Lug nuts are essential fasteners that keep your wheels attached and balance pressure on the other lug nuts, wheel hub and bearings. It’s possible for lug nuts to break. They can sometimes crack or become stripped. If one lug nut is damaged or missing, it compromises the effectiveness and integrity of the other lug nuts.

The good news is that they’re pretty easy to replace as a set. Enthuze offers a wide variety of lug nuts, including chrome lug nuts, zinc spline lug nuts, black lug nuts, and more.

You’ll generally want to buy the lug nuts that match your wheels. For example, black wheels look much better with matching black lug nuts.

Let’s take a look at some FAQs about aftermarket lug nuts.

Q: What are Lug Nuts?

A: Lug nuts are screw-on fasteners that attach the wheel hub to the threaded wheel studs on the axle of the vehicle. This secures the wheel and centers it on the axle. Most lug nuts are made out of chrome-plated steel. Aluminum lug nuts are also available but are generally used by the racing crowd.

Q: Where Do You Buy Lug Nuts?

A: You can buy lug nuts at any auto parts or tire store and can also buy lug nuts on the Enthuze website. Enthuze sells a wide variety of lug nuts. To find the lug nuts that fit your vehicle, you’ll need to know their size.

Q: How Many Lug Nuts Are on a Standard Car Wheel?

A: For most passenger cars, the answer is four or five lug nuts. Five is considered safer as four can still secure the wheel if one is damaged or falls off. Trucks are more likely to have six to eight lug nuts, which is what you will find on Enthuze.

Q: What Size Are Lug Nuts?

A: Lug nut sizes vary, but the following are some of the most common sizes used today:

• 10mm x 1.25
• 12mm x 1.25
• 12mm x 1.50
• 12mm x 1.75
• 14mm x 1.25
• 14mm x 1.50
• 14mm x 2.0
• 7/16″ x 20
• 1/2″ x 20
• 9/16″ x 20

The first number of each item is the thread size and the second number is the number of threads. You can get the size of your lug nuts by checking your owner’s manual or by using a thread pitch gauge to measure it.

Q: What Size Socket for Lug Nuts?

A: Finding the right socket size for working with lug nuts is also important. The good news is that there are only a few common sizes:

• 7mm
• 19mm (¾”)
• 21 mm (13/16”)
• 22 mm (?”)
• 23 mm

Of these, 17mm, 19mm, 21mm, and 23mm are the most common.

Q: How to Loosen Lug Nuts?

A: Loosen lug nuts by using a lug wrench, which is also sometimes called a tire iron. Lug wrenches may be in the form of a straight bar or two bars in the shape of an X or cross. The crossed bars give you more torque to loosen the nuts. If your lug nuts are rusted on, you might need something like a breaker bar or a length of pipe. These allow you to turn further away from the nut, which provides more torque to loosen a stuck nut.

Q: How Much Torque for Lug Nuts?

A: The average torque for lug nuts to hold the wheel on is 60 to 120 pound-feet. The problem is that professional tire technicians often use air impact wrenches to put lug nuts onto your wheel. There isn’t an easy way to control the torque coming from these wrenches, so this can end up tightening them up to 600 pound-feet of torque, which all but ensures they will be impossible to remove with hand tools.

Q: How Much Torque to Remove Lug Nuts?

A: Ideally, you should be able to remove lug nuts with the same amount of torque that was used to put them on. Unfortunately, as mentioned above, some lug nuts are way over-torqued by tire shops. The amount of torque that you’ll need will vary, but something that can deliver up to 200 pound-feet is generally enough.

Q: Which Way to Loosen Lug Nuts?

A: Loosen lug nuts by turning the lug wrench in a counter-clockwise direction. An easy way to remember this is right-tight and left-loose.

Q: What Size Impact Wrench for Lug Nuts?

A: The most common size of impact wrench needed for lug nuts is a half-inch impact wrench. You might be able to get away with a smaller impact wrench, such as a ?-inch wrench, but not if the lugs have been over-torqued or are rusted on.

Image copyright Ivan Radic under the Creative Commons 4.0 International license

Q: How To Remove Locking Lug Nuts?

A: Some vehicles are equipped with locking lug nuts to prevent theft. Usually, only one lug nut per wheel is a locking nut, and it should look different from the other lug nuts. These lug nuts require a special key to unlock the lock at the end of the nut. After unlocking the nut on each wheel, you can remove them normally.

Check out the selection of aftermarket lug nuts at Enthuze. We offer replacement lug nuts, as well as extended lug nuts for wheel spacers and open-end nuts for longer studs. Whether you need a simple replacement or something different for the unique setup on your rig, we have something in store for you. All Enthuze products are tested for the highest quality before wearing the Enthuze name.