Help, my nuts are swollen!

[ebdl]

Wheel nuts, that is. I'm in the process of repainting my wheels (each one takes 3 days and I can only do one at a time... ). Fitted the first finished one and went to take the rear one off the same side and the brace won't fit over one of the nuts. Tried the other side at the rear and three of those seem to be swollen too. All the front nuts are still ok.

Questions:

1) How do I remove my nuts ?
2) Can I get some new nuts from Volvo?
3) Why are they swollen?

Thanks,

[Chris_C]

Yeah, you can get new ones, £3 ea. What type are they? The steels are usually fine, but alloy nuts are actually steel(iirc) in alloy, so the nuts twist inside. As for getting them off, might pay just to go to a garage that has an air gun, and give them a few quid to loosen them

[SteveP]

Weirdly I've seen two 340GL's with the alloy style 360GLT wheel nuts fitted to their steels.

[pettaw]

what happens is, the alloy nuts corrode and swell up. They've prolly also been twisted by some ham mechanic tightnening the nuts up with an air gun not pushing it home properly and twisting the top of the nut.

The answer is a bl**dy big hammer and a strong socket. Hammer on. Really jam it on, and then a good tweak with a bar. Once you get them off chuck them away and spend a few quid on new nuts. Not worth the hassle. I've tried filing them down to size and shape but they last about 3 months.

[n xntrx volvo]

talk to a married woman, they know how to remove nuts like a pro.
or try using a standard set of sockets to get to the next partial size up.