Dark Blue

I snapped off 1/2 of a rear aluminum lug nut that a tire shop cross-threaded with an impact wrench. I'm trying to take it slow and not screw anything up as I remove it. At this point I drilled out virtually all of the remaining lug nut with a 19 mm bi-metal hole saw that fits very closely around the lug stud. Unfortunately, the wheel still won't come off. There's a very thin layer of the aluminum nut still on the threads. This remaining bit is deep in the hole in teh wheel and very tough to get to. If I had access I could thread a die over it and that would cut it out of the threads. I'm also thinking about trying to drive a steel nut over it. The lug stud has syrvived so far. I could also take the hole saw and just cut throgh the wheel making the hole bigger. That would get the wheel off and give me access to the stud to clean it up. If I do this, it would remove about half on the concave surface where the lug nut mates with the wheel. I hate to screw up the wheel (stock flat S4 wheel), but it's just one of five lug nuts and probably won't present a problem. Any brillian suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks.

Steve
'89 S4

chrly924s

I rounded one off Sunday and used one of my Sears Bolt Offs to get it off. #13 fits right on. Then seat it w/a whack w/ the hammer and a 19mm-3/4in socket to turn it out. If you are really down in there it still may work. The hole in the bolt off is large enought to let the stud stick thru. A #12 may work if you've removed too much of the old nut. Sounds like you still got the seat left in there.
That bolt off set has saved my *** many times working on these old cars.

leperboy

I had a siezed lug nut shear and it took me about 11 hours to finally get it off.

My first suggestion is to use a ton of Kroil, Rusteater or whatever your preferred fluid is. There is probably aluminum on steel corrosion, though, so I'm not sure how it will work. It didn't help me, but it didn't hurt either. Get a small torch and heat the stud and nut remainder. It may help it loosen as the aluminum expands.

If that doesn't work, you can get a dremel bit and score down one side of the remainder of the lug nut. You have to be really careful to cut the aluminum and as little of the stud thread as possible. You can get a flathead screw driver into the score and try to push the nut away from the stud. If that fails, try heating it again. The remainder may pop off. Just be aware that this is painfully time consuming and hard to do inside the cup part of the wheel lug hole, which is way deeper than it seems. Once you score the nut, know that there is the chance you ruin the stud, and you'll end up with a new stud and pulling the hub, which means replacing the wheel bearing WYAIT.

Matt

Alan

Its aluminum - so if there is that little left try peeling or cracking it off...

The idea of the steel nut may be good to start ripping it out of the stud threads - then see if you can peel it out or chip it out with an angled pick or a sharp screwdriver... at some point when I did this (dremmel with carbide) the remaining parts of the aluminum nut just fell apart & off the threads... Try to focus on just 2 stripes down the nut so you can split it & peel the remaining 2 parts off.

You may do better with a steel nut with a channel cut cleanly sideways into the 1st threads for the swarf to exit - so it doesn't jam up too much...

I did end up with some stud damage - but if its localized to 2 stripes you don't lose much strength and can swap it out later (though it takes considerable hub dismantling first). You can make it serviceable with a die to true it back up after the wheel is off

Alan