Have a 2009 base with steel wheels. The plastic hub caps were scuffed up and I decided to leave the wheels bare so I cleaned them up and painted them. I bought a set of chrome, acorn type lug nuts with beveled edges and installed them.

The first thing I noticed was that the OEM wrench was too small to fit the chrome bolt heads and I had to use the wrench off my RAV4 to install the bolts. Is there an adapter piece I can get to keep in the tool bag with the OEM wrench, or do I have to buy a second wrench just for the new bolts?

Second thing I noticed was the nuts have a bevel instead of the rounded end.. is this going to cause any problems with the wheels?

Thanks,

 

Just go buy a wrench that fits or a tire iron? You can just put the iron under the spare with a towel and bolt the spare down so it doesn't move around while driving.

Yes, you need ball seat lugnuts, acorns aren't meant for factory wheels, don't use them.

 

So, what kind of problems would there be? They seemed to tighten up fine.

 

Of course they "tighten up fine". But look at the ball seats in the wheel face and then look at the pointed ends of your beveled lug nuts (like the point of a pencil). Honda uses ball seats to widen the contact area of the nuts to provide the most secure contact area for the torque that holds the wheels on. Your pointed nuts will loosen from road vibration, and will be prone to stretching and elongating the wheel studs. With enough looseness and vibration, you will probably find stress cracks in the wheel faces eventually.

 

OK, that sounds sort of logical... what are the alternatives?

I should have read this first, didn't find it the first time I looked.. (click here)

Do any of you know of a good deal on 16 ball seat acorn 12 x 1.5 chrome lug nuts?

Thanks for your help.

 

eBaymotors.com- type in your car, and under "parts" type in "lug nuts". Simple.

 

I looked at the long list after searching for Honda Fit and it isn't so "simple"... they say they fit Honda Fit, but when you look you find they are conical base, not the ball type and they don't spell that out in the description, so it isn't clear. Thanks for your help though.

 

Just like I said, simple. This took 5 seconds to find.

2009 Honda Fit ball seat lug nuts in Car & Truck Parts | eBay

 

Thanks Triskelion, don't know why my search didn't pull up the same thing... maybe it was too "simple" for me.

Anyway, thanks, really appreciate it.

BTW, is it a good idea to use a bit of moly grease on the threads and seat, or should they be left dry?

 

NOT GREASE! "Anti-Seize compound" only, and very sparingly.

 

OK, that was a pretty emphatic response, I'll go buy some anti-seize compound. Thanks again.

 

Sorry, I was busy when replying- use the anti-seize on the threads only, not the lug nut seats on the wheels.

 

your torque spec changes with lubrication on the threads.

 

Not enough to be measured considering the variances in accuracy common to all torque wrenches.

 

Thanks, Triskelion, I ordered the anti-seize compound and will use a bit as directed.

 

Glad I could help- your PM has a reply.

 

...and in fact your torque will be more accurate with a little "lube" as there will be less friction between the lug and the nut, and everything will smoothly tighten up to the right torque.

 

Watch out... (video tutorial)

 

 

I can almost understand what the driver is saying...