Should wheel bolts be fully tightened by air or by hand?
Discussion
I recently had an issue where the garage swapped my winter & summer wheels over & shortly after the car failed it's MOT as the rears had been put on the wrong side, which was satisfactorily resolved when the garage swapped them over & put it through the test again.
Fast forward 6 weeks and my car needs new front pads and discs which I planned to fit myself, but when I tried to loosen the wheel nuts they were incredibly tight, and the only way they'd move by jumping all my 15 stone on the tyre lever, and even then they only budged with some difficulty.
I then tried to loosen the locking wheel nut, & had to use so much force that it's irreparably cracked, so I rang the garage to see if he can somehow get the locking nuts off and replace the bolts, which he's going to try to do tomorrow.
So my thinking is that as one of his staff have tightened the nuts to a ridiculous degree, he should foot the bill for replacements and labour.
The forums views please.
I don't use garages that habitually use impact wrenches for tightening wheel nuts. It's poor form, damages the bolts, can damage the wheels, damage the threads and damage tools used to remove them as you've seen. There's no need to do it; you can tighten more than adequately by hand, so I see it as nothing more than laziness.
I doubt you'll get anywhere asking them to pay for replacements but from now on I would specify that you want bolts tightened properly by hand. Most good places should oblige, any that don't just stop using. Their fault if they lose your custom as a result.
I doubt you'll get anywhere asking them to pay for replacements but from now on I would specify that you want bolts tightened properly by hand. Most good places should oblige, any that don't just stop using. Their fault if they lose your custom as a result.
They'll probably wave paper at you or say it's due to a design fault in the locking nut if the others came away OK, albeit with some force
I personally hate it when a garage uses an airgun to tighten my nuts (!), the last garage I used were old school, looked up the torque settings for the wheelnuts and used a proper torque wrench
I probably go too tight when I di it as I use a breaker bar and go a little past 'fairly tight' but that's because I've had it previously where I used the wrong bolts and they started to unwind while I was driving
I personally hate it when a garage uses an airgun to tighten my nuts (!), the last garage I used were old school, looked up the torque settings for the wheelnuts and used a proper torque wrench
I probably go too tight when I di it as I use a breaker bar and go a little past 'fairly tight' but that's because I've had it previously where I used the wrong bolts and they started to unwind while I was driving
ManOpener said:
I don't use garages that habitually use impact wrenches for tightening wheel nuts. It's poor form, damages the bolts, can damage the wheels, damage the threads and damage tools used to remove them as you've seen. There's no need to do it; you can tighten more than adequately by hand, so I see it as nothing more than laziness.
I doubt you'll get anywhere asking them to pay for replacements but from now on I would specify that you want bolts tightened properly by hand. Most good places should oblige, any that don't just stop using. Their fault if they lose your custom as a result.
This. It's incredibly frustrating to think that the garage over tightened the bolts but you were the poor sod who when trying to undo the bolt broke it.I doubt you'll get anywhere asking them to pay for replacements but from now on I would specify that you want bolts tightened properly by hand. Most good places should oblige, any that don't just stop using. Their fault if they lose your custom as a result.
In my opinion air tools should only be used for REMOVING bolts not tightening them.
I should also say the garage is a Porsche independent who store & swap over a lot of winter tyres on a lot of very nice customers cars, so I would have thought they'd know what they were doing and not over tighten wheel nuts.
The other issue is that if my missus had a puncture in the middle of nowhere, there's absolutely no chance she could have got those bolts off, so from a practical point of view it's poor too.
I found a good independent tyre place, plastic sleeve used for the socket to prevent scoring the bolt recess and tightened by hand with a torque wrench.
There are still some decent family run places around who offer a more personal service, use them; they wont be around for long if we don't.
There are still some decent family run places around who offer a more personal service, use them; they wont be around for long if we don't.
I sheared 2 bolts trying to remove a wheel once after the BMW main dealer over tightened them. The service manager was adamant they wouldn't do a thing like that (despite new brakes fitted by them being the last work carried out on the car) as they were so professional. In fact they were so professional when I got home after they'd removed the sheared bolts I opened the toolkit and found they'd failed to replaced the locking when bolt key. Even when I rang them up they failed to locate it and had to order me a replacement....
Costco always use a torque wrench when refitting wheels as did the Bosch approved garage I used last week to fit some tyres I purchased elsewhere.
Costco always use a torque wrench when refitting wheels as did the Bosch approved garage I used last week to fit some tyres I purchased elsewhere.
Magic919 said:
A decent place would do the final tighten with a torque wrench. They don't need to be fat man on a bar tight on a Porsche.
No - a decent place doesn't use an air gun at all. I've seen it far too often that they use an air gun first and finish by hand, except that the torque wrench clicks as soon as they apply force because they've already over done it with the air gun.TooLateForAName said:
No - a decent place doesn't use an air gun at all. I've seen it far too often that they use an air gun first and finish by hand, except that the torque wrench clicks as soon as they apply force because they've already over done it with the air gun.
Or just don't go all the way with the air gun...rouge59 said:
and the only way they'd move by jumping all my 15 stone on the tyre lever, and even then they only budged with some difficulty.
I then tried to loosen the locking wheel nut, & had to use so much force that it's irreparably cracked,
The forums views please.
It cracked because you jumped on it, get a longer lever next time. You can apply the torque without the shock load.I then tried to loosen the locking wheel nut, & had to use so much force that it's irreparably cracked,
The forums views please.
Always a torque wrench with cleaned and lubed threads. I have a special metal tube, both to use as an extender to undo air gunned bolts, and then to beat the person who did it up FT in the first place.
ks IMO. Best practice is to re-check after 100 miles or so as well.Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff