PSA....change out your factory lug nuts before it is too late 31k miles

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Raptoe13

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I thought I could prevent the lugs swelling on my 2018 platinum, but unfortunately they did eventually cause me some issues. I rotated my own wheels every 5k miles and religiously torqued them down properly. I started having issues with the socket not fitting well on some of the lugs and moving up a size. I put 65k on the stock tires and the lugs got so bad that the outer shell would just spin and not loosen the nut. I live in Oklahoma, so not much salt or anything. My advice, if the proper socket will no longer fit easily, then it's time to get some better lug nuts.
 

FordTechOne

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when did ford switch to solid lugs? op has a gen 2 and still has the caps over them. also im wondering if the lugs swelling is heat related? i had all 24 of swell on my gen 1. pretty quick. in order for the rust and corrosion to set in, i would think it would take longer than a couple months? i used a socket and hammer to remove 20 of the 24 on mine. then i took them apart and found it to be a 19mm lug with a 21mm cap. not sure why that design? i get my wheels red hot on several occasions and it seems the heat has more to do with the swelling than the corrosion? im just basing it off my specific truck though. no real data other than glowing rotors

For some reason I remember an update to the design but now I’m having trouble finding info on it. It may have been a design change to 2 piece as opposed to a solid one piece. If your rotors were glowing hot, it’s entirely possible that the heat damaged the metal on the lug caps. Even in a severe climate the nuts should last at least a few years before any evidence of corrosion.
 

Sunchild714

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I've been thinking the same, wanting to change out to some black lugs in place of the chrome ones. But then I ran across this thread last year: https://www.fordraptorforum.com/threads/broken-lug-nut-damn-it.73166/page-1.

His lugs were apparently wayyy over-torqued: "my torque wrench at 250 ft-lbs (maximum value for my wrench) and none of the nuts would turn to loosen. IOW, they required MUCH greater than 250 fl-lbs to remove (breaker bar and section of pipe and still had to get on it)." Didn't know the studs could even handle that but seems they can...

Anyone else had trouble with their Gorilla lugs breaking? Besides hand-tightening with a quality torque wrench (and not to 250+lb-ft), what's the best way to prevent this (I do use anti-seize myself on the threads when I rotate my tires, but sometimes I get lazy and have my buddy Les [as in Les Schwab] do it). I really do not want to ever have to drill out a tire stud.

Ok, You owe me $239 bucks! Lol! I was up late at night looking at this thread and followed that link you posted. What a frickin nightmare with those Gorilla lugs. Anyhow, I bought a full set of Mcgard's today to replace my Gorilla's. Don't want to have to deal with that in the middle of the desert. Your fault
 

The Car Stereo Company

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For some reason I remember an update to the design but now I’m having trouble finding info on it. It may have been a design change to 2 piece as opposed to a solid one piece. If your rotors were glowing hot, it’s entirely possible that the heat damaged the metal on the lug caps. Even in a severe climate the nuts should last at least a few years before any evidence of corrosion.

when i lived in colorado i was testing tires for a tire manufacturer. all 4 of my rotors looked like this 3-4 times a week. im guessing it had something to do with my lugs crapping out in a few months

IMG_20180704_003004422_LL.jpg
 

Grimlock

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From OP picture you can tell those are the capped lug nuts which is a common Ford problem. For everyone else, I would check to see if you have these Crome looking capped lug nuts before replacing your current ones. My buddy has a 2018 F-150 that we learned the hard way has these 2 piece lug nuts and they swelled like hell.
 

isis

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Just put Mcgard lug nuts on pay the “premium” for em & forget about it
These are what I use on my Cadillac and will put on my truck sooner or later. Summit Racing has them for good pricing too. And they get to me next day with anything since HQ is about 2 hours away.
 
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