Check your lug nuts!

[hackeyfly]

I posted the following to another forum in the form of a rant, but it is an issue that should be looked at. I was kinda irritated when I wrote it, so get past the tone and take away the lesson:rolleyes:

Last week I had Dad take the 63 Cutlass to the local Goodyear outlet to get 4 new tires. he dropped off the car, and gets a call from the manager about 30 minutes later, "We can't get the lug nuts off." Now, these wheels hadn't been off since the last set of tires was put on 20 years ago. Remember that. So- Dad goes back to the store, suggests that rather than the impact gun, they use a long breaker bar and 6 point socket. He also suggests that maybe it would have been a good idea to put some penetrating oil on the studs while they were waiting for him to show up. The manager allows that he was worried that they might break the studs using a breaker bar. Dad says well, in that case you just press in new studs to replace the ones that broke. Manager says, "We don't have a press." Dad points to a press in the corner and asks "What's that?" Manager didn't know what it was. THE BOSS OF THE SHOP DID NOT KNOW HE HAD A PRESS, AND DID NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT ONE LOOKED LIKE! So, all the wheels were removed and new tires put on, no issues.

Part 2. Today, I notice that the left front tire looked a little low, and the hub cap was pushing on the valve stem. So I remove the hub cap to re-align it, and notice that the dust cover over the bearing had a lot of grease around it, and the hub was hot after a 3 mile drive. So- well, lets just pull the hub and repack the bearings. Rather than leave the drum attached to the wheel and try to fight the wheel/drum assembly past the ridge that surely exists inside the drum, I decide to remove the whole wheel first. Get my breaker bar and 6 pt. socket, and immediately the stud breaks loose from the drum. The LUGS ARE SO TIGHT THERE ARE METAL SHAVINGS AROUND THE HOLE IN THE WHEEL! So now I will have to get the torches out to get these lug nuts loose, then repair the messed up one.

This is the kinda crap that causes me to HATE allowing anyone to work on my stuff. There is not a lick of common sense here, every set of tires I have ever had put on by a "professional" has resulted in stupidly over tight lug nuts. I wonder how many rotors have been warped and ruined by this kind of idiocy, how many simple flat tire changes have turned into nightmares because folks can't get the lugs loose on the side of the road.

So- be forewarned, when you have tires put on, or brake work done, MAKE SURE THE WHEEL LUGS ARE TORQUED TO THE PROPER SPEC, because these fools will ring them on with the impact gun to about 600 f-ng foot pounds, and you will never, ever, get them off with normal hand tools.

Remember, something just this simple could mean the difference between an annoying 30 minute tire change on the side of the road, or a totally FUBAR experience. Personally, I don't have time for FUBAR, but that's just me.
Pat in Joppa

[mikehn]

Pat, I certainly sympathize. These things happen way more often then people think. Both under and over torque of lug nuts can cause real problems that people dont realize. I rotate my own tires. After I buy new tires for our vehicles, I always recheck the torque by hand with a torque wrench. The shops use them for speed and convenience but power tools really should not be used for lug nuts. What is even worse, more often than one might think, the shops forget to install the lug nuts altogether. :wacko:

[mchar]

PAT YOU ARE RIGHT! As soon as someone removes your tires or
you buy new tires, take your torque wrench in their parking lot,
unloosen every nut and re-torque the nuts.
(Or don't and warp your rotors in the 1st 5 minutes of driving.)
This is one of my pet peeves.
Mark

[crabinmike]

I own a shop in Hunt Valley it is very sad how hard it is to obtain people with common sense and pride in their work . Every wheel is torqued before it leaves my shop . try to use a local shop over the chain stores

[fishinblues]

Better to have them on to tight than to loose. I had my brakes checked by a service shop, and they did not tighten my lug nuts. I found out the hard way when I lent my truck to my roommate and the rt ft tire came off at 50MPH.:eek2: Thank god no one was hurt. Lost the wheel, ground down the rotor to approx ½, dug a 1 inch hole in the asphalt for ¼ mile, and tore up the lower control arm and front x member.
Service shop accepted responsibility and the truck got fixed.

[Bryansfish]

Better to have them on to tight than to loose. I had my brakes checked by a service shop, and they did not tighten my lug nuts. I found out the hard way when I lent my truck to my roommate and the rt ft tire came off at 50MPH.:eek2: Thank god no one was hurt. Lost the wheel, ground down the rotor to approx ½, dug a 1 inch hole in the asphalt for ¼ mile, and tore up the lower control arm and front x member.
Service shop accepted responsibility and the truck got fixed.

My buddies dad had a rear tire come off his truck on 264 in Portsmoth. As he was pulling over he watched as the tire crossed the median into head on traffic. No one hit the tire and it turned back across the median as he was coming to a stop. Then as he sat there watching the tired he realized it was coming right at him. Before he could move the tire slammed into the rear 1/4 pannel of his truck and came to rest. He got out to see this hugh dent in his truck and the tire laying there right by the hub it came off of.