Damn, Damien. You really have some great luck with the automobiles, don't you? .

Actually, funny you should mention this...The exact same thing happened to me a few years back...It took a Dremel and a lot of heat, if I recall correctly (as well as some brute force kindly donated by my dad). It definitely came off though. This was on a 1994 Mazda Protege, though, so I didn't really care about saving the wheel (although luckily it came out unscathed).

I believe what we ended up doing was just heat up the lug nut and stud considerably, then basically chiseled it up enough with the dremel that the lug nut finally just broke in two and fell off, and we were able to pull the tire off. I think it took about 45 minutes, total. I would have probably spent more time on it if I'd cared enough about the car in question to be careful, though....

I'll assume you don't care to have to replace the stud and lug nut.

I'm not sure if this would work for you, but: I'm thinking you could buy a deep socket, cut the drive end off of it enough to just barely still allow a big set of vice grips to hold it, and drill through the entire lug nut with the socket as a guide using a series of increasing diameter drill bits until you get a bit large enough to completely remove the stud from the inside of the nut.

Or if you can get at one of the sides of the nut, you might use a rotary tool and cut off wheel to cut the lug nut through its threads from cap to bottom, rotate 180 and repeat.

EDIT: Damn, guess I type too slow... when I started no-one had replied.

So basically, my easiest option is to heat and break huh? Well, I'm good at breaking things, although it usually only happens when I'm trying not to... hmmm...
Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, just drill the nut until it falls off.

Damien. If you are very careful and gifted with an acetylene torch you can blow down the center of the stud and nut being careful not to do anything but go after the stud. If the wheels are aluminum you can still just hit the oxygen on the stud and eventually blow it away enough to get the wheel off. Go after the stud. Straight on. When you get low enough in the hole the stud will give away. I've done lots of them. You will need to take your nerve pills prior to the journey you now must take. Just don't get off the stud and do little oxygen shots at a time. A little here and a little there will hopefully in your case prevent you from burning the wheel.

It's the best way I have found.


Good Luck

Well, at least I fixed the title. That ain't a stuck tire.

No, it's still stuck Thanks Defiant.

Everything was going well with the drill until I got pretty deep on the stud, then it started snagging the bit and spinning. Ended up causing the bit to break. I'll have to goto the store and replace 'em now...

Rick, thanks for the advice. I had the same idea at first, however it seems my nerves were not up for the task. I ended burning the hell out of the center cap so decided to drill it out instead.

I was putting new springs on my car and in the process of trying to take the front passenger tire off, I came to find out I have 2 stripped lugnuts. I have a special key socket that goes over my lugnuts and its pretty worn down. I cannot get any socket on it, Does anyone have any ideas on how to get these 2 lugnuts off.

Im going to try and put a bolt in the with some Lock tight On the threads and let it dry for awhile and try and get it off that way.

any other ideas?

so you cant hammer a socket over it

weld a bolt to them and use a breaker bar and socket. you should be getting a new set of lugs, correct?

They make sockets for just your situation, it grinds intself on to the lugnut to remove it. I dont know what they are called but maybe someone else does. It ruins the lugnut but your probably going to replace it anyway.

You could try one of these. I'm not sure what size the lug nuts are but they go up yo 3/4". They do make bigger ones but I'm not sure where to buy them. Any tire place should have the correct one. Stop by and ask them too remove the bad one.

So your lugnut is bad. Im assuming your lugnut is a closed tuner type with 6 or more points. Same applies for open tuner lugnuts, really all lugnuts.

1) Weld a piece of rebar or an old bolt to it and turn it off.
2) Use a pair of needle nose vice grips, pull and turn until you get a thread. More than likely you will end up cross threading the snapping the lug.
3) Use an easy out socket, bit for open lugnuts
4) Drill it out
5) Grind the stud head off behind the hub and replace the stud
6) Ping your key, make it slighty oval

If its loose at all, pound it in some so that the lugnut might catch a thread, too much and you've pushed the stud through the back.

Easiest method that I've found with a stripped lugnut is to pick up your car, turn your wheel and grind off the stud from behind. Your going to need to replace those studs anyway, might as well replace all 5, your already there.

I was under the impression that the external surface (the nut) was stripped and not the threads. If the threads are stripped, then yes grind the back off and pull it through.

Well after rotating my tires three days ago i managed to completely snap one of my front driver side lug nut bolts off. Now that wheel only has four instead of 5, but ill get around to it one day, 4 is good enough for now considering some cars only come with 4 stock.
Wonder if they make arps or stronger lug nut bolts for stripping and breaking issues like these?

yes I will be getting new lugnuts but dont know where to get them, I went to autozone today and got one of them bolt out sets like the craftsmen set shown above so Im sure that will work, However Where can I get new lug nuts for my volk racing rims?

I second the vice grip suggestion.



Also read through this thread to get a couple other ideas (some of which support roadrunner2176's suggestions).

They make them for the EVO VIII but I think those different than ours. (wheel studs)

You can get wheel studs anywhere, just ask the person at the counter. If they have any sense, they can find them in the back. Take one of your old ones for reference, and a nut as well.

If your lugnuts are all stripped or starting to round, replace them all. Either order a new kit from volk, probably expensive, or pick up a set of tuner style open or closed lugnuts. Any auto parts store should have them in a pack of 20 with a key, or 16 with a key and you would have to buy another 4 pack and have a spare key.

As long as their 12 x 1.5 you shouldnt have a problem. Only thing I'd look into is a different type of key, inner, outer, splined, open, closed, and maybe even colored if you want to be very particular. And remember that open lugnuts tend to rust after a year or so, but if you coat the inside with antiseize or spray a clear your fine.

You can buy stronger studs, but theres really no need. Id be more worried about your axle or differential failing before 5 studs failed.

well I tried the Socket the grinds itself into the nut but it didnt work,(it worked on one of them but the other one just stripped even more) now I got some of the strongest jb weld that I could find and got a bolt and put a shit load of jb weld and threaded it onto the lugnut. Ill let it dry over night and go try at it again tomorrow. if that doesnt work I dont know what the hell Im going to do

just to update the thread I stripped the lug nut down so much that I pounded a very small lugnut on and that got it off.