In article ,
"ATP*" wrote:

"badaztek" wrote in message
...
2.Using anti seize is not to be used because it can cause the lug nuts
to come loose and I have seen it happen

It reduces the required torque but will not cause the nuts to come loose.
Obviously there are plenty of applications that have lubricants on the
threads and the nuts don't spin off. Quite a few tire mechanics use
anti-seize on truck studs and the wheels aren't flying off all over the
nation's highways. When the nut is torqued, the stud is elongated and the
resulting tension is what keeps the lugnut on, not the friction against the
threads.

I always use wheel bearing grease on the studs, to prevent rusting.
Grease doesn't really lubricate under such pressure when stationary.
Never had one loosen, in 40 years. Or rust. Never tried anti-seize on
wheel lugs. Nor does it seem necessary, given that ordinary grease
works.

What keeps the nut from backing off is mostly the rim bending, not just
the stud stretching. In a steel rim, the area around each stud is
hemispherical, a dome with a conical hole in the center. The lug nut
has a conical front that jams into the conical hole, and as the nut is
tightened, the dome becomes flatter as the metal deforms elastically.
It's this spring action that maintains force on the lug nut, preventing
creeping under vibration. The mechanical advantage of conical nut
driven into conical hole also helps to raise the torque needed to
override friction.

The key is to have enough spring force over a great enough range of
distances that the nut never escapes contact with the rim, preventing
rotation. Even the slightest rotation will cause loosening over time.

As for aluminum rims, I haven't looked closely at one, but there has to
be a spring in there somewhere, and the stud probably isn't long enough
to do the job by itself.

The studs holding the head to the engine block are an example of studs
long enough that elastic stretch of the studs is sufficient, but wheel
rims aren't nearly that wide or precise.

Joe Gwinn