Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom D  ...and don't listen to the guy above me. |
Not saying it's not a good idea to torque your wheels to a specified torque, of course it is. However it's not necessary, you're not going to mess anything up by using a calibrated elbow. 99.999% of the cars on the road did not have their wheels torqued once the wheels were removed for the first time. I'll even go further to say that most of the forum members on this site don't use a torque wrench to tighten their wheels. If it was a common problem, you'd see/hear of more cases of wheels falling off and/or cracking around the lug holes.
There would also be BIG warnings in the maintenance and owners manuals.
You don't have to listen to me. If you feel more comfortable using a torque wrench, by all means go for it. You guys know that if it were a legitimate safety issue, I'd never suggest anything that would put people in danger. If you simply follow these steps,
which I'm sure most of you already do, you'll be just fine.
Removal:
1) Set the parking brake, place vehicle in gear.
2) Break lug bolts loose 1/2 a turn.
3) If you're using an impact, you can skip step 2.
4) Jack vehicle up until the tire clears the ground.
5) If the vehicle is to be raised for more than just a tire change, use jackstands. If I'm to be working underneath the vehicle, I like to place one of the wheels removed under the car in the area that I will be working. This is in addition to jackstands as an added safety precaution. Slowly lower the vehicle onto the jackstands. Give the vehicle a mild shake to ensure the jackstands are seated and holding the weight of the vehicle. Keep the jack in position and raised just below the height of the jackstands. The jack should not have any load on it, it's just in place for the sake of an emergency.
6) Remove lug bolts
7) Remove wheel. Again, if you're to be working under the vehicle, it's a good idea to place the wheel underneath the vehicle. This will protect you from being crushed if the vehicle were to fall. It will not prevent you from being pinned, however it will save your life.
8) I like to place the lug bolts on top of the wheel so they're out of the way and don't become misplaced or kicked across the shop floor.
Installation:
1) Clear all tools/parts from underneath the car.
2) Place wheel on hub and hold in place. (you can use the wheel alignment pin located in the vehicle's toolkit if you're not strong enough to support the wheel while threading the first lug bolt into the hub)
3) Thread all 5 lug bolts by hand a few turns.
4) Continue tightening lugs in a cross pattern with a lug wrench until SNUG. I like to spin the wheel in the opposite direction while the lug wrench is on the bolt and then give the lug wrench a firm jerk in the tightening direction.
5) Verify that the vehicle is in gear and the parking brake is engaged.
6) If the vehicle is supported on jackstands, jack the vehicle up slightly, remove jackstand and verify nothing is left under the vehicle.
7) Slowly lower the jack
8) Repeat steps 6 & 7 until all jackstands are removed and the weight of the vehicle is completely supported by the wheels.
9) Tighten lug bolts in a cross pattern to the manufacture's specified torque using a calibrated torque wrench. Or... you can alternatively:
9a) Tighten the lug bolts in a cross pattern with equal force approximately 1/4-1/2 a turn beyond snug using only your upper body weight to turn the bolt in a downward motion.
10) Repeat tightening process on all wheels removed and double check that all bolts are tight.
11) Drive vehicle for a few miles and recheck that none of the lug bolts have loosened.
It only takes a few extra seconds to use a torque wrench, however if you don't have one handy(most people don't drive around with one in their car), it's not necessary. Just make sure the wheel isn't going to fall off and try to tighten all of the bolts somewhat equally. Like I said, 99.999% of the cars on the road don't have their wheels torqued to spec and you don't see cars piled up on the side of the road with missing wheels. You could go to any tire shop, they'll probably have to search for a torque wrench. What's the chances they'll actually look up the factory spec? Millions of people take their cars to tire shops.
Edit; Seriously, I can't believe I just went through all that hassle to type this out. It's common sense. You could take my advice or leave it.
torque wrench? 
No more ti. 
So he goes to work(several miles via the freeway), works his shift, and then on the way home he calls me and says his car is shaking really bad. I meet him in town. He tells me that it started shaking shortly after he left for work the day before. I walk around the car to find two of the lug nuts on that wheel were missing and the other three lug nuts had almost completely backed out! Keep in mind, these were only hand tight. As soon as I showed him, he realized that he had forgot to tighten them with a lug wrench.
Linear Mode
