On Thursday, March 31, 2016 at 3:46:27 PM UTC-4, Mr Macaw wrote:
On Thu, 31 Mar 2016 20:22:40 +0100, DerbyDad03 wrote:

On Thursday, March 31, 2016 at 3:03:43 PM UTC-4, Mr Macaw wrote:
On Thu, 31 Mar 2016 19:55:25 +0100, DerbyDad03 wrote:

On Thursday, March 31, 2016 at 2:37:25 PM UTC-4, Mr Macaw wrote:
On Thu, 31 Mar 2016 19:29:49 +0100, DerbyDad03 wrote:

On Thursday, March 31, 2016 at 2:03:20 PM UTC-4, philo wrote:
On 03/31/2016 12:14 PM, Mr Macaw wrote:
X
After a few raps, they tend to (hopefully) break free.

Honda rotors (and many aftermarket rotors for Honda) also have threaded
holes in their rotors so you can screw a bolt in against the hub and pop
the rotor off.




If the parts can take it, often heating with a propane torch will loosen
things up.

OD expands a fraction more than ID

I did that on car wheelnuts once. I think it worked, I can't remember,
I tried so many things. The final solution, as they kept tightening
during driving, was to get a very long breaker bar and jump up and down
on the end of it.




I've used the heating technique successfully many times for slightly
rusted nuts and bolts.


There was one time I had to remove a tire soon after I had a flat fixed.
They *way* over-tightened it so I put a long pipe on the end of my
"four-way" and ended up bending it all to hell.


I took the car back and told them thy put the wheel on too tightly,
then showed them my twisted "four-way" and said: "and I am NOT a weakling."


I later got a much better quality "four-way" my original was kind of a
cheap piece of crap.

I have always hated four-ways. Long ago, I made sure I had the proper
"single bar" tire iron for all of my cars.

Now I have the proper sized 1/2" sockets, a 25" breaker bar to loosen them
and a torque wrench to put them back on properly.

Even the rusted lugs on my trailer came right off after 2+ years of being
ignored. Breaker bars area so cool!

To put them back on, I just put them on with half the maximum force I can apply. That way I know I can apply twice the force to remove them later.


You do realize that every vehicle has specific torque values that they
want you to use, don't you?

My vehicles range from 80 ft-lbs to 94 ft-lbs.

Why does it have to be that exact? As long you can get it back off, it doesn't come off by itself, and you don't snap the bolt, who cares what the precise number is?


Problems Caused by Improper Torque
There are several different issues that lug nuts with an improper amount of torque can cause. The problems can range in severity depending on whether they are over or under tightened and how far the amount of torque deviates from what is required. Some of the most common lug nut related problems are listed below.

Stretched Wheel Studs
The wheel studs that the lug nuts attach to are designed to provide a tiny amount of give when being tightened. They may stretch a small amount, but not enough to cause any damage when the proper amount of torque is applied. Over-tightening, however, can put too much strain on the wheel studs, weakening them and causing them to suddenly snap while driving, if not during the tightening process itself.

Warped Brake Rotors
Over-tightening the lug nuts is also a major contributor to warped or damaged brake rotors. Once the brake rotors are damaged, a vehicle will shake or vibrate upon braking. The problem is even more pronounced when lug nuts are tightened unevenly or in the wrong pattern, putting more force on some areas of the wheel than others. Depending on the severity, this can be quite dangerous as well as costly to repair. In the worst cases, it becomes difficult or impossible to adequately control a vehicle upon braking.

Unbalanced Wheels
If lug nuts aren't tightened enough, it can be just as dangerous. A loose wheel will wobble and become unbalanced, and this can cause stress to the wheel studs, among other issues. The wobbling can eventually loosen all of the lug nuts until they fall off completely, at which point there would be nothing holding the entire wheel on the vehicle. This can obviously lead to catastrophic circumstances while driving.

Funny how those never actually happen.


Excellent article explaining the different ways that wheels can
separate from a vehicle. Pay special attention to the discussion
related to "clamping force" and how the proper clamping force is
achieved through proper torque.

If you want to see lots of examples of wheels coming off cars, just
check out youtube.