Should wheel bolts be fully tightened by air or by hand?

[Pints]

Hand or airgun, you ask? I put forward the foot, as used by my FiL, who uses his 100kg behind his size 10 to be absolutely sure the nut can never be removed again.

[Patrick Bateman]

I take it he doesn't anticipate any flat tyres?

[BritishRacinGrin]

xxChrisxx said:

It cracked because you jumped on it, get a longer lever next time. You can apply the torque without the shock load.

Always a torque wrench with cleaned and lubed threads.

Can of worms opened. You'll get mixed opinions on this but in my opinion, unless the handbook specifically mentions it, wheel bolts / studs shouldn't be lubricated. Lubricating them will cause much higher tensile load for a given tightening torque. Personally I lubricate hub flanges but not wheel bolts / studs.

[mwstewart]

Technically you can get them on at a sufficient torque if you're handy with the tools, be it air gun or ratchet, but most garages just do them up FT.

[supertouring]

doogz said:

I use my cordless drill, with a 1/2" square adaptor, set at a low torque setting, to put the nuts on. Then tighten on the ground with a torque wrench.

Works for me too.

Had a three locking wheelnuts break after visit to garage as they did them up too tight. Was a bugger to get them off after that.

Getting the ordinary nuts off with a breaker bar was also a challenge.

[Patrick Bateman]

BritishRacinGrin said:

Can of worms opened. You'll get mixed opinions on this but in my opinion, unless the handbook specifically mentions it, wheel bolts / studs shouldn't be lubricated. Lubricating them will cause much higher tensile load for a given tightening torque. Personally I lubricate hub flanges but not wheel bolts / studs.

As far as I know, the BMW manuals I've had specify dry bolts. How much difference it will actually make I'm not so sure though.

[xxChrisxx]

BritishRacinGrin said:

Can of worms opened. You'll get mixed opinions on this but in my opinion, unless the handbook specifically mentions it, wheel bolts / studs shouldn't be lubricated. Lubricating them will cause much higher tensile load for a given tightening torque. Personally I lubricate hub flanges but not wheel bolts / studs.

You have loads of fat with wheel bolts, so lubed + torqued correctly vs a gorilla gunning them on. You

Having had bolts seize on me in the past, I'll just lightly coppaslip them. The benefits outweigh the downside of breaking ze rules.

Edited by xxChrisxx on Thursday 19th June 18:16

[Klippie]

Wheel nuts/bolts off - breaker bar with tape wrapped around the socket.

Re-fitting - cordless drill and torque by hand and check after 100 miles.

As for lub or not on the threads...I always put a little on the threads and mating face to the wheel.

Air impact guns are a no-no unless they are torque selectable.

[buggalugs]

steveo3002 said:

how about the meat heads that roar them on with the airgun set to 1,000000 ft lbs . then check them with a torque wrench ( torque wrench doesnt loosen them lol)

Ha ha yes, what are they hoping to do with the torque wrench after they've had their finger on the air gun trigger till the air ran out

[lbc]

I used to use a great mechanic, whom always used torque wrench and balanced wheels perfectly.

Sadly the business went bankrupt, and so far not found anyone that can balance wheels properly or uses a torque wrench.

[Magic919]

TooLateForAName said:

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.

Funny enough, I didn't mention air tools. The place I use doesn't have any.

[daveenty]

A couple of weeks ago I had no option but to go to a local chain, initially to have them look at a puncture, ultimately replaced with a new pair of tyres as it wasn't repairable.

The guys were spot on: Jacked the car up, no air gun touched it, all done with a wheel brace/bar and a (wrapped) socket. Asked me what tyre pressure was preferred and even asked what I usually torqued them up to.

Their national TV advert suggests that you can't get better than their fitters and, on this occasion, I would agree.

When doing my own for cleaning and things, I use a gun to tighten and loosen them (because I'm lazy), but always start and finish with a wheel brace and torque wrench.

[motco]

steveo3002 said:

how about the meat heads that roar them on with the airgun set to 1,000000 ft lbs . then check them with a torque wrench ( torque wrench doesnt loosen them lol)

Quite, and when they do use the torque wrench they lean on it beyond the 'click' point thus negating the torque setting in the first place!




Or they leave them loose......

[blank]

Always loosen and re-torque my wheel bolts after it's had any work where the wheels were removed. Wouldn't want to be stuck when I actually needed the wheel off.

[P I Staker]

I do bolts/nuts up with the gun, until they're holding the wheel tight but not fully tightened. With a bit of experience you get to know your gun and how long to blip the trigger for. I then torque them.


ETA: Never broken a locking wheel key with an air gun. I have broken them by hand after seeing they're damaged and deciding not to use the gun.

Edited by P I Staker on Thursday 19th June 19:49

[stargazer30]

I've had to break of two sets of lock nuts on previous cars due to muppets using air hammers on them. These days the lock nut comes off before the car goes in so they can't F it up.

[g3org3y]

GC8 said:

Corpulent Tosser said:

Th tyre place I go to uses a torque wrench to tighten the wheel nuts, that is how it should be.

That's spot on, but pretty rare.

I agree. After having had my own experience of overtightened nuts (ooh eer!) only released (just) with a long breaker bar, I always insist on tightening with a torque wrench. It is very very frustrating to get a flat and be unable to remove the wheel.

My local tyre chap (£10/corner fit and balance) uses a torque wrench.

[philoldsmobile]

Typical torque for a wheel nut is around 100 lbs/ft. To put that in context, the crappy little wheel brace supplied by the manufacturer is normally around a foot long, so 2/3rds the body weight of a fairly small adult male like me is about right. Anyone fitting wheels with any kind of air tool set at anything more than its lowest setting is a shocking meat head of the worst kind. Personally I'd rather not see any kind of air tool used in fitting, as it smacks of rushing the job, I'd rather pay a bit more and have it done properly.

A torque wrench is a measuring tool, and it's shocking how few tyre centres use them correctly.

Edited by philoldsmobile on Thursday 19th June 20:06

[ViperDave]

So I'm being overly anal but tightening them up to half torque in an opposites patten around the hub ending on the locking nut and then repeating going to full torque in the same patten, all with a torque wrench only ever used for doing things up! I do use a cordless drill with socket adapter to whiz them on to hold the wheel though.

[mondeoman]

Definitely no lube, you'll be over tightening them by quite a bit. You don't need a lot of torque to get the right clamping load, alloy wheels should only be 60 odd lbft anyway.