Changing a Flat Becoming Quite a Chore

[Dibbons]

I don't know what's going on with the lug nuts on our daily drivers. The climate, tire shop idiots, ghosts in the night? This year I had to change a flat tire at home on two vehicles, our 1996 Dodge Dakota (original owners) and 1992 Jeep Cherokee XJ (purchased year 2000). In both cases, using the star wrench would not budge ANY of the lug nuts. Neither would my 1/2" drive breaker bar. Just barely managed to break 'em loose finally using a pipe over the breaker bar. Each time a lug nut broke loose, heard a dry snap/click sound.

I don't know if the tire shops (two different businesses that last installed the tires on the two vehicles) are getting carried away with the torque or if something else is going on. Lucky this does not happen on the highway or when my spouse is driving. Thinking about torquing all the lug nuts from here on out myself (but lost my torque wrenches during my last re-location). At least I'll know the next time if it was an over-tightening error or not.

 

[1STMP]

A little anti-sieze on the
threads will make removing
them much easier.
Over tightening can actually
stretch the lugs, causing
misread torque values.
I went to one tire shop where
they were using blue loc-tite
on the lug threads! Mostly
when wheel spacers/
adapters were involved.

 

[Don Frelier]

Up in the snow belt here you get similar results when you have an aluminum wheel and a steel rotor.
Driving in winter you get corrosion between the two and the lug nuts essentially take the expansion pressure. They can really take some effort to remove.
A torch helps.

 

[AR67GTX]

I drove a 17 Shelby GT350 for a few years and the lug nut torque on them was 150 ft-lbs. I had to upgrade my torque wrench just to be sure I had plenty of capacity. I even had to tighten the oil filter on that car with a torque wrench as they had a habit of vibrating loose and backing off.

 

[68-500]

Yes I tell my tire shop the impact is removing nuts and taking up the slack. Then a torque wrench is mandatory or I will take my business elsewhere. Two reasons, I dont want them over tight and broke studs or warped rotors, second I dont want the damn thing falling off because they didn’t get enough torque. I usually put a dab of anti seize when I have them off it carries over on several removal and installations.

 

[451Mopar]

Last week front tire sidewall blowout on the Kia Optima. The car was so low, I had to use the factory jack to rise the car just to put the hydraulic jack under the car.
I use a bit of antiseize on the wheel studs, so no problem with the lugnuts. Tires are Perelli Cinturano P7 +2 all season, but the tire shop says they can only get the newer P7 +3 tires, but will sell me a new set of 4 prorated on the least tire on the car, about 1/2 price and the current tires have around 30,000 miles on them.
So they ordered the new tires last week, but still haven't gotten them.
Anyhow, Driving the old car we are giving to my granddaughter when she gets her license. She is 17, but still has no license.
Note: Don't over tighten the lug nuts, it can waller out the holes in the rim making the wheel loose no matter how tight the lug nuts are.

 

[Daves69]

Bulge lug nuts on aluminum rims?

Maybe a light anti-seize or grease coating on the bulge rather than the lug threads.
I add a light coat of marine grease on the wheel hub where they contact the rotors as well.

 

[#41]

Any decent tire shop will finish off your lugs with a torque wrench to factory specs. It's standard liability protection. If torqued to spec and they are hard to break loose, that's what the engineers intended. Using anti-seize will change the relationship between the torque reading vs. tension of the bolt to values different than engineered, so... it would be a good idea to check your lugs every so often if you choose to go that route.
That said, I've never torqued a lug in my life

 

[Charged440]

Unless you specifically state to torque them, they get rammed on as tight as they will go with the impact.

 

[#41]

Unless you specifically state to torque them, they get rammed on as tight as they will go with the impact.

My understanding is that the guns used by decent tire shops have torque limit settings, so it may may seem like they are ramming them on indiscriminately....

Bubs' Used Tires in the old corner gas station with the peeling paint is probably another matter.

 

[Charged440]

My understanding is that the guns used by decent tire shops have torque limit settings, so it may may seem like they are ramming them on indiscriminately....

Bubs' Used Tires in the old corner gas station with the peeling paint is probably another matter.

That is mine as well. I was told they use torque sticks and they were still over tightened. I’m guessing this particular place fed me a line of bs.

 

[Ron H]

I keep a breaker bar and impact socket in our vehicles so far never has been a bad idea. Other day my kid's car had a flat as I told her to take our car on a 400 mile trip rather than use hers. Best place she could have a flat parked in front of the garage. Well, my impact at 120psi would only remove 3-lugs and the tires had been rotated 4,000 miles ago. Breaker bar broke them loose.