cracking lug nuts

Is that a familiar phrase to everyone? If I say a heroine cracks the lug nuts on a wheel, is it generally understood that she’s loosening them (without removing them) before she jacks up the car?

(Am asking because when I put the term in Google, it shows up as the first link on a DIY: Change Your Tire page, but fewer of the other pages than I would have expected use “crack” in the same sense.)