A scary reminder to always check your lug nuts.

[AJMBLAZER]

I normally have the problem of over tighting the lug nuts and breaking the studs. I have never had any come loose. My 400 ft lb impact gun does a good job of getting them tight enough.

Sounds exactly like a good way to overtighten lug nuts and either break studs or warp rotors.


I've got a buddy that tightens all his lug nuts to "two grunts and a fart" tight. I've commented several times about it and he just eye rolls and says it's always been fine.

One day he had his Jeep in my garage and after one of these exchanges I pulled out my torque wrench and his owners manual and proceeded to tighten just about every lug nut up considerably in order to get them to the proper torque.

 

[gak542ss]

experience helps

I have now used my impact enough to know when to stop. I used to check every lug nut with a torque wrench and learned how much to impact the lug nuts. The smaller studs are the ones that I used to break mostly chevy. Come to think of it I broke more with a lug wrench than with the impact. I have not had to many problems with the 8 lug stuff. I recheck myself every now and then but it seems that I have it down just right with my current impact gun.

 

[gak542ss]

Dump trucks

When I have tire work done on my dump trucks the tire shop uses a 3/4 impact. I have never seen them use a torque wrench. I have not had any problems yet.

 

[cdoggwsu]

I would agree in that case as I've never seen a torque wrench used on the lugs of a piece of commercial or agricultural equipment but on my DD I think I'll take the extra 5 minutes to check it.

 

[teacher_dave]

I'll be honest....I'm a two grunts and fart guy.

But I'm lucky that I'm a pretty big guy and two grunts and a fart is just about right.

 

[Fordum]

One thing, the warping rotor problem is fairly new. Back when disk brakes first came out, and before that, drums, lug nut torque was not a big problem. As long as they did not come off, you were fine.

But, sometime in the early 80s or maybe later, the lighten-the-car-at-all-costs mentality struck, and you started seeing cars go in with nice smooth brakes, and come out with warped rotors after a tire rotation.

A lot of the better tire shops around here quit using the guns to tighten the nuts. They might spin them up with them, but used a torque wrench to finish them.

Then, Snap-On and some of the others came out with the torque bars for impact wrenches.
You select the amount of torque you want from a set of them, and when it gets to that torque, it starts bouncing and stopping the impact from going farther.

They were real popular for a while, don't know if they still are or not. Even when they were popular, lots of people said they were no good.

Never used them myself, just saw them used.

For example:
http://www.harborfreight.com/10-piece-1-2-half-inch-torque-limiting-extension-bar-set-92890.html

http://www.torquestick.com/cart/home.php

 

[gotblazers]

One thing, the warping rotor problem is fairly new. Back when disk brakes first came out, and before that, drums, lug nut torque was not a big problem. As long as they did not come off, you were fine.

But, sometime in the early 80s or maybe later, the lighten-the-car-at-all-costs mentality struck, and you started seeing cars go in with nice smooth brakes, and come out with warped rotors after a tire rotation.

A lot of the better tire shops around here quit using the guns to tighten the nuts. They might spin them up with them, but used a torque wrench to finish them.

Then, Snap-On and some of the others came out with the torque bars for impact wrenches.
You select the amount of torque you want from a set of them, and when it gets to that torque, it starts bouncing and stopping the impact from going farther.

They were real popular for a while, don't know if they still are or not. Even when they were popular, lots of people said they were no good.

Never used them myself, just saw them used.

For example:
http://www.harborfreight.com/10-piece-1-2-half-inch-torque-limiting-extension-bar-set-92890.html

http://www.torquestick.com/cart/home.php

We have em in the shop. They are more trouble than they are worth IMO. I have an adjustable setting air gun so i'll leave it on 1/5 most the time. This applys no more than 60 ft/lbs of torque and since most of the vehicles we service have a factory spec between 80-100 this leaves plenty of room for the torque wrench's to finish the job.