GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

Hello,New member here, this looks like a great forum. I recently bought a 2003 Vibe GT that has the factory 17" aluminum wheels. Unfortunately most of the lug nuts are terribly rounded to the extent that I cannot get them off.The local dealer can order them for me, but at $8 per nut I am looking for other options.The guy in the service dept. would not share the part number for that nut with me, but using gmpartsdirect's alternate catalog I found them for $4.60/nut.Any other options anyone can recommend to find these at a good price?Any recommendations for getting the rounded ones off without paying through the nose? A tire place that is usually pretty affordable told me it would be $10 per rounded nut to remove them!Yikes, I didn't anticipate $300 bill to simply replace my lug nuts, any advice is appreciated.Thanks,Ben

Check the price at a Toyota dealer, just say they're for a Matrix. Try clamping a big set of vise grips on the rounder lug nuts (if they stick out, I can't remember) and tap them with a hammer. They should only be torqued to 76 ft/lbs which is not that tight. A big pipe wrench may work too.Here's a set of nuts for $30.00 OBO.http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...l1247Or are these more like it.http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVW

I went to Kath auto parts (any auto parts store should have them) and the nuts for the hub caps (not silver capped lugs) were 2 bucks a piece. Otherwise toyota dealer or ebay would have the best deal on themwelcome to genvibe!

Thanks for the responses, yall. And thanks for the welcome.I couldn't find an exact match I was sure of at Ebay, but I did call up LA Tire and Wheel, which had a good Ebay reputation and a lot of listings.They are hooking me up with a set, shipped for $80.45.And, I checked with another tire shop who said they'd switch them out for $20.So, assuming they don't have a horrible time with them and tell me it's going to cost more after getting into it, I'll be out the door for barely over $100. Not too terrible I guess. It'll be worth the $20 to me for sure ... they are recessed into the wheel, so it'd be hard for me to get at 'em.Thanks!B.

Quote, originally posted by Raven »Check the price at a Toyota dealer, just say they're for a Matrix. Try clamping a big set of vise grips on the rounder lug nuts (if they stick out, I can't remember) and tap them with a hammer. They should only be torqued to 76 ft/lbs which is not that tight. A big pipe wrench may work too.Here's a set of nuts for $30.00 OBO.http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...l1247Or are these more like it.http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...ZWDVWLast when I did my brakes, I had to put a breaker bar on my lugs and BOUNCE on the bar a few times to get the lug to break.... These were like that when I got it, so the neanderthall that did the lugs last either tightened them WAY to much or they corroded inside of the wheel... (I think BOTH) I was looking at the 2nd link you posted and those luck DON'T look like they will work with Vibe ALLOY wheels (the DO look like they would work with the steel whaeels)

I can't check ebay here at work, but I will advise that the stock lugnuts are different than most aftermarket lugnuts. Most aftermarket lugnuts feature a taper because aftermarket wheels are lug-centric (centered with the lugnuts). The stock lugnuts have flat washers on them because the stock wheels are hub-centric. I just want to point this out so that it doesn't come as a big shock should you accidentally order the wrong ones.Aftermarket lug-centric lugnuts (tapered) are not compatible with the OEM aluminum wheel because of the cut of the wheel (receives flat lugnuts on a flat surface). I cannot speak to the steelies though.Also, should you find some hub-centric lugnuts that will work for you, double check to make sure they are the same size as the tire iron in the trunk. It sure would suck to be stuck with 19 (20?)mm lugnuts and only have a 3/4" wrench. I keep a torque wrench in with the tire iron that keeps my metric socket.Also, if you have to pick up a socket to go with new ones, look at Craftsman. Sure, they may be more pricey, but they are convex, which results in gripping the lugnut/bolt at the center of the flat, reducing the likelihood of rounding off the corners.

Well, crud, the set of lugnuts I ordered from LA Wheel and Tire were the wrong kind. Tapered instead of flat at the contact point.Looks like it's back to the drawing board.

When I used to work a the tire store we had buckets of old lug nuts. Most of which were in pretty good condition. People who got new wheels would sometimes leave their stock wheels and lug nuts. The Toyota lugs were like gold because they were so expensive. So it might not hurt to check the tire stores or if you have any used wheel stores to see if they can get you some, maybe for free.

These look like the right ones, I think: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...90324Can anyone confirm?Thank you!B.

Quote, originally posted by BenJammin »These look like the right ones, I think: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...90324Can anyone confirm?Thank you!B.yup... Just get some aftermarket wheels and don't worry bout it...lol

Heh, r.e. the aftermarket wheels, I like the factory 17s, and money is a bit of an issue at present, so I guess I'll stick with what I got.

http://matrixowners.com/index.php?showtopic=73591Check it out

ty keith. I went ahead and ordered the ones I linked previously. crossing my fingers they fit.

NP...you could have picked up one of those sets for about 20bucks... instead of the 70bucks posted in the link you had up

yeah, wish I'd seen it an hour sooner. at least the ones i ordered will be shiny and new as some small compensation for the otherwise wasted money.