What are you going to do with these? 
Are you going to collect all the .5 sizes?
Do you have a socket holding for all of them?
Are you going to collect all the .5 sizes?
Do you have a socket holding for all of them?
Who said that he strongly prefers comprehensive socket sets?
- Thread starter qqzj
- Start date
they might be for wheel lug nuts that have a stainless cap on them, and when they get distorted or swelled, regular sized sockets won;t fit
Buckgnarly
Well-known member
Exactly. Also for when the sleeve is gone and it's smaller then the original size.
I realize that you are going for some humor here but lets call it a swing and a miss.What are you going to do with these?
Are you going to collect all the .5 sizes?
Do you have a socket holding for all of them?
The little Harbor Freight set is awesome for the money. Maddox universal locking lug nut removal set. It will get off messed up, and worse, lug nuts.Jokes aside, if the lug nut is damaged such that a regular socket doesn't fit, wouldn't you be just as well-served with a set of these:
or are you also putting the damaged lug nuts back on after?
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dnschmidt
Well-known member
Anybody that owns a Chrysler mini van will tell you what you do with those sockets. For some reason the dumb bastards put a stainless steel wrapper on their lug nuts and these swell and require the use of these odd sized sockets. Without them your hosed.
These half sizes aren't for damaged lug nuts, they're for swollen lug nuts. I used the 22.5 lug socket on a 2013 Malibu two weeks ago due to swollen lug 'caps'. The caps aren't separate from the lug and aren't removable (they don't thread onto the lug like the older lug covers from the 1990s. These sockets are required if you do any automotive work in the rust belt.
-- Dave
-- Dave
Ford had the same issue, there was a class action lawsuit that got dismissed....
Work on cars in a rust belt state aka where they use road salt and you'll get used to dealing with them.... and replacing the factory lug nuts to the tune of about $100 a car.
@Djosbun beat me to the rust belt comment
Work on cars in a rust belt state aka where they use road salt and you'll get used to dealing with them.... and replacing the factory lug nuts to the tune of about $100 a car.
@Djosbun beat me to the rust belt comment
rancherbill
Well-known member
I know I don't like shriveled nuts....shriveled nuts can have.
Wyoming09
Well-known member
I don't much care for swollen nuts either.
Handyandy23
Well-known member
Wouldn't something like a 7/8" possibly work on a swollen 22mm lug? Not saying it's a waste, but a lot of the SAE sizes fall in between metric sizes. I had this issue on my wife's Equinox and always managed to find some kind of SAE size to hammer onto them to get them off.
PelicanPines
ALLIANCE MEMBER
I always thought the 3lb hammer was the solution. I have several. It's not like you are gonna "keep" a swollen lugnut... and reuse it.
You might not reuse it but the tire monkey will when the customer refuses to pay for new ones.
PelicanPines
ALLIANCE MEMBER
Then maybe a 5lb hammer would come in handy. It boggles my mind how or why someone knowing they have a faulty BOLTs HOLDING a tire on would opt to not pay for new ones. Are they so entitled they think the "Nutt" ferry should give them new unswollen nutts for free?
No they just don’t have the extra money. They probably won’t ask for free ones but rather have the old ones put back on.
WWheeler
Well-known member
Exactly, especially when the shop charges upwards of $150 to replace them on all 4 tires. A not-small percentage of customers have been saving for weeks/months just to come up with the coin for the new set of boots they rolled in for or to pay for that brake job or wheel bearing or what-have-you, and will look at you like you are trying to scam them when you try to explain their lugnuts are swollen. Seen them get quite mad about it. They've never heard of such a thing, the old ones don't look bad to them, and/or they don't have the money to pay for it right now even if they did.
That’s what she said.
Al Borland
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2016
- Messages
- 1,599
Problem with the hammer is that the nut gets stuck in the socket. And you have 4-5 more nuts to go just on that wheel alone.
They're definately for lug nuts with the stamped steel covering . Once the covering falls off, these sockets make it easy to remove the lugs. I have three different sockets with 6 different sizes.
redwrench60
Well-known member
Good luck trying to sell all 20 lug nuts that you don’t even have in stock to multiple customers a day that don’t have time to wait and just call their husbands who think you are trying to screw them with all new lug nuts because the old ones are “rusty”
Then they get on Garage Journal and we have a 6 page ***** ache thread that the stealership charged them $140 to rotate their tires.
Then they get on Garage Journal and we have a 6 page ***** ache thread that the stealership charged them $140 to rotate their tires.
Fedwrench
ALLIANCE MEMBER
EXACTLY!!!
I understand that most of you people don't work on vehicles professionally but, those half size lug nut flip sockets are a gift straight from heaven.
To go along with nice looking alloy wheels, Ford, Chrysler (now Stellantis), and a few GM models use two piece lug nuts that swell with repeated removals/installations or exposure to the elements. They also deform a bit making the use of a worn impact socket or the SAE equivalent size not work. The damaged fastener sockets are generally too thick to fit in the wheel's lug nut space. Steelman or whoever came up with these is a friggen hero in my book. 
Those half sized impact flip sockets are by no means a gimmick tool. They were born out of necessity for ****** designed lug nuts on millions of vehicles. Luckily there are better replacement lug nuts available when you have to replace all of them.four.cycle
Well-known member
ffs!
how long has this been going on?
do these lug nuts go wonky out here on the west coast where there's no salt on the roads?
how long has this been going on?
do these lug nuts go wonky out here on the west coast where there's no salt on the roads?
finn
Well-known member
My 88 Chevy K1500 had this issue thirty years ago. Those lug nuts had aluminum caps, so they were easily dealt with.
Yes, they do. Dipshits who work in automotive professionally who impact the damn things on like 400 lb ft when it calls for 76 lb ft... If flat rate wasn't a race techs could actually torque to spec and this wouldn't be a problem.
ChevyEFI
Well-known member
GM in the 70s had some. Lug nuts where I grew up got replaced if the car was used in winter. Out in the Southwest U.S., I have found OEM 80s nuts in salvage yards that were 30 years old or more.
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richfinn
Well-known member
European Ford's and Volvo, these are a must. The two piece lug nuts have a stainless cover over the threaded section which swells up with rust, these sockets work great especiallywhere we use a lot of salt on the roads!!!What are you going to do with these?
Are you going to collect all the .5 sizes?
Do you have a socket holding for all of them?
This has been a problem for at least 20+ years on many domestic and foreign cars. I run Jags and Lincolns. Both suffer from the same cost cutting failures. The Jag was $120K and the Lincoln $58K so they are on a very wide range of vehicles for sure.
I just plan on replacing them with solid versions. You can even get solid SS ones if in the rust belt. Yes you should not have to do that but it's a one and done repair so just something I do when I get a car.
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I just plan on replacing them with solid versions. You can even get solid SS ones if in the rust belt. Yes you should not have to do that but it's a one and done repair so just something I do when I get a car.
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techkelly
Well-known member
If they are ran off and on enough times they will get damaged, even here where we don't do rust.
I have Seen more 21MMs fail than any other, think it's because of people using a 22 or 7/8 socket.
I have Seen more 21MMs fail than any other, think it's because of people using a 22 or 7/8 socket.
vssjim
ALLIANCE MEMBER
all the jeeps and Chrysler's Fords and even some Toyota's
BarrelRoll
Well-known member
I wish I could find 23/32", 29/32" and 1 3/32" for rusted out 3/4", 15/16", and 1 1/8" we deal with in the industrial world.