I could not slacken any of the wheel nuts 18 months after I had new tyres fitted by one of the national tyre and exhaust fitting companies. I went back, and with great difficulty, they removed all but one of the security nuts which now spins and the splines in the back half are worn and the socket stretched. Most of the standard nuts had to have the stainless steel covers removed to get to the mild steel nut underneath as they were also spinning.

I am now in a position that I cannot remove the wheel. I am loathed to take it to Jaguar as a technician indicated that they may have to replace the hub.

I tried to drill through the security nut cover and down through the stud but the cover is made of a very tough material and the drill bit hardly marked the surface.

There is no access to drill out the stud from the back with the hub and wheel in situ.

It does not look possible to remove the brake caliper with the standard 17” wheel in situ so that I could remove the hub nut and remove the hub, disc and wheel together so that I could drill out the stud from the back.

With the car jacked up and the suspension hanging, there is just enough access to take a photo of the back of the stud. If it was possible to grind off the back of the stud level with hub, and with the other 4 wheel nuts removed, could the wheel be pulled off, pulling the serrated end of the stud through to the outside of the hub?

Any other suggestions? Has anyone successfully been recompensed by a tyre fitting company in a situation like this? I still have the receipt for the 2 tyres but how do I prove it is the rear wheels they fitted?

 

i had this problem with a BMW i had to get my dremmel with a metal cutting wheel and cut the lug and stud off. it was the only way. the tire shop said they would of had to do the same thing. with the BMW your able to buy new wheel studs i assume jaguar you can do the same being wheel studs can break easily.

 

This is the guidance I was looking for. I want to be confident before I start the job. I have an angle grinder that would be man enough to grind the head off the stud if it was on the bench. I thought about a dremel as being able to reach the back of the stud but did not think it would be powerful enough. Is this the type of grinding tool you used 12 PCE CIRCULAR GRINDING WHEEL KIT HOBBY TOOL DREMEL | eBay ? How long did it take? With the head off, did the stud come away easily with the wheel? I would send you a photograph for you to assess access but as I am new to the forum, I have not found out how to do it. Jaguar said that they did not replace studs and I have not checked if they carry the part, but I know that I could get one off a scrap X350. Thanks for your help. I'll get the replacement stud before I start.

 

@ neil0131 welcome to the forum. referring to your link: no thats not what the cutting wheel looked like that i used. the wheel i used is designed for metal. has teeth on it like a hack saw blade. dremel's are pretty tough tools. i turned the dial up to full speed it didnt take a great deal of time once the cut was started it was a breeze. (wear eye protection)
ya, you're right as far a getting another stud from a salvage yard. either way the tire has to come off. after that the next step would figure out how or where to replace the stud.

couldnt find the wheel i have on line, but here's a carbon wheel which is better than what i used.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DREMEL-S45...#ht_1334wt_922

 

Hi Josh,
I'll need to get back under the car to check access for the grinding wheel. I could just squeeze my fingers between the rear hub assembly and the suspension when I lined the stud up between the brake caliper fixings. I will stick a 35mm cardboard disc on the end of a dowel to check access.

This is a link to a rear hub assembly on sale and shows the studs in relation to the brake caliper mounting holes - (29) 2007 Jaguar XJ6 Nearside Rear Hub | eBay

Thanks again for your help.

 

Before you cut - can you weld onto the nut?
If you can it might be worth welding a decent lump of steel onto it and trying to turn that.
The welding will do a good job of loosening the nut as well.
It's a bit agricultural but nothing to lose.

 

My brother had that problem a few weeks ago with his 06 XJ8L. His wife had a flat tire and someone tried to help her change it, but he used his foot to turn the factory lug wrench and broke off the chrome cover and stripped the nut. The originals appeared to be 3/4, so I took a 17mm impact socket, which is slightly smaller, and pounded it onto the nut with a hammer. That, along with a 36" breaker bar, let me turn the nut. I found that both his rear wheels were torqued to around 160 ft lbs. I always use a torque wrench and some anti-seize on the threads when I put lug nuts on, and I've never had a problem.

 

@ gmcgann i actually done that exact same thing too with the smaller socket and break over bar. discount tire lost my lock socket and had to do this when i had a blow out. i keep a break over bar with a socket that fits the lugs in the trunk its so much better than the factory crap they put in cars.

 

@ neil0131 being your trying to go from behind and not the front i assume you have rims that the lug nut cant be cut off from the front. are your lugs recessed inside the rim?

 

Thanks for the last 3 replies:-

gmcgann - I think that you are referring to the standard non locking wheel nuts (lug nuts) which have the thin stainless steel covers. After my attempt to remove these standard nuts, the stainless steel covers which are a loose fit over a mild steel hex nut, the covers spun. The tyre fitting company peeled off the covers and used a 17mm socket on the exposed nut to remove the standard nuts. It was only the security nut that could not be removed using the special socket supplied with the car.

josh_77073 - The security nut fits deeper in the counter bore than the standard nuts and because of the wheel off-set the nut cannot be attacked by a hack saw and I had already proved that it could not be drilled. Grinding off the back of the stud was looking the most likely solution.

Steveinfrance - Welding something on seemed a novel approach.

I contacted a company that sold a tool that would remove any security nut and they gave me the address of a garage in Edinburgh who had the tool. Unfortunately, they said that the tool could not remove the security nuts on X350 and Volvos, and having tried other methods without success, they referred me to another garage that they have used for Volvos. SUCCESS! This garage arc welded the spinning part of the nut to the back part of the security nut. They then welded ribs onto the outside diameter of the front part so that a 6 point hex socket could fit and with a long bar, got the nut off! He said that it was tight.

Before he started he did say that he would get it off, but there would be some discolouration to the wheel lacquer/paint caused by the arc. I accepted this and pleased that the marking is not too bad and can be lived with on an 8 year old car. I have not yet tried to T Cut it out. When the tyre is worn, it will become my spare wheel. It took 30 minutes and I was charged a reasonable rate. I had said that I was considering grinding off the back of the stud but that access was very restricted. He did not jump at this idea as he had proven that his method never failed.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions. I have written this closure as it is important that the forum records solutions.

 

Thanks for letting us know the outcome - it makes the thread so much more helpful.
I've added 'FIXED' to the title.

 

Hi Josh, I have just re-read your method. On my original read I had not appreciated that the term lug is the US term for a wheel nut. I thought that you were referring the large swaged diameter end of the wheel stud as UK uses the term lug for "a projecting part, especially one by which something can be moved, rotated, or supported." Scots use the term lug for your ear and the swaged end of the stud is similar to your ear lobe.

I now realise that, although I could not drill the cap, I could have tried to grind it off or cut it off with a grinder. From the outside of the wheel I could have ground off the front face of the security nut (lug) to expose the tapped hole and the end of the stud. I could then have used the remaining hole to guide a 9mm or thereabouts drill to drill out the softer stud to below the thickness of the nut (lug) and the nut would come free, and the wheel is free! There would be about 12mm of stud projecting from the hub so that a nut could be fitted to protect the first few threads as it is hammered to break free of the spline. Remove the nut and push the stud out. I am sure that there would be clearance in one position on the rear hub to get a new stub into the hub.

If I had understood your suggestion, I would have certainly had a go before resorting to the welding method.

 

Actually, the term is the same in the US, we just sometimes don't use the whole term. The wheel stud has traditionally been referred to as the "lug" and the nut is the "lug nut." Over the years the term "lug nut" has stayed constant, while referring to the "lug" has dropped out of use. Therefore people sometimes refer to the "lug" as being interchangeable with "lug nut."

Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you,
trippingly on the tongue...

 

Wow!

Great story.

Glad it's FIXED.