Just bought this car recently; it is a well looked after clean low mileage car. Had a good look over it and serviced it. One thing is that the wheel nuts do not seem to go far enough on to the wheel studs - there is a lot of thread showing on the inside of the wheel nut when they are tightened down. The wheels are standard fitment Ghia 16 inch alloys with the large centre rings covering the nuts. The nuts themselves are one piece with a 19mm head and in good condition. The locking nut seems to go on to the stud a bit further.

I thought maybe the original (problematic) two piece nuts have been replaced but with something not quite right; eg nuts for a steel wheel

Can anyone help with pics of what the correct wheelnut should look like please

Have a read here, lots of info on wheel nuts.

ScaniaPBman

18 hours ago, unclesam said:

the wheel nuts do not seem to go far enough on to the wheel studs - there is a lot of thread showing on the inside of the wheel nut when they are tightened down.

I don't understand that bit, if there is thread visible inside the nut then it isn't tightened, or what is it tightened against?  Surely the wheels would be loose in that case.

The car has clearly been like this for some time - the nuts tighten against the wheel OK and have not come loose. But still don't look right to me.

Please see attached photo

Ah ok, so you think either the studs are not long enough or the wheel material is too thick.  I agree it does not look right, but mine look the same though I can't see any thread and I can't remember the details of the nuts themselves as its been a while since I had them off.  Might be worth checking how many turns you get to see if there is enough thread holding them on.

To obtain a full strenght connection the nuts need to be engaged onto the threads for at least 0,8 x the thread diameter. In this case 0,8 x 12 mm = 9,6 mm. Based on a pitch of 1,5 mm this means that the wheel nuts need to be tightened at least 6,4 turns.

Thank you very much for this info and the photo - your's looks very similar to mine. I have decided to order a new genuine Ford wheelnut and then compare that to the existing nuts - if there is a difference then I will replace all of them. Thanks again.

Just to report back and close it off - I ordered a new genuine wheel nut for the car and it is exactly the same as the ones fitted to the car already. I have also counted the number of turns to tighten and it is 9. So all good even if it does look a bit strange.