Can You Use An Impact Driver To Remove Lug Nuts? (Guide)

You’ve invested in an impact driver to help out with various household DIY tasks, and now you’re wondering whether you can use it on your automobile as well. Can you remove lug nuts with an impact driver?

You could technically adapt an impact driver to remove lug nuts using a hex shaft to square drive adapter. However, an impact driver is not likely to have sufficient torque to do the job properly, especially if the bolts are rusted or over-tightened. You should instead use an impact wrench.

While impact drivers are handy tools for many applications, there are some things that they cannot do. We will look at them and impact wrenches in detail so that you can make an informed decision about what to use.

Can You Use An Impact Driver To Remove Lug Nuts?

How to use Impact Driver To Remove Lug Nuts?

If you have to remove lug nuts with an impact driver, be prepared in advance for a lot of struggle, as the tool you’re using doesn’t have sufficient torque output.

But if you only have a cordless impact driver and you need to remove lug nuts to change a tire, there is a way you can do it.

You will need the following things:

  • A good quality impact driver.
  • A 1/4-inch hex shaft to 1/2-inch square drive adapter.
  • A 1/2-inch socket suitable for the lug nuts you intend to remove.

Follow this process:

  • Insert the adapter into your impact driver.
  • Correct the adapter to the 1/2-inch socket.
  • Set your impact driver to its highest speed setting.
  • Set the rotation setting to counter-clockwise.
  • Insert the 1/2-inch socket into the hub of the lug nut.
  • Pull the trigger, and wait for the lug nut to come off.
  • If the lug nut doesn’t come off, try applying lube.

What Are The Features of An Impact Driver?

Manufacturers design impact drives for driving long screws and bolts, and they are considerably more efficient at driving screws than a standard drill driver. They typically have a 1/4-inch hex collet to take 1/4-inch hex shank bits. 

An impact driver is generally used to drive screws into materials such as studs and sheet metal. They are smaller than cordless drills and less versatile but deliver considerable amounts of torque, which helps with driving screws into rigid materials without much effort on your part.

Metal Keyless Chuck On Drill And Impact Driver

If you add a 1/4-inch hexagonal shank and bit drill, you can also use it to drill holes.

The average torque output of an impact driver is around 110 foot-pounds.

How Do Impact Wrenches Differ From Impact Drivers?

To use an impact driver for loosening lug nuts, you would have to fit a hex shaft to a square drive adapter. 

However, because it has much less torque than an impact wrench, you would struggle to remove rusted lug nuts or ones that have been over-tightened using an impact driver. In high torque situations, you should opt for an impact wrench.

Mechanics generally keep impact wrenches on hand for loosening lug nuts from cars and trucks, but you can use them for any high-torque application.

An impact wrench will replace your breaker bar or ratchet wrench, enormously increasing your productivity by allowing you to tighten and loosen fasteners much more quickly and easily.

In contrast to the 1/4-inch hex collet of an impact driver, a standard automotive impact wrench takes 1/2-inch sockets of various sizes, including those to fit a wheel lug.

It also has more power than an impact driver, perfect for the applications for which manufacturers have designed it.

Impact wrenches also come in every standard socket size, including 3/4-inch and 1-inch for industrial-scale jobs. So if you have lug nuts to take off a large truck, don’t even think about using an impact driver. Use an impact wrench.

How Do Impact Wrenches Work?

Using Impact Wrench

Impact wrenches are perfect for tightening and loosening bolts, lug nuts, and rusted fasteners. Their extremely high rotational torque, applied with minimal exertion by the user, makes it easy to breeze through such work.

A hammering mechanism in the motor that rapidly delivers immensely powerful concussive blows to the lug nut or bolt creates tremendous torque. The enormous amount of force produced enables you to loosen even the tightest nuts and bolts.

The torque applies continuous, sudden twisting motion to the fastener in question in short bursts, which ends up bringing movement to the fastener.

Impact wrenches are potent tools whose output is typically in the region of 700 foot-pounds. The higher the torque specification on your wrench, the more torquing force it can deliver to the bolt.

As you can see, there is a lot more torque available from an impact wrench than from an impact driver.

Impact wrenches are the most frequently used tool in professional garages and are used to remove wheel nuts in the pit during auto races. Traditionally pneumatically powered, a loud whirring sound distinguishes these tools. Their most common use is to change car tires.

Workers in the construction industry and many other trades requiring a high torque output also use them.

You can now easily get cordless 18V impact wrenches that are powerful enough to loosen lug nuts roughly tightened at 100 feet of torque. You would be unable to do that with an impact driver without damaging your machine if you could do it at all.

These tools are not as loud as their pneumatic ancestors, but they are still extremely loud, so wear hearing protection when using them. 

What Size Impact Wrench Should You Use To Remove Lug Nuts?

Impact Wrench On Lug Nuts

Whether a 3/8-inch square driver or a smaller 1/2-inch square drive model, a small impact wrench may not have sufficient power or torque to remove lug nuts from a vehicle.

This statement applies especially if the bolts are seized on or installed with a pneumatic impact wrench.

A small impact wrench will not be up to providing the several hundred foot-pounds of force required to break them loose, and no impact driver will be able to do the job.

You should use a breaker bar or a large impact wrench for such an application.

Conclusion

You can use an impact driver to remove lug nuts, but it is not the ideal tool for the job. You will need an adapter, and you may still be unable to remove bolts that have seized or that have been over-tightened with a pneumatic impact wrench.

The ideal tool for removing lug nuts under these circumstances is a large impact wrench, and if you are going to be doing a lot of automotive work, you should invest in one. If you only need to replace a tire occasionally, you may be able to get away with using an impact driver.

Photo of author

Barry Gray

Hi, I’m Barry. I’ve loved woodworking and bringing things back to life for more years than I care to remember. I hope my passion for tools comes across loud and clear in everything you read here on The Tool Square.

Leave a Comment