confused ford owner Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 Nobody wants to buy a Ford unless Ford does 0 percent financing or some ridiculous incentive that no other car maker would do. A time bomb exploded in my Fusion yesterday. I have wheel covers and not mag wheels. The wheel covers are held on by a special lug nut that is tapered. When those lugs eventually where out it cost $12.oo each to replace. Each tire takes 5 lug nuts, do the math. What stupid engineer at Ford thought this one out. You never know what times bombs are in the Ford vehicles in general. I have been burned for the last time. Letting me drive out of their service bay with a nail in my tire did not go over to well either. Nail was in a bad spot and the, imminent flat, could not be fixed. Maybe that's why? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangster Posted September 5, 2019 Share Posted September 5, 2019 Join the black rim revolution, and if you have the 17 inch contoured steel wheels just go without hub caps, and get some .90 Dorman lug nuts at AutoZone. At least you don't have the capped chrome lug nuts that expand as they rust internally. Pretty sure I see a steady stream of vehicles being bought and leaving the dealership, don't seem to be hurting that bad. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
confused ford owner Posted September 5, 2019 Author Share Posted September 5, 2019 To add insult to injury, the lugs are bought and paid for but the "ninny" at the dealership, even with the correct vin#, sent the wrong lugs. There are only two styles and this guy could not get it right the first time. Discontinuing all cars is a sure sign of owner disaffection. Making cars in Mexico and Melanesia, "M&M", does not help with their popularity either. Sales are relative to geographical regions, perhaps your region, does better than average. Overall when Ford and other car makers start dumping their cars they are admitting they cannot compete with Japan. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 Maybe you should be asking why they're ruining the lug nuts. The only time I've seen lug nuts have to be replaced is if they use a socket that doesn't fit correctly. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
confused ford owner Posted September 6, 2019 Author Share Posted September 6, 2019 I saw the lugs and they were rusted and swelled up. Not all , but a good portion to war rent buying all new ones. Special tapered lugs that hold on the wheel and wheel cover. The wrong socket? You would have to be a really stupid mechanic to do that. Sounds hard to do to. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangster Posted September 6, 2019 Share Posted September 6, 2019 I wasn't aware that some year Fusion with some hub caps needed special lug nuts. I am used to the Police Interceptors and the dog dish center caps and lug nuts with shoulders. Ford shows 2 lug nuts for 2012, covered and uncovered. I assumed that the 16 inch poverty caps took the covered ones, and all others, even the 17 inch poverty caps used the uncovered ones, and you can see the end (and most think they are actually not hub caps). I knew the 17 inch ones were retained by the lugs, but most of the "newer" Fords I have had with hub caps like that used regular lug nuts. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akirby Posted September 7, 2019 Share Posted September 7, 2019 4 hours ago, confused ford owner said: I saw the lugs and they were rusted and swelled up. Not all , but a good portion to war rent buying all new ones. Special tapered lugs that hold on the wheel and wheel cover. The wrong socket? You would have to be a really stupid mechanic to do that. Sounds hard to do to. Not hard to do. 12 pt vs 6 pt, sae instead of metric. Used to happen all the time with the 2 piece lugs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangster Posted September 7, 2019 Share Posted September 7, 2019 My $15 (per car) solution to the horrible capped lug nuts on my 2012 Fusion and 2017 Escape (which at only 4 tire rotations they are already starting to barely fit a 19mm socket): Should I have spent extra on Gorilla lugs? Maybe, but these should be far far better than the OEM ones, and will look nicer once I get the bullitts on it. Lug nuts are easy to mess up when they are the capped style. The lug wrench is far from precision and depending on what you car you have, might swivel and that adds to the going at the wrong angle and slipping off. Tire moneys tend to use all the ugga duggas putting them on, lug wrenches can be at odd angles, slip, etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheFixer253 Posted September 7, 2019 Share Posted September 7, 2019 I had the capped lug nuts on my 2012 SEL Fusion that I bought a year ago. Took it to a tire place for a new set of tires and the techs could barely get a socket on the lug nuts. This wasn't my first experience with cheap capped lug nuts so I did what bangster did ... I bought a new set of machined-steel lug nuts online and changed them out. No problems since and they look a lot better. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
confused ford owner Posted September 8, 2019 Author Share Posted September 8, 2019 https://repairpal.com/swollen-lug-nuts-509 This is interesting about Fusion lug nuts 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrMark Posted December 26, 2019 Share Posted December 26, 2019 To everyone who has contributed to this topic: Thank you. This 2014 Fusion is my first Ford product (my daughter liked it). I've been working on my own and my family's cars for ~40 years and have never seen this phenomenon that occurs with these Ford 2-piece lug nuts. I'm somewhat relieved to find the issue with mine is common, in that I'm not alone and there are proven aftermarket solutions. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
expresspotato Posted June 26, 2020 Share Posted June 26, 2020 On 9/5/2019 at 4:16 PM, confused ford owner said: Nobody wants to buy a Ford unless Ford does 0 percent financing or some ridiculous incentive that no other car maker would do. A time bomb exploded in my Fusion yesterday. I have wheel covers and not mag wheels. The wheel covers are held on by a special lug nut that is tapered. When those lugs eventually where out it cost $12.oo each to replace. Each tire takes 5 lug nuts, do the math. What stupid engineer at Ford thought this one out. You never know what times bombs are in the Ford vehicles in general. I have been burned for the last time. Letting me drive out of their service bay with a nail in my tire did not go over to well either. Nail was in a bad spot and the, imminent flat, could not be fixed. Maybe that's why? I hear you, mine basically fell apart... Complete garbage cars I would NEVER EVER EVER buy North American AGAIN. Go Japanese, like honestly these crook car companies can't even make one that last 3 years none the less 5 without just falling completely apart... I feel sorry for you and even more myself because I bought it new. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponyguy Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 I traded a 2004 Mercury Grand Marquis for my Fusion... The Merc had 145,000 miles on it when I traded it, and the dealer had it for sale on his used car department a week later for $3000. The Merc was built in the old (now demolished) St. Thomas Assembly Plant in Canada. Sure, the Merc had some repairs over the 16 years I owned it, but it was a solid, dependable car. The "swelling lug nuts" is not a new issue by any means... I had that problem on an old Mustang I once owned... and like the fellow above, I replaced them with machined lug nuts. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fusionmanor Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 About 40 years ago I was working at a tire store and the manager that trained me said: (Never use a air gun on those kind of lugnuts or you'll split the outer case) Today 2020 (Don't use a torque stick or a airgun on those kind of lugnuts)..........fusionmanor 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brothergc Posted September 13, 2021 Share Posted September 13, 2021 On 6/26/2020 at 3:02 PM, expresspotato said: I hear you, mine basically fell apart... Complete garbage cars I would NEVER EVER EVER buy North American AGAIN. Go Japanese, like honestly these crook car companies can't even make one that last 3 years none the less 5 without just falling completely apart... I feel sorry for you and even more myself because I bought it new. I disagree , bought a 2016 Mazda 3 brand new , at 29,000 miles the touch screen went out, at 33,000 miles it was recalled for a wiper relay issue , the relay is part of the BCM, and at 39,000 miles the transmission went out , and they refused to fix it . Dumped that POS for a 2020 fusion . Japan cars are better ? ROFL ! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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