Why aren't all our wheels falling off/all hubs or discs warping?

[TobyB]

It doesn't count if the hub fails. Unless you didn't torque THAT!

heh

Honestly, the clicker at the track is mostly a nervous twitch,
and occasionally an early warning of a stud pulling....

t

[djjerme]

Torque Wrench at the track as well.

Seen to many wheels come off other cars.

You'd be surprised in an enduro race how much lug nuts actually loosen up.


I have always been one of those double check people on wheel torque, one of my old Chevy II's loved to sheer wheel studs off. Mind you, it was the stock 10 bolt 8.2 rearend with 4 lug drum brakes. But I got real good at swapping studs out at work on it.

[ELVA164]

I'm prefacing this statement by saying I 100% do not like the thought of someone leaning into an air gun on wheel lugs/bolts. I get shivers.

That said, I don't think it's very easy to actually damage modern wheel studs and/or bolts. They're pretty thick and made of quality material (if OEM). Even though newer cars weigh a million pounds, the ever-higher risk of litigation from a failure has probably caused large margins to be built in.

40+ years ago when the studs were much thinner and weaker, this was much more of an issue. To give you an idea, every car we take care of at the shop uses 40 ft•lb of torque on the lug nuts.

I still believe a torque stick or preferably a wrench is the way to go if you care.

[dnguyen1963]

Most air gun will likely over-tighten the nuts. Although, I am a few years younger than OP, I have seen plenty of wheels coming the car on the highway. I make a habit of watching the car in front of me to make sure that all their wheels are fine; otherwise, I get as far from that car as possible.

[dnguyen1963]

I'm prefacing this statement by saying I 100% do not like the thought of someone leaning into an air gun on wheel lugs/bolts. I get shivers.

That said, I don't think it's very easy to actually damage modern wheel studs and/or bolts. They're pretty thick and made of quality material (if OEM). Even though newer cars weigh a million pounds, the ever-higher risk of litigation from a failure has probably caused large margins to be built in.

40+ years ago when the studs were much thinner and weaker, this was much more of an issue. To give you an idea, every car we take care of at the shop uses 40 ft•lb of torque on the lug nuts.

I still believe a torque stick or preferably a wrench is the way to go if you care.

All of my cars have a 80 ft.lb spec.

[estoguy]

While I have had access to impact guns, I always do my bolts by hand to 81 ft/lb. For some reason on my E30, the rear wheels always seem to need be retorqued. Not much, but enough that after 50-100 km it needs to be done.

And I always keep my 3/8 torque wrench and a deep 17mm in my car all the time. Yeah, I don't need to, but I like having it.

[Julien]

Only time a torque wrench saved my butt was with a rotor hold down screw that was a bit proud. I tightened all the bolts to what I thought they should be and finished off the job with the torque wrench. Thing is, the torque wrench kept requiring a bit turn more every go around leading me to notice something was off.

tldr: going around twice with a torque wrench is cheap insurance that the wheel seated properly

[MrBurgundy]

I just use my impact, never a torque wrench on wheels. I guess I just got the feel for it after so long.

Haven't had a problem.

[e30davie]

Mechanical feel of bolt torque is something that is learnt over time. Usually by breaking bolts early on in your career...

I never used to use a torque wrench on any bolts except head studs, flywheels and maybe the front crank nut. then when i got my own torque wrench (used to borrow dads) i started using it on wheel nuts as it was an easy way to make sure they were all tight. It is nice and easy to race around the car after fitting something and click click click click. then you know they are tight without having to be too concerned.

I have have confidence in myself to torque bolts properly, but in the heat of the moment getting a car on the road wheel nuts can be missed. years ago a mate and i had a wheel come off as we were leaving his driveway and from then on i have been paranoid of wheel nuts.

[Northern]

For wheels, I always torque them now. Had one almost fall off after a shop changed my tires, so I'm a little paranoid.

All shops (at least around here) have a disclaimer on the bottom of the work order to "return within 100km to retorque wheels" which seems like more of a liability thing than anything.

Usually I will break lug nuts free with a breaker bar, then use an impact to slowly run them off/back on until they're slightly more than hand tight.
They're aluminum, so I'm a little concerned with hammering the shit out of them.

[Cephas]

Funny, I torque my wheels twice around each time I swap. Lost 2 wheels on track so far. Though not because of the wheel nuts.

What in the world happened here? Did the front hub just break free? Do you use wheel studs or are you using the stock bolts to hold the wheels on the hub? Are those stock parts?

Looks terrifying.


Edit: looks like that's a Miata, correct?

[RainRider]

The importance of properly tourquing lug nuts goes up when using any kind of spacers or different size rims or both. Which both is my case and am anal about tourquing them myself. After getting new tires I retorque at home.

[FireFight]

For most of my car life I just used common sense when tightening them, I have always used the stock lug wrench. But I finally bought a torque wrench and have been pretty anal about putting everything back to spec when it goes back on.

Back when I first got in to cars, I had to take my girl friend to work while working on the rear suspension and with out thinking I slapped the wheel on and put the lugn uts on maybe 3 turns. fast forward to a mile down the road and the ass of the car squats and I see my wheel flying in front of me down the road.
When I bought the car the trunk had a box filled with lug nuts, that saved my ass because the lug nuts where totally gone. Since then I always double check lugs and keep a whole wheels worth of lugs in my trunk

[TobyB]

40 ft•lb of torque on the lug nuts.

That seems orfully low- as in, work loose low. I set the track wrench to 65-
but I use anti- seize. (flame suit on, zipped up, and I have a full air tank)

a rotor hold down screw that was a bit proud.

I watched a quite- professionally- prepared car lose a wheel that way...

t

[ELVA164]

That seems orfully low- as in, work loose low. I set the track wrench to 65-
but I use anti- seize. (flame suit on, zipped up, and I have a full air tank)

It is awfully low for a "normal" car, but most of our cars float around the 1000lb mark and have 7/16" studs. I was just illustrating the difference in construction between much older cars and the newer stuff.

In case you're concerned, we haven't had a single lug nut come loose on any car in the past ~20 years. :)