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

[Kershaw]

I guess people missed all the "vintage racing" stuff in your avatar and signature...

[Hooffenstein HD]

A couple of ugga duggas with the impact gun has never done me wrong.

[AndrewBird]

[sonomabimmers]

Just had two replace two perfectly fine wheel bearing/hubs because P/O brought it somewhere that they cross threaded three lug nuts with a gun and the head snapped off of each when i tried to remove them leaving a nut stuck in the hub.

[jeffnhiscars]

Never lost a wheel but came close once in, of all cars, my 911. Seems the tire shop hadn't tightened them and you can imagine the disaster potential with that car.

It occurs to me that the best reason to torque them is to insure the stress is evenly distributed among the lugs. If one is notably tighter than the others it would seem much more likely to break, which would just load the others leading to more problems etc etc

I torque 2x on install and now and then grab the wrench and do a walk around on the fleet. I do find the occasional nut to snug so it's not a bad practice ....if you value your ride....and your neck

[dnguyen1963]

For something like the wheel lug nuts, a cheap HF torque wrench costs about $10 so why not buy one and throw it in the trunk?

[djjerme]

I'm saving that one Andrew to send to a few mechanic friends..

[ForcedFirebird]

Seriously though, I have seen too many times during a race where a wheel came off, so we keep a torque wrench handy and check them periodically. Something you might get away with on the street isn't quite the same. I also have been able to "feel" a bolt, so generally a 1' breaker bar is enough for me to judge and be very close.

Adding to the post above about other failures, this is what cast wheels look like after a year of being beat on...

[ELVA164]

Interesting weight-savings idea, but don't you think mounting will be an issue?

[ForcedFirebird]

Interesting weight-savings idea, but don't you think mounting will be an issue?

Lugs were still to TQ :P

Crazy thing is, I had just gotten out of the car about 30min prior. It happened climbing the hill, turn 1 at Road Atlanta (middle of 4th gear)!

The top pic is when it was still on the roll back, we jacked it up while on the truck, slapped a new wheel on, just in time to do one lap and get the checkered flag haha.

[reelizmpro]

hahaha this is great. I can picture that in a manual somewhere next to angle torque.

[helalo]

Its just lugnuts. Secure them firmly on and go. It doesnt take more than 2 seconds with an air gun or do it manually and youll feel when it is secure.

Theres not much space to make mistakes.

[MR E30 325is]

Its just a lugnuts. Its not rocket science.

While it isn't rocket science, it certainly is a science. And while measures are taken during design to compensate for too little torque/clamping force and too much torque, why take the 'fuck it, its just a bolt approach'?

I mean, if 3 minutes with a torque wrench saves me from serious disaster on a long, lonely stretch of highway, I'll invest the 3 minutes.

Or, just tighten the living piss out of em and take the risk of hitting a pothole/swerving to avoid something and having your shit fall apart.

Up to you.

[lukeADE335i]

Most times wheels come loose (asides from the track) is where people have done the lug nuts up finger tight and then forgotten to tighten them afterwards and they back out within the first few miles.

[TobyB]

Theres not much space to make mistakes.

and yet, one regularly sees lonely wheels on the freeway, just sitting there, wondering where their car has gotten to.....
and one has also had to break lugs off because some lugnut
has given it 5 or sixty ugga- duggas and the fucker is fusion- welded to the rim, with the
stud stretched 1/4" longer....
Terrifyingly, I can tell you that's a Mitsubishi 4wd hub from the late 80's/ early 90's.

where people have done the lug nuts up finger tight and then forgotten to tighten them afterwards

guilty....


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