Sockets Getting Stuck on Swollen Lug Nuts?? Try This trick!! 

Every time I buy a vehicle with 2 piece lug nuts, when I see that they are starting to swell I go to Napa and buy solid chrome nuts and replace them

A stud with swollen nuts just needs extra care when screwing off, and sometimes the angle of the dangle is what really counts most. That's what I learnt today. Thanks Kenny.

I do have the .5 oversized socket set for stuff like this, but often it does still get stuck. In a situation like this if I was having to do all four wheels I kinda just sell the customer a new set of lug nuts because they need it. They themselves ain't gonna be able to change a tire on the side of the road with lugnuts like that.

For $12 you can get an 18.5mm (for the nut once the chrome cap falls off) x 19.5mm (for the swollen nut) flip socket. Mine says CTA brand on it, but there are a few others out there.

I haven't dealt with swollen nuts recently, but I did a few decades ago. It was a dark, but not stormy night. I was just west of Ann Arbor Michigan and I got a flat tire. I could not see to change the tire so I built a fire for light. Then I found the swollen nuts. Only having the tire iron and a beat up old screwdriver with me I proceeded to use the screwdriver as a cold chisel to get the covers off of the lug nuts and change the tire. Since that day I have never and never will own a vehicle with 2 piece lug nuts, it's just not worth it. Keep the good stuff coming buddy.

Thanks Kenny! Moral of this story.😁 Replace those POS design lug nuts as soon as you buy the vehicle! 👍 Mike in San Diego. 🌞🎸🚀🖖

I'm filing this one away i to my memory. Brilliant tip, can't count how many times I have had to struggle with this. Thanks for the video Ken!!

I hate dealing with swollen nuts ha ha ha. Great tip/trick sir.

Kenny go to the doctor if your nuts are swollen 😂😂😂 just found your channel enjoying your suttle humor!!

The worse thing now is the high torque needed for wheels. The first time I tried using the vehicle lug nut wrench, I couldn't get them loose. Even with a 19mm socket and 1/2" breaker bar, I could maybe get half them off. My solution was, I keep the socket/breaker bar in my vehicle, but now I added one more item that let's me loosen those nuts. I went out and bought 24" length of galvanized pipe that fits over the breaker bar handle. This now gives me the needed leverage. In order that I don't get oil, rust dirt on this "cheater bar" I covered it with "heat shrink" tubing. The Styrofoam package tray, covering my spare tire has a couple of slots in it, and this cheater bar fits in there perfectly.

Chrysler K cars were notorious for this. Pound the socket on, remove lug nut, place socket on ground, beat socket with hammer. Rince and repeat. My 2012 Ram had these same style lug nuts with the same problem. Dealer wanted 16$ each. Went on the internets, got a set of 20 solid nuts for 40$.

👍your intro. I have a Ram pickup truck with those style of lug nuts & I experienced the same problem, I drove the socket onto the lug nut, then used a punch to knock the lug nut out of the socket. I also learned that not all of the metric sockets the same. My son has a metric flip socket that’ll fit, the one that I have, you have to drive the socket onto the lug nut. Maybe the people who is watching your channel & experience this problem & uses your tip & it works for them will thank you.

McGard Lugnuts. Triple chrome plated(or black chrome if you prefer), thru hardened, Made in USA. The best on the market

I had that problem with my 2017 escape. I bought a set of lug nuts from Amazon and problem solved. Keep up the good videos

I think we need Wrenching With Kenny tee shirts that say, "You don't have to go bananas" on them!

Cut or pry those covers off. The actual hex nut underneath is usually one size metric smaller. Stay gold.

Nice! I live in northern New York. I've seen a lot of reused lug nuts that should have gone to the bin. I also have a Ford. I'm anticiping this problem. Thank you!😊

Excited to give this a try next time one comes through. Thanks for the tip!

To prevent the swelling in the first place, I put a smear of silicone sealant around between the nut and the cover: that way, water doesn't get in and rust doesn't break out..😊

Great tip! I’ve been there before. Thanks for sharing!

Wow would I love to see you do this show in Minnesota. You would spend the majority of your time with a torch in your hand getting nuts and bolts to break loose. Before we can wrench, we must defeat rust.

Excellent tip

Manufactures add a thin over mold of stainless steel to keep bolts looking rust free but stainless is softer and tends to distort when impact driven on. Assuming you have all the bolts removed, use an anvil and a peen hammer and with flat side lightly tap on flats of bolt face and rotate until all 6 sides have been lightly peened smooth.

Thanks for the tip.

Never seen that, thanks! Glad to see you are feeling better!

This would've saved HOURS of aggravation on my damn Fusion. That two piece design is part of Ford's deal with the devil to create chaos where none should ever need to exist, and they managed to create a whole market for half-size sockets and impact-rated nut extractor sets in the process, just to fix a problem that shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Thank you brother Kenny for the tip. You're always helpful.

Wow - never would have thought of this trick!😉😊💓

Great tip, Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the tip hopefully I remember at least half of them and I'll be happy . Thanks again Kenny

Every now & then that will work up here in rusty New York. Most generally though, we take a chisel, cut the cap off & use an 18 mm socket. That works every time. The problem here is this. Most times, you can't even drive the socket on with a hammer.

i needed this video about 6 months ago. thanks

Thanks for the tip, trying a different approach, experience is a great teacher!

Thanx 4 the tip!!! Definitely dealt with those before.

I have a 2008 Escape that I couldn't get any socket on. My brother had a nice 4 way that had 19mm and 3/4 and it was all I could do to bust them loose with that but I finally got them.

I thought I knew what you were gonna do but nope you taught me something new for the day !

This one is good information. Thanks Kenny.

Man … the jokes write themselves! 😂

Great idea!!! Thank you...🤩

I used to replace those 2 piece lug nuts with new ones and put a small spritz of white lithium grease into the nut cap and never had another problem.

Neat trick. Thanks!

Kenny, thanks, good tip !

Usually if it happens once it's gonna keep swelling. Back in the 80's I worked in a tire shop up north. Whenever we came across this we just informed the customer that we were replacing all the lugnuts with 1 piece chrome ones. Great tip though

had that occur on the wifes 16 ford escape. went to a parts store, they wanted $10 apiece ($200 total) for new 1 pc lugnut . called local Ford dealer, they wanted $4 apiece ($80 total) got the spec from the Ford dealer, went onto Amazon, $40 for 20.

Good trick. Thanks

Good advice to remember.

Great info there Kenny thank you very much for the tip

Handy tip!

Enjoyed your intro, very funny! Great tip too!

My (Ford) dealership told me that the lugnuts had swollen, and quoted me $800 to fix it...... (2015 Ford Expedition EL, 4x4) I bought a set of new lugnuts from Amazon (Gorilla locking), the next time I was in the shop getting the brakes done, I asked them to rotate the tires (since they were off anyway) and to please use these new lugnuts.... They were happy to. Total cost? Around $55

Galvanic action between the Stainless Cap cover and steel lug nut causes the swelling. Usually it is the Lug Nut corroded to the Alloy Wheel. Socket on and solid beating can break the bond.

They make a flip socket that's 18.5 and 19.5 mm on the two ends. Very cheap. The 18.5mm end is for when the metal cap splits and falls off. Worth picking one up.

Thank you I have had this problem👍

Nice one, thank you

Thanks Kenny great tip !……

Thank you

A old trick that absolutely works 99% of the time! Used it myself many times. Another old timers trick ever had a stripped lug that nothing fits good enough to get it off? Get a cheap socket (we all have them) lather the socket up inside with good old J-B weld put it on the nut and let it setup. Put the wrench or impact to it and 99% it will come right off. Saves hours of work and profanity! Then charge the set of cheap sockets and J-B weld to a customer who thinks your a genius. Saved you and your customer. Especially if it is a nightmare job to replace the stud or a expensive wheel.

Thanks Kenny 😊👍🇺🇲

Thankyou Kenny

If the metric socket is too tight... just put a S.A.E. socket on- it'll fit to remove the nut.

Thx, been thinking about this problem way too long.

thanks, been having this problem with our Volvo.

Quite ironic, i had watched this, this morning before work. Guest what a blasted ford was my first job of the day, brakes. I tried the trick and it worked. In S.A we have the same problem with Ford's And Volvo's, Same rubbish wheel nuts. We don't have icing problems here. It is just a sh.....y design. Thanks Kenny for the very helpful tip. Man I used to battle with them.

Excellent title on the thumbnail!

Even us southern folks have to deal with this; I think its the humidity blowing them up.

GENIUS! I go through this all the damned time.

There are special sockets for them - the same socket as for rounded nuts and bolts

Nice. Never heard of it.

You know, I've seen a lot of mechanics videos and channels over the years but you're probably the only one I recall who uses DeWalt, which I find strange for some reason. I mean, I have DeWalt, all my power tools are DeWalt, but most other mechanics I know use almost exclusively Milwaukee or Snap-On. Milwaukee especially by a large margin.

I was going to say, find the wife, or watch the weather girl on TV. LOL, Kenny I have to say, those little tricks you come up with sure comes in handy. I normally ruin the lug or sometimes even the stud. Thanks for the video

Always a good tip thank you. Do a vidio on the launch scanner I got one and not to knowledgeable with scanners.

excellent. Have run into many of these. Very frustrating. I'll try it for sure. Maybe even run them in tight and loose a couple times. Here in the Pittsburgh rust belt, they are awful.

I remember these garbage lug nuts on Ford's in the 80s we used to peel that chrome cover and there would be a smaller solid open lug nut underneath so either replace or run the open ones with antiseeze on the studs depending on your budget 😅

Gosh I remember dealing with this when I wrenched, such a pain.

Enjoy your little tricks of trade! 😮

I too suffered from this on my Ford Focus on the side of the road with a flat. Back and forth to a auto parts store open at night. Next day got solid one piece lug nuts. I strongly advise to everyone to do it too!

They make a 19.5mm socket for that purpose.

you can get sockets that are plus.5 i.e. 18.5 I have also seen double sided sockets 18mm one side and 18.5 the other etc.

every car I own the 1st thing I buy are new lug nuts...... every time I went to change a wheel out each darn lug.... tap on the socket and break it lose.... then tap it off to go to the next lug.... then once they are broke loose... jack up the car.... and tap on.... remove.... take punch to tap it out of the socket and repeat...... NO MORE.... get new NO COVER lug nuts..... you will save so much time and a heck of a lot of frustration!

Quality turd polishing. Each year there are design changes to make parts more expensive producing cheap junk. I’m glad to work on my 66 Cutlass. Cheaper parts less work. If I get swollen nuts I see a doctor or a nurse 😊

They make solid metal lugnuts

When I get new tires I ask tire guy to replace them. I’ve had a heck of a time on the side of the highway trying to get off for spare. It’s cheap enough to just get them replaced each set of tires👍

Smart! Isn't this how a hex is broached into a bolt head? I would never have connected the two.

Cool little trick for when you are in the shop. What about if you get a flat whennyou are hunting or up on a mountain? Change out the chincy crap with solid steel chrom lug nuts and be done!

I'm trying this next time I run into this issue.

I have a fird edge thanks for the tip

Buy solid Lug nuts when replaceing the swolen ones

It's a Ford alien conspiracy🎉

Neat trick

My 2015 F150 shows no sign of swelling but the factory lug wrench wont begin to fit i went and bought an X wrench to put behind the seat with jack

Try using a flip socket 19.5mm/18.5mm The smaller size when the chrome piece comes away.

Fords are notorious for that. My sons Fusion had that problem. Fought it for an hour. Decided to toss them all & bought new ones off Amazon.

have you seen the 19.5 socket for this reason

Does this work on the blue ones?

Any tips for blue balls?

I've dealt with swollen nuts before on a 2010 Chrysler 300 and the bad part about it was it was at night on the side of the road. The tire blew out. I had to cut the dumb chrome shell away from the actual lug nut because it shifted causing the socket not to fit. I hope to never run into a swollen nuts situation again in any way shape or form.

That happened to me yesterday trying to take off lug nuts to a ford expedition.

They swell because they are regular steel nuts with stainless steel covers. The steel corrodes between the two and makes the stainless bulge out. You get them off using whatever method like Kenny is showing and then you either get some new ones or you split the stainless cover off of them and use a smaller socket ( like 11/ 16" ) You dont want to put them back on if you can help it. Most of my cars are old and if they have them its the first thing i do. Dont want to be playing with this on the side of the road.

Seen it a ton on Jeeps. I know it's not proper but I usually just grab a 20mm socket. Haven't brought myself to buy the $50 Steelman Pro or Ares sockets yet off Amazon. Haven't dared check tool truck prices but I'd imagine them half size sockets on the truck would be $200 +

Back in the 70s, GMhad them, but those outer shell would strip, and that got difficult if you were on the side of the road