I wanted to rotate all 4 tires on my car moving the front to the back and so on in the drive way at home. I got out a 19mm socket on a breaker bar but when i tried to slide the socket on to the lug nut it wouldn't fit!? I tried it on all of them. It wouldnt fit?! So I went in the trunk and grabbed the tire iron that comes with the car from Ford and it wouldn't fit either!?
The rims and lug nuts on the car are all stock parts from Ford.
Totally confused, I got online to see if I could find any info on this situation and it turns out that the stock lug nuts have a thin steel outer casing over each nut that over time can swell due to moisture!? As hard as it is to believe, I found this to be was true. The fix is either I buy a 19.5 mm socket or I cut each casing off each lug nut while still on the car and then remove each lug nut with an 18mm socket... So I opted for the latter, cutting off each casing and removing with an 18mm but only after buying a brand new after market full set of solid one piece chrome 19mm lug nuts from amazon to replace them with.
It's a really good thing I never had a flat tire while out in the world somewhere. Because I never would have been able to get the wheel off. The car would have had to be flat bedded to a shop some where that would have charged me a ton of money for this stupid little fix. Pretty crazy, huh?
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I wanted to rotate all 4 tires on my car moving the front to the back and so on in the drive way at home. I got out a 19mm socket on a breaker bar but when i tried to slide the socket on to the lug nut it wouldn't fit!? I tried it on all of them. It wouldnt fit?! So I went in the trunk and grabbed the tire iron that comes with the car from Ford and it wouldn't fit either!?
The rims and lug nuts on the car are all stock parts from Ford.
Totally confused, I got online to see if I could find any info on this situation and it turns out that the stock lug nuts have a thin steel outer casing over each nut that over time can swell due to moisture!? As hard as it is to believe, I found this to be was true. The fix is either I buy a 19.5 mm socket or I cut each casing off each lug nut while still on the car and then remove each lug nut with an 18mm socket... So I opted for the latter, cutting off each casing and removing with an 18mm but only after buying a brand new after market full set of solid one piece chrome 19mm lug nuts from amazon to replace them with.
It's a really good thing I never had a flat tire while out in the world somewhere. Because I never would have been able to get the wheel off. The car would have had to be flat bedded to a shop some where that would have charged me a ton of money for this stupid little fix. Pretty crazy, huh?
- Mike R., Camarillo, CA, US