I have a 2014 CPO MS60 that I bought last January. I rotate the tires religiously every 6,250 miles to extend the life of the tires. I have done this three times now. (Yes, I have put on 20K miles on it in 10 months.) If you haven't done this yourself you just need a good torque wrench set to 129 ft-lbs and a 21mm socket.
I quickly learned that my 2014 MS60 had gen1 lug nuts, which have the "cap" built into the lug nut. You can not remove the cap on these gen1 lug nuts. Even using hand tools, not air tools for impact wrenches, these lug nuts will easily deform. When this happens they are almost impossible to remove. (If this happens to you try a 22mm socket, and you may have to hammer it on.) I talked to the service center and they don't sell gen1 lug nuts anymore because of this problem. They sold me 20 gen2 lug nuts with plastic chrome caps and told me to replace all of the gen1 lug nuts. It cost me about $20. I would highly recommend that anyone with gen1 lug nuts replace them, before you or a tire shop deforms them and you have to work extra hard to get them off.
These new lug nuts are a much better two piece design and don't deform like the old ones, but you have to have a special tool to remove the plastic lug nut caps easily. Some people on the forum have used bent wire or two screwdrivers instead of buying the tool, but I took a different approach. I used TinkerCAD to design a tool to remove them myself, and 3D printed it. After a few tweaks, it worked great! Easy off with no fuss and most importantly no scratches to the caps or wheels. It's a simple design, and I see people selling their own version of this. I would like to give back to the Tesla community, since information in this forum has helped me many times, so I am linking my 3D print file for anyone to use for free as long as you don't sell it. If you have a 3D printer you know what to do with this, and if you don't just ask any kid at a middle or high school to print it off for you. Almost all the schools have 3D printers now for the kids to learn on.
Tesla Lug Nut Cap Removal Tool by GMan324
I know this works great on the Model S, and I assume it works on the Model X. I'm not sure if the Model 3 has this same design, but please comment if it works for you on something other than the Model S.
I quickly learned that my 2014 MS60 had gen1 lug nuts, which have the "cap" built into the lug nut. You can not remove the cap on these gen1 lug nuts. Even using hand tools, not air tools for impact wrenches, these lug nuts will easily deform. When this happens they are almost impossible to remove. (If this happens to you try a 22mm socket, and you may have to hammer it on.) I talked to the service center and they don't sell gen1 lug nuts anymore because of this problem. They sold me 20 gen2 lug nuts with plastic chrome caps and told me to replace all of the gen1 lug nuts. It cost me about $20. I would highly recommend that anyone with gen1 lug nuts replace them, before you or a tire shop deforms them and you have to work extra hard to get them off.
These new lug nuts are a much better two piece design and don't deform like the old ones, but you have to have a special tool to remove the plastic lug nut caps easily. Some people on the forum have used bent wire or two screwdrivers instead of buying the tool, but I took a different approach. I used TinkerCAD to design a tool to remove them myself, and 3D printed it. After a few tweaks, it worked great! Easy off with no fuss and most importantly no scratches to the caps or wheels. It's a simple design, and I see people selling their own version of this. I would like to give back to the Tesla community, since information in this forum has helped me many times, so I am linking my 3D print file for anyone to use for free as long as you don't sell it. If you have a 3D printer you know what to do with this, and if you don't just ask any kid at a middle or high school to print it off for you. Almost all the schools have 3D printers now for the kids to learn on.
Tesla Lug Nut Cap Removal Tool by GMan324
I know this works great on the Model S, and I assume it works on the Model X. I'm not sure if the Model 3 has this same design, but please comment if it works for you on something other than the Model S.
