Hi:
In went to rotate my tires, did one side but on the other side two lug nuts would not accept my socket. 3/4ths inch socket worked fine on all the lug nuts except two.
So I went to the tire store to let a pro figure it out and they got them off.
Turns out that the lug nuts have a pressed sheet metal cap on them that had deformed. I found the matter discussed on other model forums but not here.


Cap, uncapped lug nut, deformed cap still on lug nut.

19 mm socket is the functional equivalent, they tell me.

Also, the car came with a tire iron that has a socket at one end, that appears to be deforming at the corners. I won't use it any more unless strictly needed.

Otherwise all is well with the car at 24,000 miles and 5+years.

You all carry on and be good to your loved ones.

P.

 

follow up:
Back home I tore the decorative cap off another lug nut and went looking for a socket to fit the real lug nut underneath. 3/4" is too big, 11/16ths is too small. 19 mm is too big, 17 mm is too small. I don't have an 18 mm, or 23/32nds".
Meanwhile, I think deep well sockets are better, you have a better chance of griping the whole lug rather than just the outer half. Especially while you still have the decorative caps on the lugs.
P.

 

That must be painful. Yes, many of the lugs do have the decorative cap. I have yet to learn if the actual OEM lugs have the caps, OR if just the lugs that mechanics along the way working on your car REPLACED on your wheels whenever they damage your original lug with their impact power-wrenches.

Early in my ownership, I elected to buy TWO things for myself to keep. One, a bag of TRUE chrome-finish lug nuts (you can get a bag of 16 or so on Amazon-UK). A reckon, as long as I am the one putting them on, they won't be chewed up so fast.

The second thing was a SPOKE-style lug wrench, with the 17 thru 20 lug sizes on it, and the plastic collar on the ends to keep from scarring your wheels. I chose a chrome-molybdenum metal wrench because it's so light compared with the old grandparents' wrench. Check out the wrench from Motamec.

Keep these two items in your home, not just for this, but for most of your future cars. Damn those mechanics, with clumsy hands like glazed ham shanks.

 

I never let tire fitters go anywhere near my lug nuts. They often set their power wrenches at the highest torque they're ever going to need for any vehicle, so they don't have to bother resetting the torque for each vehicle they work on.
This not only will damage decorative lug nut caps, but will over-torque most lug nuts making them almost impossible to loosen with hand tools. Bad news if you're at roadside with a flat tire!
What I do is get my tires changed 2 at a time, remove the wheels myself and take them to the tire place in another vehicle. When I get them back I can install them and use my own torque wrench to do up the lug nuts.

 

BRAVO to that Man Chrisjp! That is precisely what I've done for the past four years, and for exactly the same reason. It took me my first two years to learn what damage and struggle they ("they" being my own Jaguar Dealership Maintenance Center!) were doing to my life.
The first time I tried changing my own wheels was thankfully in the driveway at home, and not in a public street. The lugs were so tight I thought I was a putrid weakling excuse for a man with no arm strength. I ran out to the local store to by an impact wrench of my own--it was the only way to loosen the lugs that the Dealership had tightened on. Each lug a drastically different force! That's dangerous for the darned disc, and they know it!

I know it's only a few lug nuts, and we are financially fat enough to own an expensive-maker car,... but that doesn't mean mechanics should pee away our loose cash like that.

 

Dozen of threads on this and Jaguar is not the only one supplying these crap lug nuts.
Do a search on this forum and there are hundreds of posts with failures and disasters.

I recommend when you buy any Jaguar one of the first things to do is order 20 of the solid lug nuts. It's just a cost control mistake by Jaguar/Ford and others.
If you want the best there are solid SS ones for more money.
This is one problem you can fix 100%! Dump the factory ones they are JUNK!
.
.
.

 

I am back from trying to rotate the tires on the other side. I was delayed because I needed to find an 18mm deep well socket for the lug nut where the decorative cap deformed and came off stuck to my 3/4" socket. The 18 mm socket is 3/8' drive, my breaker bar is 1/2" drive, so I used a reducer and snapped off the 3/8" stub end when I stood on the breaker bar. That lug is just on tighter then it should be. Comments in this thread about tire guys setting the torques too high are appreciated. Now I need to go back to the tire shop and get them to muscle the lug off. All the other lugs on that side will come off easily enough.
And I will look for a set of lug nuts without the decorative caps, I thank someone here for that advice.
Car is running great otherwise.
P.

 

Sorry to hear of your problems but that is exactly why I keep posting about replacing them. They WILL bite you at some time!
Yes the tire guys sometimes do put them on too tight but the real problem is the crappy sheet metal caps.

Glad to hear you will fix it before it causes bigger and more expensive problems.
.
.
.

 

Further progress on the lug nut where the decorative cap came off:
I got an 18mm deep well impact socket with 1/2" drive, $8, and I put my 16" breaker bar on it. I weigh 220 lbs. I stood on the end of the bar without any loosening of the nut.
Calculate 220 x 1.3 ft = 290? ft/lbs of torque. I bounced on the bar and the nut came loose. Someone can try to calculate the torque for a bouncing 220 lbs.
Any how no real harm and I will get a set of solid lug nuts and I assume some jerk tire guy will over tighten them some day in the future.
There is so little that a long time tinkerer can do on these cars, at least I can loosen my lug nuts.
Sheesh,
P.

 

There was one more that wouldn't come off. The decorative cap was deformed.I got the 18 mm impact socket. And I got a cold chisel to cut the decor cap off or away or shredded and I turned the lobes off the nut with the 18mm and I said to hell with it and went to my favorite tire shop.
Where the fellow put a 17mm socket on there and pounded it on with a 4lb hammer.
Then it came off nicely.
I’ll buy some real nuts from Summit in Reno.


Just thinking what a great story this would make means it is all worth while.

 

You want/need two things once you get some decent lugs nuts (Gorilla do nice one-piece solid ones for modern Jags, type 73138J for chrome or 73138JBC for black chrome):
1. A 19 mm plastic sleeved 1/2" deep socket, here's a set of three 17, 19 and 21 mm:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/40127956096...Bk9SR9a38YX_YA
2. A 1/2" breaker bar, for example: https://www.ebay.com/itm/28498545369...Bk9SR8D2pIb_YA

I have used this combo for many years now across all my Jags with zero problems and literally hundreds of wheel nuts removed and replaced.
The OEM wheel nuts (and the Gorilla ones) are 19 mm, the plastic sleeved 19 mm socket fits perfectly and the sleeve protects the insides of the wheel holes, and the breaker bar gives you plenty of leverage to crack loose the nuts even after some grease monkey has gone crazy on them with too many ducka-ducks.
I also carry a fold up 1/2" wheel brace / cross brace and spare 19 mm deep socket in the trunk for emergency roadside use, and as others have mentioned you should immediately lose the useless factory wheel brace as it is too weak and prone to bend or even collapse.

 

I have finally replaced all of the factory original lug nuts, the ones with the decorative caps. NAPA had White Knights that I could order, $45 extra for shipping which seemed excessive, but they came with a package that said 13/16ths" drive and it turned out to be 21 mm drive instead, which I thought was annoying, so I got my money back but not the shipping.
I then bought a set from Amazon, Veritek brand with the proper ¾" drive like OEM stock, and those fit the tire iron that came with the car.
It took me awhile to get around to changing the nuts, cold car port parking in winter, etc. but now the job is done.
Otherwise, 30,000 miles and the car is running fine.
Happy New Year you all.
P.

 

I have found the destruction of the stainless steel covers on the lug nuts relates to the use of twelve point sockets. These just grip the corners of the nut and will distort the covers. If you use a six point socket these grip more of the face and there is no issue.

 

Listen to OzXFR!
He has covered all the points very well.
.
.
.

 

My point is that it is crucial to use 6 point sockets (not 12 point) on these lug nuts, OzXFR refers to a set of 6 point sockets on Ebay but does not make the point that 6 point sockets are required. The Jaguar supplied lug wrench is 6 point.

If you look at the pictures in the original post the witness marks on the lug nut faces indicate that a 12 point socket has been used resulting in distortion of the stainless cap. A 6 point socket will not do this.

I have seen the same issue with other manufacturers (e.g. Ford) who use the same style of lug nut. Use a 6 point socket and the problem goes away

 

No the problem does NOT go away! That's the entire point!
Keep them if you want but they will bite you as they have done dozens of other people. Just read the threads there are tons of them.
.
.
.

 

Clubairth1 We will have to agree to differ - I have been using 6 point sockets on my Jaguar vehicles (XJS, XKR, X260) for many years and have had no issue with the stainless steel cover becoming distorted.

another post agrees with this finding

post 18 in:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...light=lug+nuts

 

It's the classic vicious circle problem:

Wheels are supposed to be tightened to a specific "newton" force--- or else vital discs can be warped, and the gentlest meekest, perfectly NORMAL strength women and men who drive cars will not be able to change the danged wheel in a roadway blowout...

That same light newton force specification happily prevents you from damaging chrome covers (even if you're using 6-point or 12 on your 19mm socket wrench)
Decorative-covered lug nuts are designed to put up with a FEW dozen excessive newtons on the lug when tightening. But they're only perfectly safe from damage as long as our PRO-service people remain PRO-fessional about what they're doing with that evil impact wrench.

If you're lucky, your serviceman doesn't get too lazy with his wrench and tear up (or off) the chrome covers---or overtighten the lugs to the point where YOU have to tear the cover up trying to get the lugs OFF.

If you're unlucky, your lug-cover is ruined. But it's never the fault of the cover. The cover is a good way to accent the wheel with any subtlety of color, so I endorse Jaguar choosing lug-covers.

I like the chrome-covered lugs, versus the REAL lugs. The chrome is easier to shine up and keep shiny. Stainless steel was never meant to stay gleaming when subjected to the utter GOOP of chemicals and grimes our roadway lives bring.

But I think clubairth is mostly right. Sooner or later, your lug will be disfigured by an encounter with the wrong serviceman at the wrong time. When my version Jaguar first came out, I hurried right away to buy a pack of replacement chrome-covered lugs, so I can swap them if one gets ruined, or to polish them as each gets grimy.

 

If you don't an impact on them there is no issue.

 

Well when have you EVER seen a tire guy NOT use an impact?
.
.
.