Basically, wheels can be attached to a vehicle in two different ways. Besides the frequently used wheel bolts, wheel nuts are also available. If you regularly change your vehicle’s tires , you should be familiar with both of these and know what to look for in each system. We have gathered all the relevant information about wheel nuts and bolts for you in this comprehensive article below.

You can tell at a glance whether wheel nuts or wheel bolts are used on a vehicle.

When removing a tire, the threaded bolts protrude because they were attached directly to the hub when using lug nuts. The tire should now be pushed onto the studs with the corresponding holes and can then be secured with the wheel nuts.

The difference between wheel nuts and boltsIn the wheel bolt system, on the other hand, there are only matching bolt holes in the hub . In this case, the wheel must be correctly aligned when changing it so that the wheel bolts can be inserted and fixed through the screw holes provided for this purpose.

Similarly, two different systems are used for wheel nuts . There are conical or spherical wheel nuts. The type of lug nut must therefore match both the tire and the lug nut mounting provided in it . This is important because an incorrect combination of wheel nut and tire can lead to loosening of the nut and therefore reduced safety.

Are there really more lug bolts than lug nuts?

 

Are there really more lug bolts than lug nuts?Numerous specialist publications state that today practically only wheel bolts and hardly any wheel nuts are used . This is a mistake , however, as many car manufacturers continue to use the lug nut system.
Opel and Ford , for example, are known for the fact that almost all vehicles in their range come with the typical wheel nut system . Kia and Honda also continue to use wheel nuts in their range and therefore rely on this technology .
However , many car manufacturers, including top brands like VW, rely primarily on lug bolts, as these provide greater flexibility to the user .
However, major parts distributors continue to stock both wheel bolts and wheel nuts in a wide variety of designs in their range . It is therefore no problem to obtain suitable spare parts for your own vehicle and tires.
Original bolts in the store

What are the advantages of each system?

If you compare the two systems directly, the big advantage of wheel nuts is that changing tires is faster and often easier, because the tire can be pushed directly onto the wheel hub and the bolts.

Tighten wheel nuts

Slippage of the tire on the hub is easily avoided thanks to the fixing . However, there are also disadvantages . For example, wheel nuts should be retightened after a certain period of operation to ensure vehicle safety .