JHZR2
Staff member
Last year I didn't put snow tires on to my old BMW. It was just always so warm and I didn't have the time or the necessity. I just put them on today and the lug bolts had not been touched for about two years. Every one of them was incredibly difficult to remove. Difficult as in full leg muscles on a 4 foot bar, and I can squat a goodly amount of weight so it was a lot of force. The breaker bar was definitely bending and flexing in ways that I had not caused it to do before.
As each lug nut released, there was a distinct pop, indicating to me that there must be some spot corrosion that was causing localized seizing.
The car sits outside and so it gets wet every time it rains, and it gets road salt if there's some on the ground. The lug bolts are made of steel while the wheels are aluminum, which certainly does not help.
I don't want to create an argument about using anti-seize on lug bolts... But the amount of force that I had to use was extreme and also likely not correct. I'm wondering if there is some sort of a surface treatment, even if it's not an oily anti-seize. There is downside of corrosion at any of the mating surfaces.
But I'm wondering if perhaps use of something like Eezox or Boeshield t9 would help to prevent corrosion on the surfaces, while minimizing the torque offset which people are often concerned about.
Alternately applying anti-seize to one of the surfaces, either the seat on the wheel, the collar on the bolt itself, or the threads solely will get the treatment.
I couldn't even get the bolt loose with my Ingersoll-Rand impact gun, and if I would've ever had a flat tire, I would have definitely been stuck - no way I would've ever gotten these loose with the OEM lug wrench.
That's justification enough for me to do something. Thoughts??
As each lug nut released, there was a distinct pop, indicating to me that there must be some spot corrosion that was causing localized seizing.
The car sits outside and so it gets wet every time it rains, and it gets road salt if there's some on the ground. The lug bolts are made of steel while the wheels are aluminum, which certainly does not help.
I don't want to create an argument about using anti-seize on lug bolts... But the amount of force that I had to use was extreme and also likely not correct. I'm wondering if there is some sort of a surface treatment, even if it's not an oily anti-seize. There is downside of corrosion at any of the mating surfaces.
But I'm wondering if perhaps use of something like Eezox or Boeshield t9 would help to prevent corrosion on the surfaces, while minimizing the torque offset which people are often concerned about.
Alternately applying anti-seize to one of the surfaces, either the seat on the wheel, the collar on the bolt itself, or the threads solely will get the treatment.
I couldn't even get the bolt loose with my Ingersoll-Rand impact gun, and if I would've ever had a flat tire, I would have definitely been stuck - no way I would've ever gotten these loose with the OEM lug wrench.
That's justification enough for me to do something. Thoughts??
