[Shop-talk] Lug Bolts?

[Mark Andy]

Howdy,

On Wed, 19 Dec 2007, David Hillman wrote:
>    I'm sort-of shopping for my wife's next car, and have recently 
> learned that two of the would-be candidates feature this insane method 
> of wheel attachment called the 'lug bolt'.  Now, I had a Alfa years ago 
> that used these, and the day I sold it, I vowed never again to be stupid 
> enough to buy such a car.  Actually, I think I made that vow every damn 
> I had to put a wheel on that car, but it was Italian, so you expected 
> some hassle.
>
>    But, the choices are pretty slim apart from these two cars... so can 
> anyone give me some good reason why I shouldn't think lug bolts are one 
> of the greatest mistakes in automotive engineering history?  What is 
> their purpose, other than to take a perfectly good design and ruin it 
> completely?  Are they the result of a bunch of German engineers getting 
> way too drunk on dark beer at a Christmas party, and betting each other 
> to see who could come up with the worst idea?

I'm no particular fan of lug bolts, but its pretty easy to convert to 
standard studs/nuts.  I wouldn't let that stop me from buying a car I 
wanted otherwise.

The only advantage I can think of with lug bolts is that you just need to 
match the lug bolts with the wheel, and they'll always be the right 
length.  With studs/nuts, its possible that you'll need to change the 
studs for longer/shorter ones to make things fit well.  Of course, that 
wouldn't seem to matter to an OEM, where they presumably have a lot of 
control over the wheels.

Mark