Ugh wheels tightened by an ape

Ugh wheels tightened by an ape

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Discussion

AW111

9,455 posts

132 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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Bennet said:
I keep a cross brace in every car for this reason. I've never yet had one I couldn't undo with a cross brace. You can apply some serious turning force with a hand at each end. They're about £6 delivered from ebay.
I had a puncture once on a dirt road in outback Queensland : not waay outback, but we had not seen another car all day.
Even with a wheelbrace, I ended up propping the free end up and bouncing my full weight on the cross arm to crack the wheelnuts free. I could never have got the wheel off with the standard socket thingy.
I have a wheelbrace in one vehicle, and a nifty extending handle socket extension in the other.

McSam

6,753 posts

174 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
quotequote all
Bennet said:
I keep a cross brace in every car for this reason. I've never yet had one I couldn't undo with a cross brace. You can apply some serious turning force with a hand at each end. They're about £6 delivered from ebay.
About as much as you would with one hand on a bar twice as long. Which would still only be half as long as the one I keep in my car for cracking wheel bolts.

The recent spate of monkeys gunning bolts on and then getting an immediate click with the torque wrench really pisses me off. I have before now made one crack them off and do it again, properly.

Otispunkmeyer

12,553 posts

154 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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garage once did the bolts up on my Focus' wheels so tight that when I came to swap a flat, I actually broke the little wrench tool you got in the spare wheel kit. Basically rounded the socket out completely, misshaping and splitting it on one side. I know they're made of cheese, and are generally "use half a dozen times" if you're lucky, but in this case it was totally ineffectual!

Had to then go buy a proper set of sockets to do it and it required 2 people leaning on the damn thing to get them moving.

If that had happened on the hard shoulder....nightmare.

m3jappa

6,391 posts

217 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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I had this on my tipper truck, not a single one would undo despite various bars and heating them up. I took it to my mates garage where they managed to undo all but a couple on one wheel which broke the bit on the gun (was a snap on bit) . needless to say I'm dreading that tyre or brake disc or pads to need replacement.

pfsv427sc01

84 posts

147 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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Apparently, Kwik-fit have a procedure that prohibits the use of a gun to tighten the nuts and requires the nut to be hand tughtened and torqued using a torque wrench, then have it checked by another tyre fitter.

I was told this was because using the pneumatic gun, know-one could guarantee the torque was not too high or too low and there had been an accident after a tyre had been changed at a tyre centre somewhere in Europe.

I have just had some tyres fitted here in France and have to take the car back because I cannot undo the bolts !

pfsv427sc01

84 posts

147 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
quotequote all
Apparently, Kwik-fit have a procedure that prohibits the use of a gun to tighten the nuts and requires the nut to be hand tughtened and torqued using a torque wrench, then have it checked by another tyre fitter.

I was told this was because using the pneumatic gun, know-one could guarantee the torque was not too high or too low and there had been an accident after a tyre had been changed at a tyre centre somewhere in Europe.

I have just had some tyres fitted here in France and have to take the car back because I cannot undo the bolts !

RobM77

35,349 posts

233 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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McSam said:
Bennet said:
I keep a cross brace in every car for this reason. I've never yet had one I couldn't undo with a cross brace. You can apply some serious turning force with a hand at each end. They're about £6 delivered from ebay.
About as much as you would with one hand on a bar twice as long. Which would still only be half as long as the one I keep in my car for cracking wheel bolts.

The recent spate of monkeys gunning bolts on and then getting an immediate click with the torque wrench really pisses me off. I have before now made one crack them off and do it again, properly.
yes I've got a cross brace and have often found I can't undo wheelnuts fitted by tyre fitters. I normally need to use a 1-1.5m long pipe that I have slipped over a wrench, and even that needs moderate force applied at the end to undo tough nuts (more than you need on a standard sized torque wrench to apply the correct torque! Ergo their torque is about four times the manufacturer's recommendation...)

soad

32,825 posts

175 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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Do you pump iron, OP? Go to gym so you can build overdeveloped shoulders (and arms!). wink


JB!

5,254 posts

179 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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Or just stand on a bar?

they should give with a bounce on a manufacturer supplied brace, from a fairly light person

vinnie01

Original Poster:

863 posts

118 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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soad said:
Do you pump iron, OP? Go to gym so you can build overdeveloped shoulders (and arms!). wink
Maybe i should I'm 5 feet 4 and 57 kg

TurboHatchback

4,151 posts

152 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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I often turn my impact wrench to its lowest setting to quickly spin the nuts on then torque them properly afterward. Not the same thing as blasting them mega tight then going round and clicking the wrench which I have seen many tyre places do.

vinnie01 said:
soad said:
Do you pump iron, OP? Go to gym so you can build overdeveloped shoulders (and arms!). wink
Maybe i should I'm 5 feet 4 and 57 kg
Therein may lie your problem. More pies and lifting iron would sort that out wink.

McSam

6,753 posts

174 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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TurboHatchback said:
I often turn my impact wrench to its lowest setting to quickly spin the nuts on then torque them properly afterward. Not the same thing as blasting them mega tight then going round and clicking the wrench which I have seen many tyre places do.
yes My impact gun is fairly moderate, and when I'm putting wheels on I can gun it up really briefly to one or two rattles. This then leaves about an eighth of a turn before the specified 110Nm, which is perfect. Minimum effort with the torque wrench, no danger of overtightening.

irfan1712

1,239 posts

152 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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I think its now common place for garages to over tighten nuts and bolts on the wheels..just the way it goes.

what really does grip me is when they use the gun to over tighten the locking wheel nut. it should be done by hand and is used as a security measure over keeping the wheel locked solid on the hub like the other 4... Using a locking nut key that has worn teeth on an over tightened locking nut involves an extraordinary amount of F'ing and Blinding to get off!

ShiresV2

36 posts

166 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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I snapped the head off a 2' breaker bar trying to undo the wheels on the missus' Volvo. It took a 6' length of pipe and a cross brace to get them undone and it was like a gun being fired when each came undone, which left the ears ringing.

They'd been done up tight as a bstrd and from the poof of smoke that came out when each came undone, it seemed like the tapered head of the steel bolts had welded themselves to the magnesium/aluminium face of the wheel (galvanic corrosion I think they call it?). I applied copperslip to the tapered surface on the bolts and no problem since.

J4CKO

41,273 posts

199 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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It isn't the normal wheel nuts that bother me, its when a locking bolt it done up to these levels as they arent really designed or practical to be standing on a huge lever with,being a much shallower fit, the two parts inevitably separate and damage is done.

Beati Dogu

8,861 posts

138 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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These days I always carry a steel pipe to slip on the end of the spanner for extra leverage (honestly officer). What I believe the Americans call a cheater bar.

I've been stuck before because I couldn't get the damn wheel nuts off. Even bouncing my full weight on the end of the standard jack, all I achieved was a bent jack. I had to call dad's cabs out that time. laugh

Fastdruid

8,623 posts

151 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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ShiresV2 said:
They'd been done up tight as a bstrd and from the poof of smoke that came out when each came undone, it seemed like the tapered head of the steel bolts had welded themselves to the magnesium/aluminium face of the wheel (galvanic corrosion I think they call it?). I applied copperslip to the tapered surface on the bolts and no problem since.
Er. That's not a good idea. The torque setting will be for a specified condition (eg probably dry, clean nuts/bolts) to achieve a specified clamping force by using copperslip on them you have reduced the friction and so effectively massively over-tightened them...

mat205125

17,790 posts

212 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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Podie said:
RobM77 said:
3. Most people these days won't do wheelnuts themselves, it'll just be tyre centres and garages doing them with powered tools, which will happily undo a 300lb-ft wheel nut.
This.

People are too lazy and just use powered tools.
I always make sure to ask what PSI my tyres will be inflated to, and what torque the wrench is set at ........

PhillipM

6,515 posts

188 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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I'll take one torqued against copperslip over one torqued against corrosion any day of the week.

SirSquidalot

4,039 posts

164 months

Tuesday 26th May 2015
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Changing a wheel on my mums C1 a while back, i managed to snap the wheel brace that comes with the car! Had to use another wheel brace putting all my weight on that and pulling up with the force of 1000 gladiators, all to nearly smack myself in the face when it cracked loose!