This is just a case of someone being told something stupid by a mechanic they trusted
Or their Dad. I had the hardest with my wife when we first got married because of the old crap her Dad told her. Like - “You should never use that new multi-weight oil. It’ll gum up the engine.”
@VDCdriver…I used to use a hubcap as well to collect all the lugnuts. I now have a metal box that’s magnetic. Even if I happen to knock it over…everything stays in place. My son made it for me.
They won’t come off unless you rotate them.
This loosens them up.
I rotate my lug nuts. I rotate them counterclockwise to remove them and clockwise to install them.
Seriously, it’s so convenient to just use the same lug nuts on the same wheel that one would have to make a special effort to put them on a different wheel.
I used to use the hubcaps too. Back when I had hubcaps.
There is a story going around about a driver who had a flat tire outside a mental institution. He jacked up the car, then found, after taking off the wheel that there was not enough air in the spare. He took the spare to a nearby garage and had it inflated.
Coming back he found the lug nuts were gone. After panicking, he noticed one of the inmates near the fence making a comment. He asked him, and he said to take one nut of each wheel and use the three to attach the spare. The motorist was surprised, and asked the inmate how he was so smart. He inmate simply said: “I’m in here because I’m crazy, not because I’m stupid”.
Reminded me of Jack Nicholson in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”
Doc, I love that joke, but it may be older than I am.
When I rotate mine too much, the wife screams.
If you believe they are not rotating the tire then next time take a grease pencil and make a small straight line from the lug to the rim. If they did not rotate then the line will be straight. If they did the line will be broken.
And nobody who makes money swinging wrenches should worry about rotating the lugs also.