NHTSA Complaint #11428846 — 2016 FORD EXPEDITION

I had a flat tire and needed to install the spare tire. I jacked the vehicle up and tried to take the wheel lug nuts off. The manufacturer supplied lug removal bar's head would not fit over the wheel lug nuts. Consequently, I was not able to remove the flat tire and install the spare tire. Saftey was compromised by having to drive on a damaged tire approximately 10 miles to a repair shop. Had I been out of town or on a highway the saftey issues would have been greatly magnified. The repair shop had difficulty removing the lug nuts. They had to use special half sized sockets and pound the sockets onto the lug nuts before they could be removed. The independent service center states that this issue is not unusual for Ford products with two piece lug nuts. This incident did not cause an accident, injury or vehicle damage. Nothing was reported to any authorities, excluding this incident report. Bottm line; in cases of road side tire failure, the damaged tire needs to able to be removed and the spare installed to facillitae safe transport to a repair facility.