Can't remove that stubborn lug nut from your tire? Do this inexpensive thing now!

Be prepared in advance

Today Saturday February 10, 2024, I’ve learned my lesson when trying to removing lug nuts from my tires. I was blessed with my car back in August. It NEVER dawned on me to check the lug nuts because I never needed to. After all the tires weren’t flat and looked as if they’re in good shape.

So I continue to drive everyday and handle my business…

You don’t think about what needs to be fixed on your car. As long as the check engine light doesn’t come on, your golden. But one day a situation will arise and you’ll have to take care of it one way or another.

My brakes need to be fixed

The situation is here and my brakes need replacing. OK, so my husband and I go purchase the pads and a lug wrench (tire iron). Great. All we need to do is get the tire off the car and pop the brake pads in and then BAAM it’s done. Easy Peesy right? WRONG! My husband had a tough time removing the lug nuts with this tool. It took AT LEAST 20 minutes to remove 4 nuts. This tool is the right size for my nuts and for some reason while using this particular tire iron, it stripped easily.

You’re suppose to use a tire iron within minutes to change a flat tire. This tool was just not up for the job. The insides of this tool cracked after so many tries of removing the lug nuts. I suggested we get another tire iron from another store. But at first, we went back to that same store and tried to get a refund. Of course they wouldn’t give us our money back. They said we needed to talk to the store manager on Monday and that we were using the tire iron the wrong way. What the employee did was exchange it for a replacement tool.

I was not happy with the same cheap tool and no money back. I went and purchased yet another tire iron from a different store. We saw results instantly. The lug nuts came off with only a couple of twists within seconds. But still that 1 lug nut wouldn’t budge. My husband suggested that he needed a stronger weight to loosen up that lug nut. W.D-40 was another option but we have chosen to go with the metal pipe theory. We ended up purchasing 2 different kinds of pipes. 1 of the pipes didn’t fit over the tire iron. We ended up keeping the plastic pipe (PVC). My husband broke the tire iron because it was TOO MUCH power and still that lug nut didn’t move!

Luckily, we were able to get our money back for that 2nd broken tire iron. I wished we could’ve exchanged this for a newer one because this was a better tool than the 1st one.

OK you might be thinking well it’s that 1 lug nut that’s breaking the tools. And yes that 1 nut is super tight. But the difference is it didn’t take a half hour to remove a few nuts. With the first purchased tool it took 20 minutes to remove just a few. The second purchased tool took seconds.

Now here comes the Inexpensive Solution

EXTREMELY FRUSTRATED, I came up with an idea. I suggested we get the tires changed and then that tight nut would have to come off the rim. My husband came up with an even better idea. “Why not get the tires rotated”?. Buying tires costs $80 and a tire rotation is only $15. Of course we chose the tire rotation. That way, the mechanics can use their POWER tools. And their power tools would remove that annoying lug nut that was given us a problem all day. Yes!

After being stressed all day, I finally rested knowing I can get my brakes done. After all, it should be easy to remove the lug nuts after that mechanic touches them right? WRONG! Sunday morning , My husband and I use that same cheap tool (that we couldn’t get our money back on) to hopefully remove the lug nuts with ease. This time, the nuts didn’t even bulge at all. As a matter of fact the insides of the tire iron started stripping more and more for some odd reason. This time, we couldn’t even get off 1 nut. Even after the tire rotation, it didn’t work.

Final thoughts

The point I’m trying to make is that this chrome tool isn’t up for the job. We wish we could’ve kept the 2nd tire iron, which is a better tool for working faster. I realized this AFTER the fact.

This tire iron (above) takes FOREVER to unscrew lug nuts and breaks easily. The black tire iron (below) takes seconds. But make no mistake, it’s still die-cast metal. It can snap easily on tight lug nuts but works a lot faster than the chrome tire iron, that’s for sure.

If you run a cross a cheap chrome tire iron and you have 1 or a few tight lug nuts that seem impossible to get off, get a tire rotation. I’m glad I had this experience because it taught me which tire iron is strong and which isn’t. You might want to go to a junk yard for a steel tire iron. Stores aren’t really selling them anymore and they can get away with selling cheap parts. Everything seems rigged up nowadays.

I hope my story inspires you to make the right decision. Find a steel tire iron or just go get your tires rotated or join the Triple A membership. As long as you have your 5th wheel or donut tire, they’ll come fix it.

Nothing worse then being on the side of the road trying to change a flat tire or in my case, trying to fix the brakes and you’re using a shitty expensive tool, and you can’t take the tires off because your tools suck.

PS, After being fed up, we ended up getting our brakes done for $70. (just the pads). We bought the pads for them to replace. Oh and we got our money back from that chrome tire iron with no problems. I’m now prepared for the worse.

“Won’t God do it”?