Hot Lug Nuts

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PA Patriot

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SE Pennsylvania
So just put bigger tires on the rig and checking them today after my kid was driving the front lug nuts are piping hot! She swears she wasn’t riding the brakes. Any thoughts? Google search pulls up maybe brake drag and the need for new rotors. This is a 2004 X

Thanks!


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Brake drag to me would be stuck calipers unless of course " she " keeps a foot on the brakes unnecessarily.
You can use a temp gun on the wheels to determine the culprit.
 
Probably never flushed. It has 51,000 on it but it’s 15 yrs old. Going to drive it in the morning and if they’re hot again drop it off with my mechanic.


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PA Patriot said:
Probably never flushed. It has 51,000 on it but it’s 15 yrs old. Going to drive it in the morning and if they’re hot again drop it off with my mechanic.


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Yeah if they haven't been flushed in a few years then the calipers can seize.
Especially if the caliper pistons were pushed back into the caliper without first flushing.
 
Usually when calipers are seized you will smell it. When mine seized on the right side, I could smell it every time I drove.
 
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So I drove it around this morning for an hour. The lug nuts are warm but not hot. They were a hot after braking coming down a hill. I pulled over after coming down the hill to check them. These are steel wheels. I am thinking maybe this is normal? Perhaps my kid was just riding the brakes.


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A sticking brake shoe (or pad) can be intermittent. If it's one wheel. that's the likely issue. If it's 2 or more it is possibly a brake system line/cylinder issue.
 
PA Patriot said:
Weird. Now sitting in a parking lot and I check them again and they’re piping hot.


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Heat generated from your brakes is normal when they are being used like in stop and go traffic, going down a big hill.

Stuck calipers are allowing brake pad contact with rotors at all times and that you should smell.

If you are unsure I'd get them looked at.
 
So my mechanic check the front brakes and found no issues with the front calipers. He found that the rear brake drums were out of adjustment and forcing the front brakes to do more work. He removed the rear drums, ground down rust lip on drums. And cleaned the rear brakes and hardware and adjusted them.


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Only the lug nuts are hot? Not the wheel itself?

Drive it on a long stretch or road, several miles, where you don't need to use the brakes at all if possible.

Get it stopped with as little brake application as possible, as light as possible.

Get out and feel the 2 front wheels. If they are both equally warm, no problem. If any are almost too hot to touch, you probably have a caliper sticking. This can be an intermittent problem. I had such a problem (non-Jeep) and when it was dragging, the rotor would get hot enough to deform and start vibrating. A quick press & release on the brake pedal would temporarily free it. It would only do it occasionally. The wheel would get noticeably hotter than the others (4 wheel disk brakes). Another telltale sign is when coasting to a stop in neutral, just as it stops, it will feel as if the brake is being applied very lightly.
 
Talked to the mechanic and he said he looked it all over and nothing was wrong except the rear brakes which he fixed. He basically says with the bigger tires (31 10.5 R15) the brakes have to work harder to stop. He said the rear lugs should feel warm now (which they do) and that the front lug nuts (the wheel is not hot at all)is happening because of the larger size tire and not to worry about it. He did say if I smell anything weird, see smoke, or get really bad gas mileage to call him back. Just for reference the wheels are steel tactiks and the tires are DC Fun Country.


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I didn't notice my lug nuts getting hot with my 31's, 33's or my current 35's. I'll do some hard braking on the way home tonight after work and see if they get hot. I've pulled the wheels off after normal driving, and don't recall thinking that the lug nuts were too hot.
 
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