Lug wrench is the U.S. name for a type of used to turn on . In the UK it is commonly known as a wheel brace or wheel wrench.

The form commonly found in car trunks is an L-shaped metal rod with a on the bent end and a prying tip on the other. The prying tip is mainly intended to remove or wheel covers that may be covering a wheel's lug nuts. Another common type (sometimes known as a spider) is made in the shape of a cross, with different sized sockets on each of the four ends.

Ideally, the nuts (or bolts) should be tightened with a . Lug wrenches are much less expensive because they lack the ability to measure or limit the force used. Installing a wheel with a lug wrench thus requires a bit of rough guessing about proper tightness. Excessive force can strip threads or make the nuts very difficult to remove. Also, uneven torque between the various lug nuts, or excessive torque, can lead to warping of the if the car is equipped with . (For this reason (excessive torque), should properly be used only for removing lug nuts, not for tightening them, although in practice this rule is often ignored for convenience's sake, even by professional mechanics.)