Question about a stripped lug nut that took me 2 trips and a whole Saturday
Last month my neighbor Dave asked me to help rotate the tires on his 2016 Forester, and one lug nut on the rear driver side was so stripped that my breaker bar just rounded it off. I tried a hacksaw and a chisel and even a torch, and it still would not budge, so I finally drove to a shop in Reno and paid $40 for them to zip it off with a socket in about 90 seconds. Part of me says I should have just paid the shop from the start, but the other part thinks every guy should own a proper extractor set before touching rusty lugs. Did I waste a Saturday, or is that just part of learning to work on your own car?
Did you try the Irwin bolt extractor sockets? Those things bite onto rounded nuts way better than a hacksaw ever will and saved me on a rusty Corolla once. For 20 bucks it's worth keeping a set in the garage so you're not stuck making that Reno trip again. Sounds like a normal Saturday to me though, we all learn this stuff the hard way.