I've been working on my wife's Fiesta for years and always known that the soft wheel nut covers have made for a poor fitting inside a 19mm socket, but the nuts have always come off fine. Until today. Removing a wheel, or attempting to at least, has left me struggling with one of the nuts as none of my 19mm sockets are fitting on far enough which is leading to an inability to remove the nut without making the issue even worse. This is seemingly a common problem with the soft covers deforming over time and whilst a 19.5mm socket seems to be an easy solution I wondered instead if I should just replace the nuts all round with one-piece alternatives. Has anyone else done this?

I am concious I'd need to make sure whatever I end up with (whether this be a 19.5mm socket or potentially different size nuts) I'd need to still be able remove a wheel at the side of the road so I would welcome thoughts on what the best avenue to take might be.

The problem is corrosion between the nuts and the covers. This makes the covers swell until the 19 mm socket no longer fits.

This is a well-known problem on (especially) the global wheel nuts.


In this case you have 2 options:

Option 1: Buy a 19.5 mm socket to remove the wheel nuts.
Option 2: Hammer the 19 mm socket onto the wheel nuts using a wooden or rubber mallet. Once the socket is on you can remove the wheel nuts the normal way. You only may need to use a punch to hammer the wheel nuts out of the 19 mm socket.


Since the wheel nuts in its current condition must be considered scrap anyway, I suggest using method 2 after you bought a set of (preferably single piece, without cover) replacement nuts.

1 hour ago, JW1982 said:

In this case you have 2 options:

Option 1: Buy a 19.5 mm socket to remove the wheel nuts.
Option 2: Hammer the 19 mm socket onto the wheel nuts using a wooden or rubber mallet. Once the socket is on you can remove the wheel nuts the normal way. You only may need to use a punch to hammer the wheel nuts out of the 19 mm socket.

I ended up going with Option 3(!):

Remove the cover using a hammer and screwdriver. It was actually really easy to do with it only being 0.5mm thick, and afterwards I was able to remove the nut underneath with an 18mm socket.

:

It does look ugly now though, and factory brace obviously won't fit, so will look to replace it (and all the others whilst I'm at it). Having read reviews of aftermarket one-piece (no cover) replacements a common issue appears to be surface corrosion setting in quite quickly so I think I might just go for a set of originals. There's a guy on eBay selling 'nearly new' ones that have been removed off new cars that've had black wheels fitted with black nuts to match. Of course, the risk they'll go again is there but these have lasted 12years/85k and I doubt we'll keep the car that long again.

 

Hi There,

 Had the same problem as you on a used fiesta car i bought, Mix of good nuts 6 off

then 4 off that had been deformed (due to tyre people using torque nut gun to remove and  

tighten wheel nuts) and 2 off which had their shells removed. So bought solid ones for future

proofing.

I never understood WHY ford made such nuts! Does anyone know why ??

48 minutes ago, Ian Lanc said:

I never understood WHY ford made such nuts! Does anyone know why ??

As always the answer is almost certainly cost cutting. The two-piece design means they can have a corrosion-resistant visible portion and cheap nuts underneath. The long-term consequences aren't really their concern as they're only on the hook for the warranty period.

35 minutes ago, MJNewton said:

As always the answer is almost certainly cost cutting. 

Could well be that! Our Fiesta about 2017 incurred rattles and only when on rough roads or hitting a gaggle of potholes, we just couldn't fathom out the rattles, so one day on a unused road my missus drove, I sat in the back trying to pinpoint the noise, then decided look further all the windows wound down, me sticking my head well out the car to see if i could hear/see better, straight away I knew the location and it was the wheel bolts, just about every one was loose, at the time I didn't know the nuts was in two halves, I replaced the lot with quality chrome plated nuts.....Hey presto the noise was gone.

The replacements arrived today (from this guy on eBay), and they are indeed seemingly brand new as descirbed:

Not exactly sure what his situation is but given how many he has for sale he must be involved in the retrofitting of replacement wheels on new cars. Good value at £16 for a baker's dozen I reckon.

17 minutes ago, MJNewton said:

The replacements arrived today and they are indeed seemingly brand new as descirbed:

I'd have ditched the lot and gone for some quality chrome nuts, you might come across the same issue again.

Mine are like the ones on the far right [dare I say that these days], never had a problem and still look new.

Just now, Ian Lanc said:

I'd have ditched the lot and gone for some quality chrome nuts, you might come across the same issue again

Yeah, there is that risk but I figured these have lasted 12 years and I doubt we'll keep the car that long!

Being tightfisted I didn't want to spend too much and all the nut sets I was looking at in my budget were peppered with reviews from some saying how quickly they'd corroded and so I didn't want to take that risk. With mine I at least now know that even if I do happen to have one go early I should be able to butcher the cap off even at the side of the road.