Impact gun rounded off oem lug nuts. Need advise
 

I'm on the oem rays. One lug nut was stripped by a wheel shop guy. Another one today when I used a harbor freight impact gun that I just bought. I used a 21mm deep impact socket from pittsburgh. the socket kept eating into the lugs and i had to keep hammering out the lugs from the socket. after stripping one lug from using the impact gun, i ended up going back to the ol faithful tire wrench in the trunk. my only guess is that the pittsburgh sockets aren't compatible. any advice on which brand i should be using?
also i bought a new set of 20 oem style lug nuts from ebay. will these be good enough? thanks
20 Chrome Mag Seat Lug Nuts for Nissan Factory OEM Aluminum Wheels M12x1 25 | eBay

I did use pittsburgh sockets before and didn't have a problem. Your wheel guy could have damaged all your lug nuts by using his "universal" socket. If the socket its not exactly 21mm but slightly bigger, it will round off the lug nuts. After that when trying to use proper 21mm socket, it doesn't fit all the way in, gets stuck like you described or worse gets stripped using an impact gun. Stay away from that wheel guy!
For your other question, Craftsman impact sockets should be just fine for occasional work.

I've been using these sockets for a while now and have been good to me. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B000NP...9TL&ref=plSrch

Beyond cross-threading a lugnut, what kind of torque specs are you using on your wheels? Too much torque, or using the wrong conical seat can result in disasterous results.

76lbs with torque wrench or you can get this and torque it with your impact gun. Its what I use at my job everyday with no problems.

http://www.amazon.com/Steelman-50063...que+stick+21mm

Sounds like your socket is too big and/or you are using a 16-point. Use the proper size (should be very little slop when you slip the socket on the nut), 8-point socket.

Torque them down to 85ft/lbs. Impact guns can be very bad on wheel studs. If you use a impact gun, always use a torque stick.

For me, I always torque them down with a torque wrench.

I think there is a misnomer here.

The term is supposed to be "rounded off", not "stripped". Rounding off relates to the lug nut hexagonal exterior. Stripping refers to the (interior) thread.

I have noticed numerous, typical errors like this throughout the forum. Why is that?

Lol hard to say.. :ugh2:

Yep. That's the way I've heard it for 50 years or so. When I saw the title, I thought the threads had stripped.
At least the OP was able to explain what was going on.

My guess is inexperience. Some ppl grew up working on cars; a lot of ppl aren't so lucky. :driving:

I've gone ahead, and edited the title so its better in describing what the Op's issue is.




I think it maybe due to the lack of mechanical experience/jargon in not being able to describe an issue correctly when asking.

We do have member from all walks of life on here, and not everyone's born with a wrench in one hand :icon17:

and ones that resides in the notorious iggylist.