On Wed, 20 Aug 2003 22:43:18 -0400, "Peter Reilley"
wrote:

I had my wheels balanced and for the third time the lug nuts
came loose a few days later. I watched them use a torque
wrench to tighten them. I have alloy wheels. When I put the
nuts on I stand on the lug wrench and bounce a little. They
don't come loose when I do that.

Anyway, I was wondering if I should grease the threads. I don't
grease them now. The theory being that the increased friction
would keep them from loosening. An opposing theory is
that with greased threads the same torque would put a higher
tension on the stud. This would reduce any slight movement
thereby reducing the likelihood of the nuts coming loose.

So which is better; grease or no grease?

Pete.


I always oil the studs, first I wire brsuh them. I live on a gravel
road and they can get pretty grimy. the oil is a must, I've had too
many times I've had to twist the nut off squeeling all the way. I
don't usually oil the cone part of the nut. Once you've had nuts work
loose it usually wrecks the shape of the cone on the nut and the hole
on the rim and will not seat properly anymore. Fro a cheapo fix buy
new nuts and see if they hold. You may have wrecked your rims.

You are probably overtorquing them when you bounce on them (I've been
accused of leaning on my breaker bar a bit too hard too, but I don't
stand on it. Often the factory wrench is crap and will break or bend
even on clean properly torqued nuts. My advice is to find a good old
cross shaped wrench and keep it in the trunk (watch out, the ones they
sell new are often chinese crap you can twist into a spiral without
budging the nut. The multiple sizes are handy if you are pulling a
trailer or helping a stranded motorist with their crappy factory
wrench.

It's hard to say how tight you were gettign them bouncing on them,
some lug wrench handles stick out at enough of an angle that a good
component of the force you were putting on the wrench translated into
a moment trying to simply bend the nut/stud down. I've seen people
jump on them and been able to turn them tighter by hand with a proper
wrench . Use the X shaped lug wrench, you can use bothe hands one
pushing up, the other down. No goofy side loading of the nut and you
will have a good feel for how tight you actuall yave them. These are
also pretty nice for spinning the nuts off after you break them loose.
and sure beat resettign the wrench every haft turn for stubburn ones.

Air wrenches can get things too tight or too loose, always check them
after somebody else put them on. and check all the nuts, sometimes
they really hammer home two and just spin the rest on.

Little trick, in a pinch on the side of the road you can pull your
dipstick for a little oil for those stubborn nuts.

Dave