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If you need to go to a garage the replace a stud or remove lugs, you shouldn't be working on your brakes...
Well I've done the brakes before, it's a simple swap of the pads (unless you need to also do the calipers, rotors etc). The thing is getting the wheel off, which the left side very easily did, but the right side just refused.
If I have no business working on a car, it's because I don't know all the basics, but probably even more than that I have no patience with things such as something becoming stuck. To me it should be a given that lug nuts just COME OFF, period. I don't care what else is going on to complicate things, lug nuts should COME OFF. That I had to hobble on 2 vs 4 is a function of my short fuse along those lines, for when that one nut wouldn't budge, I used the original tire iron (vs the 4-way lug wrench) in combination with a huge pipe wrench to slam on it in the vein of "COME OFF!! NOW!!!"
I don't care about the laws of physics or any such thing, lug nuts should NEVER EVER get stuck like that to where they refuse to come off, even if it means all but ignoring the laws of physics. Around here, I'M the law, if that means you defy gravity, you do it. If it means you ignore all the other things going on because I'm telling you to do whatever, YOU DO IT. As illogical as that all sounds, & I know it does, the real thing is I don't like such tiny things becoming a road block to what I'm trying to do, it would be like trying to re-wire the house but you can't NOT because you don't know how to actually wire the house per se, but because a stupid screw won't just come on out with a normal tool in a normal way. I don't consider such things challenges to overcome, but an enemy to be destroyed with a bazooka if necessary.
THAT would be the reason why I have no business doing anything to a car other than driving it. I should trust such matters to a garage, but I hate the hassle & expense. I absolutely despise spending tons of money fixing a car--to me, once you buy it, you should be able to drive it for like 15 years consecutively without interruption with NOTHING breaking down, with NOTHING having to be done other than changing the oil etc. If that's too much to ask (and most people would laugh at my suggestion and say that such is very irrational), well then at least any repairs you DO have to do should be quick & easy, and not goofed up over something as stupid as lug nuts behaving like an ass.
At least I did do a couple of things to make it easier, in the form of getting the floor jack and 4-way lug wrench. When the tire went flat prior to this, it took FOREVER to get it off using the original jack & tire iron for obvious reasons--having to flip that handle on the jack constantly, and having to re-do the tire iron from where it kept hitting the ground due to its length. So at least I was willing to get those 2 items to make jacking it up & removing the wheel quicker. The last thing I expected was for the lug nuts to be yet another obstacle to overcome, especially when the left-side went very quickly. As I was ranting while dealing with this, "for crying out loud I'm not trying to change the engine or overhaul the transmission."
I bought a used car a few years ago, and when I went to get new tires, I found that one stud was completely missing. Not even a bolt, just a flat spot on the hub there. It was probably driven thousands of miles on four studs. A new stud cost about a buck at Autozone, and my garage man popped it into the hub in a few minutes
I don't care about the laws of physics or any such thing, lug nuts should NEVER EVER get stuck like that to where they refuse to come off, even if it means all but ignoring the laws of physics. Around here, I'M the law, if that means you defy gravity, you do it. If it means you ignore all the other things going on because I'm telling you to do whatever, YOU DO IT. As illogical as that all sounds, & I know it does, the real thing is I don't like such tiny things becoming a road block to what I'm trying to do, it would be like trying to re-wire the house but you can't NOT because you don't know how to actually wire the house per se, but because a stupid screw won't just come on out with a normal tool in a normal way. I don't consider such things challenges to overcome, but an enemy to be destroyed with a bazooka if necessary.
THAT would be the reason why I have no business doing anything to a car other than driving it. I should trust such matters to a garage, but I hate the hassle & expense. I absolutely despise spending tons of money fixing a car--to me, once you buy it, you should be able to drive it for like 15 years consecutively without interruption with NOTHING breaking down, with NOTHING having to be done other than changing the oil etc. If that's too much to ask (and most people would laugh at my suggestion and say that such is very irrational), well then at least any repairs you DO have to do should be quick & easy, and not goofed up over something as stupid as lug nuts behaving like an ass.
As I was ranting while dealing with this, "for crying out loud I'm not trying to change the engine or overhaul the transmission."
I don't think you have the right... temperment, to be working on cars.
I've found that your method (getting extremely angry and looking to destroy the problem rather than fix it) always causes more problems than it solves.
I don't think you have the right... temperment, to be working on cars.
I've found that your method (getting extremely angry and looking to destroy the problem rather than fix it) always causes more problems than it solves.
You are probably right. That punching bag I saw for sale down the road might be a good investment if I insist on going this route, ha ha.
Part of the problem is that, again, I'm just extremely intolerant of simple things getting in the way of bigger things. It's understandable if you need to learn the way in which you change an engine, for instance, and especially if you're talking something that complicated, naturally that's an involved mess of a job. You EXPECT it to be complicated.
What you WOULDN'T expect if you were me is that something as simple as a screw or nut being stubborn to remove would get in the way of doing the other far more complicated things. Such remedial types of things are things I consider it to be that it should practically be automatic that they just happen. Period. It would be like being a chef & you can't get the stupid gas stove to light--once the stove is going, you can do all of these wonderful things & come up with wonderful creations that make people just go "wow, you can really freaking cook" etc, but something as remedial as the gas stove won't light keeps getting in your way.
Oh yes, I have ZERO and I mean ZERO patience for something like that. Heck, I once put the hammer to the CD-ROM on a computer because I was trying to remove it to replace it with my first-ever CD-RW (back in 2001) and I couldn't get the CD-ROM screws loosened. At that point I totally forgot about the original purpose of the work (upgrading the CD-ROM to a CD-RW) and didn't care about anything else but that that stupid CD-ROM (the old one) was absolutely going to come out of there, no matter how, even if I had to destroy the entire computer just for the principle of "when I say some out, I mean--COME OUT!!!!" Fortunately nothing electronic besides the old CD-ROM was harmed (not even the hard drive amazingly) and I simply bought a new computer case and "transplanted" everything successfully. And yes, I made sure not to over-tighten the CD-RW screws or any other ones, and even tested that they could be easily removed before finishing. To me the problem isn't my short fuse, but that such things like that happen and they absolutely should not ever happen, no matter the laws of physics, no matter anything period. It may be illogical, but such things are just so extremely annoying.
I'm pretty experienced with working on cars, but a stripped lugnut (stripped splines attaching to rotor/hub) is a bit of a tricky repair depending on the type of lug nut and the amount of room inside the lug nut hole on the rim.
I wonder if those commenting understand that the lug nut isn't stubborn, but that the entire stud and lug is spinning in place with the wheel and brake rotor still attached.
I took a air powered cutter and split the lug nut in two with a chisel and hammer, but not many DIYers would have this setup handy. A torch would also make short work of the lug. A dremel would take a little longer but may work too. Just tape the rim off to protect it. A little trick i've used is to position the lug at the top, and pull out at the bottom of the wheel while a friend tried to turn the nut. Sometimes it holds, sometimes not.
Another thing to think about is the damage to the hub is that's where the lug attaches. The stripped splines could have opened it up quite a bit and the hub needs to be replaced. Some cars this is easy, other cars...not so easy.
Stripped splines on the lugs are 1 reason why i only use a torque wrench to install lug nuts. I always dread when removing lugs, and one spins on me. Ugh!
Well it got ugly. I decided I'd try to get the wheel off and fix the brakes before taking it to the shop, so that the brakes would be a DONE DEAL and complete, out of the way, not clouding the issue.
But gee whiz--besides the 5th one acting the way it was, 2 OTHER ones absolutely REFUSED to budge. I ended up trying to bully them off using the original tire iron & a pipe wrench, and ended up breaking one other stud all the way off. The other one became so stripped that the lug nut wouldn't "seat."
Thus, I drove the car to the shop on just 2 out of 5 studs.
Gee whiz, I didn't know just getting lug nuts off could be so complicated. Imagine trying to change your light bulb & it got this way, you'd be totally going "what in the WORLD?" Also, unlike the right wheel, the left wheel was as easy as pie. I had moved beyond the "stock" jack & tire iron & had purchased a 2 ton floor jack and a "4-way" lug wrench so I wouldn't have to keep removing and reorienting the tire iron where it would keep hitting the ground from being so long. Instead I could get it going, no removing and re-seating required, and then ultimately spin it quickly.
I should've known--earlier, a few days ago, I had to change the tire on the right side to fix a flat, and 2 or 3 of the lug nuts were so stubborn I had to keep using the lug wrench to the very end, they NEVER became loose enough where you could "spin" the wrench or finger-loosen, I had to use the wrench with both hands grunting right up to the very end.
You have a TEN year old car. Where do you live? And how often do you ever change your rims... only if you have a flat?
Also, is it possible that you overtighten your lugnuts? Do you realize that they only need to be tightened to 80 ft-lbs of torque? I carry a Matco torque wrench in my car at all times, and it's main purpose in life is to tighten my lugnuts properly.
I live in New England and we heavily salt our roads in the winter time. However, in the wintertime I change over to snow tires. The snows are on steelies, so the lugnuts are removed twice a year. In addition... we put anti-seize on the threads of the wheel studs.
Anyway, in the future use anti-seize on your wheel studs and only tighten to 80 ft-lbs of torque.
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