Let's Torque Nuts

[Bper]

How many car owners use a torque wrench to tighten wheel nuts. How many know about this? I found the article below interesting.

"Car wheels have certain, very specific torque settings that need to be adhered to ensure your wheels are tight enough to stay on the vehicle (very handy) but not so tight that they damage the hubs, break the bolts or cannot be removed. The torque settings are different for every car and even specific to each model. Most cars need to be tightened to somewhere between 85-140 newtons. Believe it or not, this is not much more than hand tight.

Tightening your wheels using an air gun can produce torque anywhere up to 1,000 newtons. Using your foot to push or even jump on a wheel brace to tighten your wheels, can produce upwards of 500 newtons of pressure. Even Battery powered guns start at 440. Using muscles to over tighten your wheel nuts can be a lot more dangerous and a lot more expensive than doing it correctly.

Locking wheel nuts are designed for infrequent use and made to withstand the correct torque settings and applied pressure. In instances of mega muscles or your chosen service centre being lazy and unprofessional and using power and air tools, these locking wheel nuts will almost certainly break. The worst-case scenario of this is that you could need to change your wheel one night in the middle of nowhere and your locking wheel nut fails, leaving you stuck! The most likely outcome is that you will go to your tyre shop or MOT station needing a tyre and the locking wheel nut will fail. You will then blame the garage and a responsibility stand-off will ensue. This will also lead to further expensive costs of replacing the locking nut bolt and finding a way to remove the now over tightened lock nut."

Welcome comments

[forkingabout]

I always spin wheel nuts up hand tight then use a torque wrench to tighten them to the correct torque.

On my own vehicle I will also recheck them a couple of days later - we have calibrated Norbar torque wrenches at work so borrowing one for 10 minutes & walking out to the carpark isn't an issue. 

Lads at the local garage will use a breaker bar to undo locking wheel nuts, they also spin wheel nuts up hand tight & use a torque wrench to tighten them - the use of a torque wrench does seem to confuse some of there customers. 

[Derek.w]

I always use a torque wrench exspecially important for alloys wheels!.