They may look nice, but two-piece lug nuts on the wheels of millions of Ford vehicles can become swollen and near impossible to remove with a standard lug wrench, according to a complaint filed recently by law firm Hagens Berman. If that firm’s name rings a bell, it’s because it specializes in automotive litigation.  Some of its recent lawsuits have involved allegations of Ford Shelby GT350s overheating in track use and General Motors using defeat devices in its diesels, Volkswagen style.
As to the Ford lug nuts, the firm said millions of vehicles from a variety of makes and model years could be affected, but the complaint so far names Ford’s Fusion, Escape, Flex, Focus, F-150, and F-350 vehicles from the early to mid-2010s. The problem is alleged to be that, rather than being fabricated completely out of steel, the lug nuts were instead made with a steel core and a chrome, aluminum, or stainless steel cap to match the vehicle’s wheels, according to the complaint. It claims that the lug nuts can swell and delaminate after changes in temperature and exposure to moisture. Vehicle owners then have to try (and apparently fail) to remove the swollen lug nuts with a lug wrench supplied with the Ford vehicles. Then they have to replace them.

The complaint tells of plaintiffs being stranded with flat tires and then taking the vehicles in to be fixed, only to have Ford refuse to pay for the replaced lug nuts even if the vehicles were under warranty. The ...