On Friday I was planning on changing my brake fluid and discovered that the tire shop that put on my Fuzion ZR1's had seriously cross-threaded a few of the aluminum lug nuts. I was lucky I was in a shop and not by the side of the road with a flat. A high torque impact wrench got most of them off, but I ended up snapping one of the lug nuts off. I bought a 19mm bi-metal hole saw that fits around the lug stud pretty well and plan to drill the rest off that way. Is this a good plan or is there a better approach. I'm hoping that the steel stud will be fine as I presume that the soft aluminum lug nut would deform before screwing up the threads too bad. If I have to replace the stud, is that too tough. Also, I'm guessing that it's safe to drive with four good lugs on the wheel until I finish this. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

Steve
89 S4

 

I think its the best plan. Take it slow and guage how deep to go quite carefully before you hit the wheel socket (check on the other wheel).

Also check to see that a dummy core from the holesaw will go though the wheel lug nut holes - if not you may still need to dremmel open & split the remaining core around the lug nut to get it off... when you are doen to the last bit this usually cracks off pretty fast.

Do try to keep the stud as intact as possible since changing it out means pretty serious suspension dissassembly. When you get it off clean the stud threads with a die or at least a steel lug nut to true it up....

BTW you have 5 god lugs holding it on - just that one of them won't come off...

Alan