Don't wanna rock it 'til the wheels fall off

September 20, 2007 2:11 PM

What's the difference between a lug nut and a lug cap? Additionally, is my car safe to drive?

I've had something stolen off of my cars wheels. 2003 Mitsubishi (stock) Lancer. I believe what was stolen were either lugnuts, or lug caps. The wheels / rims and hubcaps are still there, though. The problem is I'm such a car nub I don't know if something decorative was stolen( they were shiny), or something functional was stolen. I don't want to go drive to pick up replacements in the case of the latter. Theres still one lug..something on two of the wheels. Which I'm assuming to be locking "caps", but they've been forced off of the other two wheels or I never had locking caps on that side of the car. I believe the, lug..things, were the originals.

posted by mnology to Travel & Transportation (8 answers total)

Lug nuts are the nuts that secure the wheel to the axle. You should be able to figure out pretty quickly if they are missing by looking at your wheel, because there will be small, evenly spaced cylinders with screw threads sticking out of your wheel.
posted by oneirodynia at 2:22 PM on September 20, 2007

Go to this:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/20030044258-0-large.jpg


if all you have left is the bottom part (where the lug nut would screw on) don't drive.
posted by bkeene12 at 2:36 PM on September 20, 2007

Lug nuts are the bolts holding the wheel/tire on.

Lug caps is a phrase you made up.

That's the difference.

I'm very confused by some of the phrasing you're using. Pardon me as I try to some clarity -

- Can you take off the hubcaps? Or are they already off? I think hubcaps sometimes have decorative things resembling bolts.

- By "lug caps" do you mean the locking lug nuts that require a key?

- I'm sort of reading that (assuming the hub caps are off and you can actually see the wheels) two of the wheels have no bolts holding the wheel to the car, just bare threads? That doesn't sound right. You wouldn't need to ask if it was safe to drive at that point.
posted by Vorpil at 2:39 PM on September 20, 2007

Here's a picture -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timpatterson/1178919928/

Your car looks something like that? In the picture he's missing one lug nut. I take it you're missing all but the two remaining on the two tires you mentioned?
posted by Vorpil at 2:44 PM on September 20, 2007

In bkeene's picture it looks like I still have #12 with that little bit of #10 poking out where what I'm calling the lug cap( shiny thing) is missing from. What's the better term for that thingy?

I have not taken the hubcaps off, so that's probably why this isn't obvious...I guess I could..but I can clearly see the #12 without doing so.
posted by mnology at 3:43 PM on September 20, 2007

Lugnut caps are real, my mom's car is missing a few. They're decorative plastic covers that clip on over the actual lugnuts.

Tapping on them should tell you very quickly whether they're steel or plastic.

You could also refer to the tire-changing section of your owner's manual. Working through that procedure with a gearhead friend would be a good way to solidify your understanding of what's down there. Just make sure to follow the instructions (star pattern!) when you reinstall the wheel, then drive around the block and retorque everything.
posted by Myself at 4:32 PM on September 20, 2007

If you've never jacked up a car, and taken off a wheel, much less put one back on correctly, this is not the time to do that. But you should learn to do it, because, sooner or later, you'll need to.

"In bkeene's picture it looks like I still have #12 with that little bit of #10 poking out where what I'm calling the lug cap( shiny thing) is missing from. ..."

So long as you can see #12, and a bit of #10 past out past that, it's quite possible you've just lost the decorative plastic or metal caps that go over the lugs and lug nuts, to keep dirt out of the threads of the lugs. These are generally cheap and easily replaced, at most automotive parts stores. They're frequently knocked off in potholes, or if you scrape curbs, or even drive through tall grass. If you keep your speed down, and don't hit major holes or bumps, you can drive a vehicle with 1 or even 2 missing lug nuts or broken lugs several miles, to a repair point. Don't keep driving one that one indefinitely, however, as your margin of safety is non-existent.
posted by paulsc at 5:54 PM on September 20, 2007

FYI I had a gearhead friend look at it, took the hubcaps off and we noticed that I've actually got mismatched lugnuts, which I never noticed before yesterday and thought I used to have ALL the shinier lugnuts rather than just a few shiny ones and the rest purely functional. Mostly my stupidity in freeking out about the status quo.

After we confirmed it's okay to drive I brought it to a tire shop which confirmed everything was cool as far as the wheels not coming off, with a rotation and torquing everything back properly...in case anyone was concerned.
posted by mnology at 9:05 AM on September 21, 2007