While we’re on the subject of dealerships, the one I go to for my Ford service has been pretty good and fairly consistent. Last oil change they came into the lounge to get me and had a list as long as my arm of “scheduled maintenance” work that they “suggested” I get done. No thanks l, just oil change and tire rotation please. No argument. Before they were done the guy comes out again to tell me that “my tire’s lug nuts were swollen” and they were having a hard time removing them...new lug nuts were suggested at a cost of $200. I told him that was baloney and I have never heard of such a thing.
Well I went back to the lounge and looked it up on my phone and sure enough some Ford models have this problem because the lug nuts are steel with chrome plated “cover” on them and over time they build up corrosion and swell. Damn!
So I went online and researched and found solid steel, chrome plated direct replacement lug nuts (set if 24) for my truck. So this past weekend with the nice weather I set out to swap my swollen nuts
with the new ones.
Not a good time. I managed to get 2 nuts swapped somehow and stripped the “covers” on 2 more before I quit. The problem is the correct sized lug wrench won’t fit over the swollen nuts and the next size socket tends to spin the cover and create a non removable nut. I packed up my new nuts and went to the dealer to see if they would swap them and rotate my tires ( since they did not do it last service)
I spoke to a service manager and told the tale of woe and he said “we’ll take care of it but will charge labor.” I said how much? He said $50 or so.
Well long story short they only charged me for a normal tire rotation ($24) and swapped out the bad nuts. I was very happy!
Ford F-150 (and other model) owners beware of the “swollen lug nuts” issue and if you want the replacement nuts, PM me and I’ll give you the Amazon part number.
Seems there was a class action suit against Ford for this and the judge threw it out of court in favor of Ford to various reasons.