Check Your Nuts

[kballowe]

We all check the tire pressure on our bikes.... and give them the general "once-over".

But, how many check the lug nuts on their 4-wheeled conveyances ?

This is #8 and #9 that I've picked up off the road - in just this past week, and all in the local area.

[guzziart]

I haven't checked lugnut torque, etc. in years.  The vehicle & tire manufacturers recommendations for tire rotation on my vehicles is at least once per year based on my annual mileage.  The road hazard warranty I bought for $10/tire includes free balancing & rotation every 5k miles so I haven't done anything with lugnuts in years (except for my Wing w/single sided swing arm & 5 lugnuts)

Art

[kballowe]

I haven't checked lugnut torque, etc. in years.  The vehicle & tire manufacturers recommendations for tire rotation on my vehicles is at least once per year based on my annual mileage.  The road hazard warranty I bought for $10/tire includes free balancing & rotation every 5k miles so I haven't done anything with lugnuts in years (except for my Wing w/single sided swing arm & 5 lugnuts)

Art

Yes, but don't you ever walk around your vehicle and look to make sure that you have all of your lug nuts?

[Gliderjohn]

Had that happen to us last summer. Two lugs sheared also. Also the first time I had the rear wheel off the Norge I just put it back on w/o a torque wrench. Also came loose on me.
GliderJohn

[guzziart]

Yes, but don't you ever walk around your vehicle and look to make sure that you have all of your lug nuts?

Sadly, no.

[Scout63]

On my cars no but I should.  On the trailer I check them and grease the bearings before each trip.

[guido guzzi]

I do check them after every tire rotation having lost one on my personal car and one on my employer's Pro Master van. 

[kballowe]

Had a tire repaired in February.

Counter guy:  OK, you're all done, and your truck is parked right outside.
Me:  Great.  Why is that one wheel leaning?

They forgot to reinstall the lug nuts.  I cannot understand why it didn't just fall off when they moved it.  It was close, though.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Had a tire repaired in February.

Counter guy:  OK, you're all done, and your truck is parked right outside.
Me:  Great.  Why is that one wheel leaning?

They forgot to reinstall the lug nuts.  I cannot understand why it didn't just fall off when they moved it.  It was close, though.

I saw a wheel head out in front of me and toward the ditch after a tire rotation. (!) It's hard to find good help any more..

[Tom H]

Thanks for the tip.

But. seriously where is Huzo when you need him 

Tom

[guzziart]

I saw a wheel head out in front of me and toward the ditch after a tire rotation. (!) It's hard to find good help any more..

I guess I've been lucky! 
I've noticed that the Discount Tire place I go to has a different assosciate torque wheels after they're installed,  I assume the Torque Guy is tightening to the correct value.

[egschade]

I guess I've been lucky! 
I've noticed that the Discount Tire place I go to has a different assosciate torque wheels after they're installed,  I assume the Torque Guy is tightening to the correct value.

Not if it's the guy at my local tire shop. Had to use a 2 ft pipe on my 2 ft breaker bar to get them loose. I always check after anyone takes a wheel off. If I had a flat I never would have gotten the wheel off with the tire change tools.

[Canuck750]

Those lug nuts look like the horrible type Ford uses on the F-150, the 7/8” steel nut has that stainless ‘cap’ over it, 21mm.
I changed out break pads and rotors on my Son’s 2017 F-150 a couple weeks back. Ford spec for a F-150 is 140 foot pounds toro on the lug nuts. When removing the nut the cap deforms and is very hard to get out of the socket. I bought all new solid steel lug nuts and threw out the crap Ford units. One nut was so tight it stripped on the wheel stud, it took me 2 hours to center drill and die grind off that last miserable nut and then had to get a new wheel stud

I think many people don’t realize how high the torque setting is on these lug nuts. The F-300 is 165 foot pounds torque!!!

[nc43bsa]

Not if it's the guy at my local tire shop. Had to use a 2 ft pipe on my 2 ft breaker bar to get them loose. I always check after anyone takes a wheel off. If I had a flat I never would have gotten the wheel off with the tire change tools.

I had a similar experience at my local Discount Tire store last year.

When I wanted to check my brakes afterward, I had to use a 2' cross wrench, a jack stand, a 4' steel tube, and my 220 pounds to loosen one lug on each wheel on my car.

[moto-uno]

  Of course those lovely stainless caps are to meet our metric standards in The Great White North 

[lucian]

All right ,some ones gotta take the bait .  Fortunately here it is part of the mandatory annual inspection to have your nuts inspected by a certified professional inspector  . Apparently, there has been too many cases of loose nuts falling into the wrong hands.   Once certified your nuts are swiped with a dab of yellow paint which indicates they have been properly inspected and certified in the nut registry. So far all my nuts have passed the protocol but sadly the yellow paint does not wash off.        

[guzziart]

Those lug nuts look like the horrible type Ford uses on the F-150, the 7/8” steel nut has that stainless ‘cap’ over it, 21mm.
I changed out break pads and rotors on my Son’s 2017 F-150 a couple weeks back. Ford spec for a F-150 is 140 foot pounds toro on the lug nuts. When removing the nut the cap deforms and is very hard to get out of the socket. I bought all new solid steel lug nuts and threw out the crap Ford units. One nut was so tight it stripped on the wheel stud, it took me 2 hours to center drill and die grind off that last miserable nut and then had to get a new wheel stud

I think many people don’t realize how high the torque setting is on these lug nuts. The F-300 is 165 foot pounds torque!!!

My sil brought over his 2012 F150 for a brake job in 2019 after the dealer told him the truck needed brakes.  I ran into the same problem getting a few of the lugnuts off but after having no success in getting a few nuts loose with a 5' cheater I gave up and told the kid to take it back to the dealer that rotated the tires with his "discount" oil change.  The dealer replaced all the lugnuts free of charge and apologized for the tech that over torqued them.

Yeah, the torque is high on some of these trucks but 140 lb/ft seems about right.  Our 1 ton pick-up it was something like 175 but I never had a problem getting the nuts loose for tire rotation or brakes. 

Art

[SIR REAL ED]

Thanks for the tip.

But. seriously where is Huzo when you need him 

Tom

Probably checking his nuts!

[SIR REAL ED]

Not if it's the guy at my local tire shop. Had to use a 2 ft pipe on my 2 ft breaker bar to get them loose. I always check after anyone takes a wheel off. If I had a flat I never would have gotten the wheel off with the tire change tools.

I quit going to the local tire shop after buying a set of tires and finding out that it took a four foot length of pipe on a two foot breaker bar to remove a lug nut.  I went to the tire shop and told the manager the lug nuts were overtightened.  He said "that's not possible all my guys use a torque wrench to tighten the lug nuts."  I handed him the lug wrench and pointed to my vehicle and said "Proove it!" He refused to take the  wrench.  At which point him had one of his employees remove all the lug nuts and re-torque them.

Personally I've never used a torque wrench on lug nuts and never had a problem.  But growing up in the Rust Belt, Never-Seize is always applied to the threads.

I had a friend who is a pretty good mechanic and he lost a wheel on his 3/4 ton truck a couple miles from his house.   We were both dumbfounded.  8 lug nuts coming loose, falling off and he never felt the wheel wobble!  It's a strange universe out there.