So Saturday I was taking putting a new set of wheels on my car. I did one side and everything went just fine. Then I went to the other side and started to take off the lugs starting with the McGuard wheel lock. I was using a torque wrench, but it was on there really tight and wouldn't budge so I adjusted the wrench to allow the most torque and gave it a big hard turn... then CRACK.... the key split and the lug just shattered, with what looked like just a smoother inner section left.

I called around to a few places and nobody wanted anything to do with it. Finally my mechanic said he would take a look and see what he could do. He ended up hammering a socket on it then used an air wrench to try and get it off. That just made it shatter almost the rest of the way.

Now I just have the base of the lug and one shard sticking out left and it will not come off.

The mech ended up suggesting that I put some WD40 type stuff on it everyday then bring it back in a week, to see if that makes it any easier.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

 

Go to Sears. Get some Alligator sockets. That's what they are made for. To take off broken lugs.

 

NTB has a way to take them off.... it is a reversed threaded socket that they hammer on.... it worked on a "nonshattered" locking lug nut so hopefully it will work on a semi shattered one.

goodluck.

 

I've had to have a completely sheared off lug drilled out before with one of my previous cars. That wasn't fun, but at least the shop I took it to only charged me $80 to fix it.

- Jeremy (jnn4v)

 

Forgive my ignorance, but what is an alligator socket? a socket that grabs on or something?

 

Alligator sockets have sharp "teeth" that dig into the borken lug nut. If the lug nut is loose, it'll grab onto it and turn it off. If the lug nut is tight on there, it will cut through the lug nut and then you jsut readjust it again to cut it some more until it is loose enough to turn by hand.

 

It doesn't help your present situation, but in the future don't use a torque wrench to remove nuts and bolts.

Good luck with the lug nut.

 

Cool, I'll stop by sears on the way home, thanks for the advice. Using the torque wrench to remove the lugs normally isn't a problem when I put them on with it, but when I had it inspected I think they took off the wheels then used an air gun to put the lugs back on.

 

i have had to take a cut off tool to get some off before on other cars but dunno if u can get one in the rim of the s to do that

 

Wheel's cursed. Throw it away.