The standard lug nut design is so weak
that I pity all U.S. automotive engineers, though I'm sure it's mostly not their fault.
Pencil-necked accountants are running the show, or at least they were in 1990.Cherokee wheel lug nut replacement
Project #2 is to replace the "Oh, man. I can't believe Jeep used this lame design" wheel lug nuts. An unusually pointed and overtly sarcastic editorial follows...
The standard lug nut design is so weak
that I pity all U.S. automotive engineers, though I'm sure it's mostly not their fault.
Pencil-necked accountants are running the show, or at least they were in 1990.
The Jeep Cherokee is designed for off-road use, right? There's a pretty good chance you will have to change a wheel every once in a while, probably in the middle of nowhere, right? So the wheel lug nuts are, of course, a solid one-piece design, right? Wrong. The nuts are a two-piece design. There's a cosmetic tin cover (image center) pressed onto the steel core (image right). The penny pinchers reluctantly agreed to steel instead of using insert-whatever-the-cheapest-thing-you-can-think-of-here.
The factory lug wrench works fine as long as the cosmetic tin nut covers haven't fallen off (some of mine had). But if you use the wrench to remove a bare nut (I did), the nut gets jammed inside the wrench (been there). Brilliant. I immediately abandoned the lug wrench in favor of my 1/2" drive socket set. The undamaged nuts require a 3/4" socket, the bare nut needs a 15mm socket.
I now have 20 new solid lug nuts, replaced January 5, 2000 for $20 from my local tire store. Make sure your lug wrench fits the new nuts. Mine require a 3/4" wrench. Again, you can buy lug nuts at a tire store, or try an auto parts store.