Broken lug nuts ...help!!!!!!
 

2 out 5 lug nuts snapped in half, i took the car to 2 mechanics and they basically referred me to someone else, they basically plain and simple do not want to deal with this.

any tips and advice is much appreciated. i guess i'll have to drill them out?

Bumpppppppppp

Did you use an impact on those? I've had to drill the lugs out before. Not a fun job.

BALLS. how where u torquing them down before? i havent ran across a problem like this, or have heard of it, i would try taking it to a machine shop or a welding shop see id they can torche the bad boy out.... might damage the wheel tho

can u get the wheel lock to grab what ever is left of the lug?

Use a drill to make new some semblance of splines then *hammer* on a disposable socket You will lose the socket but save your wheel.

HTH,
Crispy

You might be able to drill the biggest size hole you can on the left and right side of the broken nut without touching the stud (maybe 1/8 th inch or so judging by the photo.) Try not to drill too far down into your rim where the nut seats. Then try to split the nut with a small metal chisle and hammer. If it doesn't split right away try drilling a larger hole. You can always replace a damaged stud after you get the wheel off but try not to damage it. Should lube up the other ones with penetrating oil before you break them too. Lube them up before you replace them to prevent the rust and they will come off easier for you next time. Good luck.

FRONT?
Would this Work Guys???
. I am thinking that you can jack the car up,get at the Main wheel bearing nut,take that off.Through the center cap in the wheel.
then take the brake bracket bolts out.You should be able to slide(turn) them so they can come off with everything...Undo the caliper from the line.
This should allow you to take everything off.
The brakes,rotor, should come off with the wheel.
Then Grind the back of the lug so that you can shove it into the wheel hole and Out.
Ah SHOOT!
dust shield...may have to cut that.

could you just take the wheel off along with the calliper and rotor . grab a punch or an extension and hammer it right out. seems like the easiest way of looking to go by this.

How much of the splines are left in terms of length? If you don't have enough surface area to transfer sufficient torque to, any attempt at removal with a socket will simply round the lug remnant off.

As aftermarket wheels are not my area of knowledge, I'm going to assume that replacing the wheel should it become damaged is not an option. This rules out going to a machine shop and any heat-based implements of removal. Given that the area to work in is small and cramped, this looks like a job for a Dremel, flex extension and some diamond grinding bits. This method uses a grinding bit like a cut-off wheel in a space where the cut-off wheel won't fit. You will be damaging the threads on the stud in two places, but it should remain useable. Just to be safe, I would recommend replacing the damaged stud, using anti-seize and getting some simple, no-frills steel hex lug nuts. IMO, this is one situation where shiny wheel bling is vastly inferior to what has been proven to work time and time again.

Start off with a ball bit and carefully grind through the top edge of the lug remnant, applying light pressure towards the rear and down (when facing the wheel). The purpose is to not go too far back, but to make a visible path to the stud. Switch to the rounded cone bit and you can start grinding forward along the length of the stud through the lug remnant. Don't worry about the stud's threads, but take note of how it 'feels' because you can gauge your progress by this (a stud is much harder than the lug nut, takes longer/more effort to grind through).

Once you get to the innermost part of the lug remnant (closest to wheel's conical surface), then you start grinding upward towards the wheel. You may nick the wheel's conical surface slightly, but the damage will be minimal and shouldn't affect the wheel's integrity. I'm not a metallurgist or structural engineer, so I can't definitively say one way or the other though. If someone knows more about the pertinent issues, please add your thoughts here.

Repeat the process on the opposite side of the lug remnant and the lug remnant should fall right off. Attack the other broken lug in the same manner and you should be set. Just remember to go slow and watch where you are guiding the bit.

thanks guys, yeah i think i'll go with some liquid wrench and press a socket on it and hopefully that'll do.......if that doesn't work then i'll go with the drilling holes on each side idea.....this is really becoming a mission

my first concern when they mentioned heat was losing/damaging the rim (which seems to be the conventional way to go about this) ....so yes, heat is not an option on this one, i'm sure this is going to be a tedious process but you gotta do what you gotta do...thanks dude

yes, i will try this as it sounds like the most logical choice to try first....hope it works, i will lose 2 sockets but it beats buying /matching a rim

thanks

This happened to me with tuner lugs this winter when putting on new rubber. There is a special reverse threaded socket that can be used if there is enough meat to grab the broken lug. Another thing is to use a air hammer chisel with the pointed tip and try to get it to move, the vibration sometimes breaks it free. Bad thing is you'll likely damage the wheel :( but maybe if you do it on the stud itself it will break the corrosion.

The guy that did mine eventually drilled out the lug and replaced them with new ones, good thing it's my winter beater and I don't care about the wheels because he tried the air chisel first.

Grease the lug nuts taper and the lug threads next time and you should be fine.

Hole saw
 

I've heard of shops using a hole saw without the center bit to grind out the lug nut next to the stud. Most hole saws are for wood so you would need to find one that is made for metal, has an ID slightly larger than the OD of the stud and is deeper than the length of the stud showing plus the part of the lug nut left. If you put a plug inside the hole saw of the right thickness then it can bottom out on that instead of going into the rim once you have gone through the lug nut. It'll probably chew up the stud a little, but since it's on the front it's easy to replace after everything is apart.

I did kind of like the idea of taking the hub off the car and grinding off the stud head and punching it through from the backside, no damage to the wheel that way, but it you can't get the caliper off the rotor then you have to take the caliper off the car with the rotor.

Try something like this.

http://www.craftsman.com/craftsman-b...3&blockType=G3

Yup, that's what I was referring to, didn't work for me though...not enough lug left to bite properly

I thought of the hole saw idea too but luckily my tire guy had an experienced man for the job

Bummer.

Looks like you should get some penetrating oil on all your other lug nuts and be super careful taking them off, throw them as far as you can and buy some better quality ones to use in the future.
By the photo it looks like you should have a matching socket for those ones, maybe that was part of the problem??

Heat it up, hammer a socket onto it, let cool alittle, then impact off.

I would be wary of broken nut/bolt extractors on such a high-stakes area such as this. I've dabbled around with bolt/screw extractors on my FC's underhood sheetmetal in a non-vital area (fuse panel bolt hole, driver's side strut tower) and wish I didn't as it was nothing short of hell.

Drilling the 1/8" pilot hole for the bolt extractor was annoying
Threading the extractor in was difficult
Add maybe 15ft.lbs of torque on it and the extractor snapped off flush

I had to break out the drill and Dremel to make the bolt hole useable again after 2 hours of work. It now has a M5 nut and bolt here. Someday, I may cut off the original captured nut and give it a rivnut but it is quite far down the priority list.

Moral of the story: If a fastener breaks off when mated to another metal fastener, an extractor tool will break off MUCH sooner, and will compound the initial problem by necessitating the removal of a hardened tool.

Whatever way you end up doing it you will have to use high quality bits and not dollar store stuff otherwise it's not going to work and just make the problem even more annoying. Good luck.
Have you tried anything yet.

Here are a couple different types of splined sockets I found in the garage. They are very thin walled and come with the custom lug nuts. If you had one of these sockets that fit perfectly you may be able to get the broken bits off. Sometimes these custom wheel and tire places have this kind of stuff and would let you use it? There was probably one that came with these wheels/nuts when they were new.
Any luck yet?

i haven't tried anything yet, i will try tonight as we finally got some ok weather here (it's been raining and below freezing temps on this neck of the woods) , i'll post as the story develops, thanks a lot for your input!