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Lug Nut / Tire Tightness Question

skulkingghost

skulkingghost

Golden Member
Long story short, I got some jack stands and am going to jack up my car and paint the calipers this weekend, my questioning is will hand tightening with the crowbar be enough for the lugs or should I take it to a shop to have the wheels retightened as I do not have a pneumatic gun.
 
You can go to Harbor Freight and buy a 15 buck torque wrench and they are accurate 🙂

But many people do it by hand, Personally I don't know how tight so I just bought the torque wrench
 
The lug wrench that came with the car should be sufficient at tighten the lug nuts. And, try to tighten the nuts in crisscross pattern and check your manual for mount of torque force. (I put roughly 1/2 of my weight on the lug wrench when I re tighten lugs on my car).
 
Most lugnuts need 88 to 90 Ft Lbs...

I use a torque wrench to prevent rotor warp from over tightening.
 
OK, listen up, unless you're driving a $80,000 car I wouldn't worry about using a torque wrench on your lug nuts. You hand tighten them with either a tire iron or a socket wrench if you're lazy. Sheesh!
 
nothing wrong with spending the $20 at harbor freight for a torque wrench. thats what i did. while you can certainly do the job without one, i'd rather know that i put equal, proper torque on each nut (in a criss-cross pattern of course). if i didnt have the wrench, i know id over-tighten because for me 90ft/lbs doesnt require much effort and i'd easily go over that if i didnt know any better. chances are good that someone weaker may go under so again, why not spend the $20.
 
MagnusTheBrewer said:
OK, listen up, unless you're driving a $80,000 car I wouldn't worry about using a torque wrench on your lug nuts. You hand tighten them with either a tire iron or a socket wrench if you're lazy. Sheesh!
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Right, that's why the shops all torque them with a torque wrench. Cuz they all workin on the GT-R's.
 
MJinZ said:
Right, that's why the shops all torque them with a torque wrench. Cuz they all workin on the GT-R's.
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sadly most use an impact and overtighten the piss out of them

if you have a 12 inch bar you can easily get them tight enough

I use a tq wrench because I have one, and its important. but ive done without before
 
Use this a a guide for caliper painting.

how-much-hp-does-this-add.jpg
 
MagnusTheBrewer said:
OK, listen up, unless you're driving a $80,000 car I wouldn't worry about using a torque wrench on your lug nuts. You hand tighten them with either a tire iron or a socket wrench if you're lazy. Sheesh!
Click to expand...

Au contraire, labour cost being the biggest concern these days, I would dial in the torque on the bolts/nuts as close as possible to factory spec listed in the manual.

Cost of the rotor is nothing compared to the labour.

Re-torque after 300km.
 
I Use the HF one now for $20 but for years just hand tightened. You'll be fine doing that. Just don't be too pussy footing when you do it. I can tell you that at least 1/3rd of the time I've had "professionals" put my wheels on they WAY FVCKING overtighten past spec.
 
You guys get so wrapped up in "specs" you forget that cars are meant to be driven in the real world where debris causes flats and other damage on a regular basis, most often at an inconvenient time nowhere near a shop. If you can't trust yourself to tighten the lug nuts correctly using a tire iron, stay in your basement and argue about it with folks online.
 
MagnusTheBrewer said:
You guys get so wrapped up in "specs" you forget that cars are meant to be driven in the real world where debris causes flats and other damage on a regular basis, most often at an inconvenient time nowhere near a shop. If you can't trust yourself to tighten the lug nuts correctly using a tire iron, stay in your basement and argue about it with folks online.
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure I drive quite a bit. I put 52,000km on my E350 4Matic in 20 months. 10,000 more than the previous owner did in 36 months .
 
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sdifox said:
I am pretty sure I drive quite a bit. I put 52,000km on my E350 4Matic in 20 month.
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It's a way of looking at he world. You seem to get a great deal of enjoyment from the care and feeding of your Mercedes.

Most of us enjoy driving and wrenching on more modest daily drivers. I think you should realize the demands and costs of most peoples cars are quite a bit different than what you drive. So, let us enjoy what we have in our way as you do yours.
 
MagnusTheBrewer said:
It's a way of looking at he world. You seem to get a great deal of enjoyment from the care and feeding of your Mercedes.

Most of us enjoy driving and wrenching on more modest daily drivers. I think you should realize the demands and costs of most peoples cars are quite a bit different than what you drive. So, let us enjoy what we have in our way as you do yours.
Click to expand...

I also loved driving my Mazda Protégé 5. Put 175k km in it. And I hate driving.

I am not saying carry your torque wrench around town. I am saying set it right the first time ( and the second time when you re-torque I guess) and there is one less thing to worry.

Up here we need snow tires so I pick a day and a bunch of people come over and we swap the winters on. I don't really wrench but I do maintain it as well as I can.

PS, I bought it used. Paid US$23k.
 
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