Hey all, Did a bit of digging, but I didn't find what I was looking for... First winter with the Prius. In other vehicle, I've used the same lug nuts or wheel bolts to secure the steel rims as the alloy summers. On the Prius, there's an integrated washer on the stock nuts, which sits against a surface on the cast rim. On the steel rims, since they're a pressed, thin steel, the washer doesn't bottom out on anything and rattles around... What's the general feeling on this? Do you guys get a spare set of nuts without washers for the winter, or do you re-use the alloy ones? I guess they're not really going to be rattling around (except at real low speed). Thanks for any suggestions Cheers, -Iain
When I bought my steel wheels from Tiresource.com they included lug nuts with them, which I use. There are 3 main types of lug nut seats (conical, shank and ball), so you want to make sure you use the appropriate type of lug for the wheel.
I let em rattle. Actually I don't hear them at all but the lugs work just fine on steels. Your spare is a steel wheel after all.
The aftermarket steel rims require an "acorn" style lugnut, which is an old fashioned lugnut For the 2004-2009 Prius and the 2007 and up FJ Cruiser, the thread of this lugnut is M12-1.5 x 21mm At NAPA stores here, the part number should be #641-2042 I was nicely surprised that the lugnuts I got for my Prius work on my FJ
When we got snows on steel rims for our 2010 I was told I'd be needing different lug nuts. I followed through on this, the rims were installed with plain, open ended lug nuts, but: Looking at the lug nuts for use with alloys, I think they will work both with the alloy rims and steel rims. They have the captured flat washer for contact with alloys, and a tapered profile at the end, for contact with steel rims. Only thing: they look kind of awkward on steel rims, sticking out too far, and with the captured washer just hanging. As other responders have said, the alloy nuts seem to work fine with the steel rim spare.
