[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

I will rephrase. I would tighten them as much as I could by using my arms and then give another tug with my arms. I am not Hercules so doubt I ever once over torqued a lug nut.
Also a good number of those broken lugs will have nothing to do with torque and much more to do with side loading the lug. Pretty hard to maintain even loading when you are jumping on one side of a lug wrench.


EDIT: LOL What Spart just said^^^^^

Originally Posted by extrashaky

Jeez, how did I miss this thread?



I have to pile on here. You can overtorque them, which can stretch the studs, which then makes it difficult to get them tightened again, which leads to additional overtightening, which eventually causes failure. It's not like you have to carry a torque wrench in the car with you, but it's really a basic part of the tool kit that ought to be in the garage. I have replacement axles for my Jeep, and one of them has some stretched lugs on it that I'll have to replace before I'll feel comfortable using it, the result of someone getting overzealous with a wrench.

Furthermore, overtightening can make it a bitch to get the nuts off some cars. I had to have mine extracted off my Jeep by a tire shop because the idiot who put the last tires on overtightened them, and the two-piece lug nuts came apart when I tried to change a tire.

I replaced them all with spline drive and made sure they were torqued correctly. I liked them so much I put spline drive nuts on my BRZ as well.



A good tire shop will use torque adjustable impact wrenches that are regulated so they don't overtorque, and they'll dial in the appropriate torque for the hub they're working on. Unfortunately there are a lot of mediocre tire shops that don't bother.

Originally Posted by humfrz

WOW - you ARE late to this party.......

Well, extrashaky, I sort of agree with you.

If a person is "new" to the automotive world, it would probably be a good idea to use a torque wrench to tighten up lug nuts.

And yes, a torque wrench is absolutely necessary in the tool box to torque down head bolts .... not that many of us ever do that anymore.

Yes, I can see why tire shops use impact wrenches but, my gripe is that sometimes they DO NOT set them properly nor do the use the proper torque stick.

What I think ol @Tcoat was getten at was that it's pretty hard to over torque lug nuts using a little common sense and a hand held lug wrench (without any extensions or jumping on it).

The common since part comes in by realizing if you are tightening the lugs on your lawn tractor OR the rear wheels of a farm tractor.

Over the past 60 years I've tightened lug nuts on everything from my little red wagon to 10 hole bud wheels on semi-tractor trailers and huge John Deere tractors ....... and I never have broken off a stud or lost a wheel.

Never have used a torque wrench for lug nuts.....


humfrz - old two squeaks and a grunt..........

What Hum said and what I clarified.
If you are able to over torque lug nuts enough to stretch the stud and weaken the hardened steel using a proper lug wrench and just your arms you need to join the Avengers or XMen. I don't care how strong you think you are there is not a hope in hell you are going to do it.
A torque wrench is a very important tool for those applications where too much or too little force is going to cause issues but putting wheels on tight enough yet not too tight does not require that level of precision.