On Tue, 31 Dec 2013 14:36:59 +0000 (UTC), DerbyDad03
wrote:

Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 12/31/2013 8:19 AM, TimR wrote:

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.


This has as much heated opinion and toilet paper over the
top or under the bottom. My opinion is to lube the threads
and mating cone point with grease or Never-Sieze. Torque
with clicker torque wrench, and recheck the next day and
the second day. Others will quote Aristotle, Mack, Ford,
or just tell me that I'm mistaken.

I've had a wheel fall off twice. Once when it started to
rain the day I was working. I slipped the lugs on finger
tight, and neglected to torque them. This was about 1980
model Chevette, with steel rims.

Second time was a 98 Blazer with aluminum rims. I put the
lugs on with torque wrench but didn't recheck the next day
and on day two. The lugs were under snap cap, and I didn't
see that they were loose. I thought I had a backwards radial
on the other corner, and didn't visually or wrench check the
one that was loosening.

Both of those were my neglect, and I take responsibility.

The only time I've had a wheel loosen up is when a service center put the
wrong wheels on my vehicle.

I had my dead Subaru towed to a service station late on a Saturday night. I
didn't make an appointment because they were closed until Monday. I had
used the service station before and since my car was dead, I decided to
have it towed there with the plan to call them Monday morning. I told the
tow truck driver to put the car behind the station, pointed towards the
service bay door so that they could push it into the shop when they were
ready.

I called them first thing Monday morning and they said they were wondering
what the car was doing behind their shop, balanced on 3 concrete blocks
with no wheels. To this day, I believe the tow truck driver was involved
with the theft of the wheels and brand new tires, but there was obviously
no way I could prove it. He would have been the only one who knew the car
was behind the station, unless someone else went back there looking for
vehicles to mess with.

Anyway, the service station located some used wheels (the wagon wheel
style) and new tires and put them on the vehicle. I picked it up after the
repair was done and proceeded to drive 300 miles to my parent's house for
the holidays. The car felt fine while driving on the highway but when I
slowed for a toll booth, the steering wheel started shimmying. I pulled off
of the road and found that a couple of lugs were loose on the front wheels.
I tightened them up and continued on my way. When I got to my parent's
house, the car felt funny again, so I checked the wheels and found that
_all_ of the lug nuts were loose and some of the studs were stripped.

It turned out that the wheels they put did not fit over the hub correctly.
They were being held onto the car with just the lug nuts, with no support
from the hub. I had to take it to a shop to have a few of the studs
replaced. It took them a few days to locate the correct wheels so I was
stuck without a car and delayed in getting home.

My insurance company covered the original theft of the wheels and the
service station covered the cost of the replacement wheels and stud repairs
after I threatened to report them to any and all groups and authorities I
could think of.
Better than half of vehicles are "stud centric", not "hub centric"
and they use the same studs and nuts.