TimR wrote:
On Monday, December 30, 2013 7:30:58 PM UTC-5, Larry W wrote:
When my daughter got her driver's license I taught her how to change

a tire. You may want to consider doing the same...

I've taught my daughters just in case. But when the shop puts on the
lugnuts with an air wrench, it's usually impossible for them to break
them loose, and often for me. One time we couldn't get them off jumping on a cheater bar.

I guess there's supposed to be a torque setting on those things but it
must be routinely ignored.

Question: do you guys put the bolts/nuts (depending on the car) on dry
with the recommended torque? Or do you lube them and reduce the torque?
I normally never put a fastener on dry, but I've been unsure about wheels.

I do not torque and I rarely lube. I lube if I feel the lug nut binding
when I'm taking it off or putting it back on. If it comes off easily, it
typically goes back on easy.

This is the technique I learned years ago:

To loosen the lugs, I jack the vehicle up just enough to take most of the
weight off of the tire, but not enough to loose contact with the ground.
Once the lugs are slightly loose, I jack the vehicle up until the tire is
off the ground and then remove the lug nuts and tire.

I reverse the procedure when installing the tire. I snug the lug nuts
enough to draw the tire up against the hub and then lower the vehicle until
the tire touches the ground. Once the tire has a little weight on it, I
tightened the lug nuts until I feel that they are "tight enough".

I've never had a lug nut become loose using this procedure and I've always
been able to get the lug nuts off when I've wanted to.