Hi Guys,
I took my wheel off to swap around the other day & had to put an extension bar to remove the bolt. It was that tight, if I had to change a puncture on the roadside, I would not be able to using the standard issue bar.
when I replaced the wheel, torqued it up to about hand tight & standing on the standard bar tightened it a bit more. As there is No mention about how tight it should be on the standard issue car manual, - can anyone help, or who has a workshop manual as to how much torque the wheel bolts should be tightened to. I have a torque wrench & checked on mine after tightening "as above" & it was about 60+ ft/lbs.
Is this tight enough or insufficient. I've put on 17" alloys.
:-\
Do it up with the standard supplied wrench, the manufacturer has worked out that the average person can put x amount of torque with this amount of leverage.
I think the best thing you can use on the bolts is some anti seize grease, the one i use is Loctite silver colored anti seize, just a dab on the threads and taper is sufficient, when you are doing up a wheel nut and it is dry, some of the torque is being used up with friction, you may put 60 lbs of torque on the wheel bolt but 10 lbs of it may be to overcome friction.
I have used copperslip anti seize, but it is copper in color and can discolor the wheels if you get some on it, thats why i use the silver Loctite.
You can use grease or oil, but they are for lubricating, not from stopping seizing, fretting or cold welding as it is sometimes called, Colin.
I personally use 80 ft.lb on my alloy wheels.
I've seen the spec in some of the owner's manuals. From memory, 70 ft.lb, which isn't overly tight.
Indeed, I had some new tyres fitted the other week. Yesterday, I did a routine check of all my wheels/tyres, taking them off and refitting. Wow, some of the nuts must definitely have had an impact wrench over tighten them. I would guess 120 ft.lb, which is ridiculous. I strained pretty hard with my torque wrench (considerably longer than the factory wrench) to release them. But it's the reason I check things like this after workshops have 'mucked around' on the car.
:)
thanks Colin & Shiny-car,
really appreciate your input - I might leave it as it is at the moment (as long as I can undo it with the wrench supplied) & put some anti-seize on it as you suggested the next time I pull the wheel off. Grassy