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Dropped the GTS off at a very reputable tire shop to have them pull the 17 inch chromed Cup IIs and put on a set up 18" Panamera 10 spokes as well as new tires. The driver side rear wheel had a locking lug nut that someone had tried to remove without much luck. I told the shop this and they assured me that it shouldn't be a problem as they deal with this all the time.
I picked up the car that this afternoon and they told me they couldn't get the lug nut off and had tried for about 3 hours, they werent' going to charge me so off to the house I go. When I got home I decided to see what was going on with the lug nut and this is what I found, totally mangled!
Mangled Lug nut
With the chrome wheels
I did a search and found a thread where a hole saw was used to cut off the lug nut. If someone could tell me size I would appreciate it. I did stop by Home Depot and they didn't have anything that small. I figured a size just bigger than the stud would be ideal as I could use the stud as a guide and hopefully not mess up the threads.
try a 14 mm hole saw,
figure the wheel and the stud are toast,
since its a rear wheel you cant swap out the stud without removing the hub flange,
you might get lucky and be able to chase the threads and use a steel lug nut.
I ruined two wheels as I had to drill out 5 snapped off lugs,
lucky they were front wheels the studs were rusty when I got the aluminum nuts drilled off.
The owner said oh by the way will you take off the front wheels and swap out the lug nuts,
I thought that was an odd request,
I used a 1 inch impact gun on the nuts and they still wouldnt shear off,
it took using the 4 foot 1 inch breaker bar to shear off the lug nuts.
turns out the front wheels had been on the car for 11 years as no one else could remove the nuts either.
So we got 2 new hose reels for the back yard,
Fine German castings
Take all other lug nuts off. Put the hole saw in one of the other holes, just touching the wheel. Very carefully mark the depth on the hole saw. Drill to 0.015" less than the marked depth, try to break the lug nut. Drill a tiny bit more, try to break the lug nut. Repeat until you can break the lug nut, hopefully without drilling into the wheel...
I hear ya, when I took my car into a "tire shop" to have a leaking valve stem replaced, I told them, .."those are aluminum lug nuts, so don't use a impact gun on them"... guess what I hear, ....if it wasn't an impact gun, then they used a Mazda rx7 to remove them.
..so....anyway, not trusting them, once home, I removed the wheels, an re tourqed them myself.
Success! After using three 3/4 inch hole saws the wheel is off! There wa broken off piece of drill bit in one hole and thats what destroyed the 1st two hole saws. The spacer was corroded to the wheel and it took several whacks with a sledge and a pry bar to separate it! The stud is toast as the previous drilling extracted it's toll!
Top of stud
Bottom of stud
Corrosion inside wheel
Time to order a long stud! Appreciate the help everyone!