I replaced my front brakes and rotor today to fix steering wheel pulsation when breaking semi-hard at freeway speeds. As I began to remove the tire, I noticed some of my lug nuts were abused so the stock wrench would not fit in all the way. Then I noticed a couple of them seemed to be very loose. With very little torque it wiggled counter-clockwise a bit, like a couple degrees and I thought man they're loose! But they weren't loose either, I had really torque them like a tighten nut to get them off. I checked my rear tire and all of them had play. I torqued them and put my weight on, so I know it's my torque wrench is working at around the setting range. And then checked and with all nuts I was able to wiggle them back and forth with a small wrench, with little very light push.
I went to the dealer and got all new nuts for the front wheels. The play on them was reduced to very minimal then before but I still notice it was able to wiggle back and forth ever so slightly.

What is going on here? It's not anything I had ever experienced. When I tighten a nut it should not be able to wiggle back and forth, right? I thought maybe it was bottoming out against the bolt and that the bolt mounted was a loose fit? But just from looking at where the end of the bolt was in reference to the wheel and where the end of the nut was, the bolt has plenty of room left to move. And when I took the rotors off and checked the bolts, it was solid tight with no play so that idea was out. What could it be? How could this be?

 

Acorn, flange and ball [tapered flat & rounded] are known as many different names all over the world. Your rim has a same/same requirement, obviously you cant have a ball nut in a tapered hole or vice versa. You should start with the basics :

- have the holes been rounded [by slogger] and made out of shape / oversized by poor maintenance
- have the rims been changed and you have a mismatch of hole & nut type

 

Q,

I believe my nuts are capped. It seems to me capped nuts are more problematic for consumers since they easy warp and can make the spare tire wrench useless. So why caps? Are they cheaper for the manufacturer or reduces weight I guess?

 

That's a 17mm Hex60 degree taper seat with different thread sizes, common to most aftermarket rims thread size in your case will be M12 x 1.5. You have misunderstood my question my friend, the cap / top of is irrelevant its the base / bottom that can cause the wheel to be insecure.

 

The fit seems fine. I bought some from the dealer and hey we're the exact same on that was already on. I seated one with the wheel off and it seemed fine although I didn't make sure the it wasn't rounded on the wheel side. The caps are loose so it appeared that the nuts were loose but they are actually tight. And I could have sworn the receipt from the dealer said 1.25 thread pitch. The 2011 was right before Chrysler upgraded the braking system and wheel size so I'll have to check when I get replace the rear wheel nuts. I already threw away the receipt. It would be a pretty bad day if I had a flat on one of my road trips and realize the wrench won't fit the nuts cause the caps are all bent out of shape.

 

Using as you do a torque as you have stated its difficult to goose the hex of the nut with the socket putting it on .. .. and goosing the hex of the nut with the any socket taking it off should never happen if the torque was about right in the fist place.

I misunderstood. I thought the stud was not tight down to the face of the wheel, now I understand that its just the face of the nut that has been rounded by the socket.

 

Ah I see now. I had initially thought the same until I removed the rotor and realized the studs were mounted tight.

 

Should be M12 x 1.5 as QinteQ posted.

Part Number: 06509769AA