answer, no need to reinventing the wheel.... Its not a new problem.

But a deep socket that goes all the way on to the nut is important to not brake it.

This thread neatly dovetails with "lifting the car" about shops jacking up your car badly to change wheels/tyres. Best to take the wheel off yourself and take it to the shop; I do it one at a time! They always over tighten them in my experience.

That's what I did, and it worked very well.

From what I see of the photo, you will need to drill the stud out completely.

Can you get the center caps off and remove the wheel bearing to pull the brake rotor out also? That would be tricky, at best.

Emphasis added.

Hi all- back to the shop and just had them fix it. $657 to remove 3 wheels, retap the treads, test drive and a quart of brad penn. Didn't love the price but got my car back up and running so it was worth it. Next time i will be putting my lugs nuts on myself...

thanks for all the advice.

It's amazing how incompetent some shops, and most tire shops are. And imagine this, some are working on P-cars with center locks. Highly technical piece of engineering, that Porsche sent out a 10 page maintenance bulletin on. My opinion on center locks, if you don't technically understand them yourself, you shouldn't have them. To an engineer, it all makes sense, to a tire buster, "hey, it's not my butt." "Good and tight". Most shops don't even have a proper torque wrench.

Kinda understandable why shops overtighten everything. Better to have the nuts stay put than the wheels fall off, car gets damaged and someone gets injured.

Happens with tires, drain plugs etc etc