PB blaster is "da bomb" compared to Liquid Wrench and some other stuff I've tried over the years. I just used some yesterday to free up an aluminum sanding disc that was stuck onto a steel axle, worked like a charm.

+3 on the anti-seize, used sparingly and with hand tightened lug nuts, never had a problem with either loosening or not loosening...;^)


JohnE

If using Never Seize, reduce your tightening torque by ten per cent. Initially Never Seize will act as a lubricant and the wheel nuts will be over torqued even when using a torque wrench.

Good advise! Had one of the nurses I work with going home on the interstate day before yesterday - had her FRONT wheel come off while traveling at 75 mph. Luckly she was able to control the vehicle and pull safely off the road. Shaken and crying but safe. I asked when the last time she had work done on her tires / wheels and she said that her husband took it to a Walmart tire center a few days before. Just goes to show you that double checking others work is unfortunately a sad fact of life any more.

I had bought new tires once and after the "free" tire rotation it took two people standing on a pipe on the end of the lug wrench to get one of the nuts off.
I've found that I can rotate tires or change the oil quicker than I can drive to the quick change places to get it done without having to worry about what they screw up.
People say their time is worth too much to do it themselves but if it takes 15 minutes to drive there, wait 15 to get the work done then another 15 home, thats too much time when I can do the work in about 30 minutes total.

Hi, ex-OMF member here, just wanted to post this, the longest cheater bar ever (I'm squatting by the wheel):

I want to know what the sledge hammer was for ? Use to run an old Chevy pickup, use anti seise on the lugs and never had a problem. First time I took the wheels off it took two of us standing on a four foot pipe on the cross wrench to get one of the back wheels off that is whet started me using grease on them.

Another tire problem I have had, is not being able to remove the mounted (flat) tire from the vehicle after the lug nuts are off. Usually a hit with a big hammer will pop it off, but last summer I had to call for service as I could not remove the mounted tire from my Ford 3/4 ton work pickup. Unfortunately I was not present when the service man took the mounted tire off, so I do not know how he did it?

Mike

Swamp--your in the bogs and swamps alot??..could it had rusted so much??..

Joost--and everyone--if nothing else all these posts make me feel a bit better knowing that i'm not the only one..i can sort of see how Joost moved along from wrench to hammer to bigger and bigger hammer to really big breaker bar..

Your putting you self at risk using anything on lug nuts when installing them.

If they are corroded, over-torqued or galled enough to need a long lever to loosen them they should be replaced. To meet engineering standards for safety and reliability they need to be installed and torqued clean and dry. Generally no oil or other compounds are recommended, needed or helpful for installation.

If you commonly run your vehicle in the surf or other corrosive environments you may want to apply a preservative grease to them after they are installed and torqued but check with the manufacturer. This grease would need to be removed before the nuts are reinstalled for long term use. This can be skipped when your repairing a flat in the field but needs to be taken care of properly ASAP.

Odds are you can get away with applying an anti-seize compound, goose grease, or what have you, lots of people do it. But your eating up the safety margins built into the design. Some day you may need that extra margin of safety and when you do ...

Those bolt are expendable. At the first sign of trouble replace them. Compared to other things they are cheap. Wheels do fall off ... usually at the worse possible time.