[Edit: Not actually sure if they're lug nuts or lug bolts, whatever comes stock.]

Took my 08 R56 (bought used earlier this year) to a couple tire shops and they were unable to remove the lug nuts from my tires due to them being seized up / rusted. The final tire shop actually broke my lug key trying to get the tires off.

Ok, so I take it into the dealership asking them to remove the lug nuts. I've been told this can be done in a variety of ways from other car-owning friends, such as drilling them out, using a special tool, impact gun (not sure what that is it but it was mentioned when I search this forum), hell even lubing them up a bit.

Anyway, the dealership calls me back and says they can't manually remove the bolts and broke a couple of their own lug keys doing so. This makes sense, I had the same problem.

But they they immediately jump to "you'll probably need new rims and new tires"... Is this normal? I find it hard to believe that the only solution to stuck bolts is to replace the whole rim and I'm pretty sure I'm being scammed here (as in, they've already damaged the rims somehow and now want to sell me on new rims, just guessing). I suppose the rim could be rusted in there too but it doesn't look rusted at all on the outside (0% rust), and I don't know how they'd know the state of the threads if they can't get the bolts off in the first place.

Thoughts?

 

I'd be waiting to see 'where' things seized. The bolts may be sticking to the the wheel and if so damage may be done removing them (can't see that impacting tires tho) ... however the bolts may be stuck in the hub too and this may be a BIGGER problem.

 

Thanks for the info, I'll make sure to ask when I'm on the phone w/ them later today.

It's not that I can't imagine a scenario in which the rims are damaged, but if I was told I needed new rims by some random tire shop just because they couldn't get it off with a lug wrench, I'd laugh and be on my way to another shop.

But yeah, I should get more info before deciding. Thanks again.

 

Are you having the problem on all 4 wheels? What did someone way over-tighten them?

Depending on what's seized they may have to cut stuff off which could trash the rims.

BJ right, the rims maybe the least of your problems.

 

Can't say for sure if it's all 4 wheels as I didn't attempt to remove them all. But it was an issue with all 4 nuts on one wheel and all the nuts look rusted (rims look normal).

Well, I guess I'll have to wait to see what they say. Thanks for the input.

 

A quick update in case someone stumbles upon this thread later:

Took them a week but the dealership ended up being unable to remove the bolts without risking cracking the rim. Didn't charge me for labor, which was nice. Scratched up the rims quite a bit in the process though, and the customer service was by far the worst experience of, well, any company ever. Days would go by where I couldn't even get ahold of anyone. I guess they're pretty busy and they don't care about anyone not in warranty or about to buy a new car

The problem, near as they could tell, was that the road-side tire shop I used to replace the front tires used a machine to re-attach the bolts and way over-torqued it. Lame, but not surprising. They were able to remove the bolts on the tires that were not touched by the road-side shop.

 

How about calling the roadside place that put your tires on & asking them to remove them fore you. Worth a shot. I can't fathom they are stuck on the tightly.