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Lug nuts - insignificant?


OSOLMIO

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With regard to lug nuts, I notice that some people on their aftermarket wheels are using lug nuts with open ends and almost three inches long, some call them "tuner" lug nuts. Anyway ,are there any advantages or disadvantages to these types of lug nuts? Also I noticed there are the old standard hex nuts with the hex or flat surfaces on the outside of the nut and then there are internally "keyed" lug nuts that have smooth round exteriors but with a splined or hex key internal portion. Are there any advantages to having all 4 or 5 internally keyed? They look a little harder to steal unless someone has the key but they have to have the key and not a simple socket set.

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The keys are very generic and the cheap companies only use a few different styles. Easy enough for any would-be thief to find the key.

 

'tuner' lugs refers to a specific thread pitch and lugnut base angle that aftermarket wheels for most small cars will use. the lug style for aftermarket wheels is pretty universal whereas the lug style required for many oem wheels may be brand specific. honda lugs are really close in format to tuner lugs and a lot of people use them interchangeably. it is not a good idea to do that though. for maximum safety you should only use oem style lugs on oem wheels and tuner style lugs on tuner wheels.

 

long lugs, more specifically open ended lugs, are a carryover from certain racing applications where a minimum length of the lug must protrude past the wheel and lugnut for safety reasons. the reason being if yo have a much longer lug then it would take significantly more effort for a lug nut to spin or strip off during a race.

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The keys are very generic and the cheap companies only use a few different styles. Easy enough for any would-be thief to find the key.

 

'tuner' lugs refers to a specific thread pitch and lugnut base angle that aftermarket wheels for most small cars will use. the lug style for aftermarket wheels is pretty universal whereas the lug style required for many oem wheels may be brand specific. honda lugs are really close in format to tuner lugs and a lot of people use them interchangeably. it is not a good idea to do that though. for maximum safety you should only use oem style lugs on oem wheels and tuner style lugs on tuner wheels.

 

long lugs, more specifically open ended lugs, are a carryover from certain racing applications where a minimum length of the lug must protrude past the wheel and lugnut for safety reasons. the reason being if yo have a much longer lug then it would take significantly more effort for a lug nut to spin or strip off during a race.

Thanks. You have provided me with some extremely important info. I have Momo Corse RPM's and am waiting for the tires from Discount Tires and I had no idea it would be best to use tuner lugs instead of stock type lugs with the Momo's. I suppose if one uses the wrong lugs that safety would be greatly compromised like the stud breaking or stripping threads or some equally catastrophic event that might cause the wheel to separate from the hub.

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The most likely negative action would not be catastrophic unless you are completely oblivious to the car shaking itself to death. Since the seat on the lug is a different pitch you wouldn't have a strong hold on the nut when you tightened it down. This would allow it to more easily back out. Once it backed out a thread or two on a couple of the lugs the wheel would start to wobble. If you didn't attend to it immediately the lug hole in the wheel would be damaged as well as the threads on the lug itself. Damaging? Surely. Catastrophic? Probably not.

 

On my Civic, during a late nighter of drunken auto repair, i forgot to torque one of my wheels to spec. 60 or so miles later the lugs had backed out a a thread or two each and the front end started shaking and pulling wildly. I was pretty sure I had broken a ball joint or something more severe. I limped all the way back home at about 20mph only to find out it was loose lugs. retorqued them and no significant damage to wheel or threads even after 20 miles of additional driving.

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