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Do I have to jack up the car to swap out the lug nuts?

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Ziggy

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Probably a stupid question, but I’ve never owned a car with lug nuts. I got the ford black lug nuts and want to swap out from the silver. Do I have to jack the car up or can I just do one at a time in a star pattern?
 

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DaveW012

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You can do one at a time. Just make sure to torque to factory spec.
 

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CoHPhasor

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Yes, you must remove the weight of the vehicle from the lugnut holes.
The factory torque spec is 150ft-lbs.

As noted, you can do one wheel at a time.
 

FORZDA3

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NO, you are not required to lift the weight off the wheel to change lug nuts ONE-AT-A-TIME. Even 2 or 3 wouldn’t be a real problem unless there were other damage/problems with the wheel or studs.

The ExpST and most all contemporary vehicles have hub-centric wheels where the wheel is centered on the spindle/hub via the center bore fitment. Aftermarket wheels can be a crapshoot if it isn’t listed in the fitment data for your vehicle. The nuts/studs hold the wheel laterally to the hub, but not axially.

This fact is why/how sometimes the wheel will stay stuck on the hub with all the nuts removed, especially on a vehicle allowed to sit out in the weather for a long time.

The aluminum/alloy wheels flex and expand/contract quite a bit differently than steel wheels which is also why you should retorque them after some miles of driving with full heat cycles.

Bottom line, just swap the nuts individually and all will be fine, if torqued properly.
 

OP
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Ziggy

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FORZDA3 said:
NO, you are not required to lift the weight off the wheel to change lug nuts ONE-AT-A-TIME. Even 2 or 3 wouldn’t be a real problem unless there were other damage/problems with the wheel or studs.

The ExpST and most all contemporary vehicles have hub-centric wheels where the wheel is centered on the spindle/hub via the center bore fitment. Aftermarket wheels can be a crapshoot if it isn’t listed in the fitment data for your vehicle. The nuts/studs hold the wheel laterally to the hub, but not axially.

This fact is why/how sometimes the wheel will stay stuck on the hub with all the nuts removed, especially on a vehicle allowed to sit out in the weather for a long time.

The aluminum/alloy wheels flex and expand/contract quite a bit differently than steel wheels which is also why you should retorque them after some miles of driving with full heat cycles.

Bottom line, just swap the nuts individually and all will be fine, if torqued properly.
Click to expand...
Ok. So much conflicting info. I’ll go with this. Don’t really feel like jacking the car up today. Thanks for the detailed response.
 

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