Wheel bolts almost welded on!

[Rory]

Having had a rear wheel come off while driving i torque my wheels every week.

Was quite surprised in the day and age that a very well regarded local tyre place didn't torque the bolts on daughter's Golf when I took it for new tyres.

You'd think they'd go through the show of doing it if nothing else.

 

[tanuie]

Whenever i have new tyres i insist they use a torque wrench.

 

[Rory]

Whenever i have new tyres i insist they use a torque wrench.

To be fair (to the tyre place not using one) they're not very accurate anyway, and, as already mentioned in the thread, greatly affected by whether the bolt threads are dry or greased.

An experienced tyre fitter doing it by feel may well be a better bet.

 

[markjay]

...An experienced tyre fitter doing it by feel may well be a better bet.

This is probably true for all bolts and nuts apart from head bolts.... torque wrenches allow anyone to properly tighten bolts without having to gain the necessary experience required for tightening bolts without it, thus reducing production costs and increasing standardisation.

The obvious problem for consumers is that we have no way of knowing if the tyre fitters have the relevant experience or not... which is why seeing them use a torque wrench is reassuring.

Incidentally ATS used a torque wrench when they fitted my Dunlops - well done to them.

 

[190]

Grease will cause the bolts to be over-stretched.

Not if the torque setting is reduced to compensate for the reduction in friction. It's basic engineering knowledge that torque values are reduced when any type of lubricant is added to threads even Loctite.

The dilemma is if you adopt a lubricant approach including a lower torque value how do you stop someone else who works on the car from using the standard torque value or of course a higher value.

 

[spike60]

That's a bold statement. That would take some holding as well.

Snap On 1/2 inch air impact guns are rated at 1200 lb/f, about 1500 N/m. They take no holding as they work on impact, not torque like a household drill does. I regularly use 1 inch impact guns for work, huge torque but no torque reaction.

 

[optimusprime]

My last job i shipped caravans all over the country for a living along with cleaning them and servicing . First thing i did after picking the caravan up, that had to be delivered,, was check all the wheel bolts.And to check the jockey wheel was inflated and locked in to the right possition for travelling. You see we did have wheels come off new caravans after servicing them.

 

[markjay]

My last job i shipped caravans all over the country for a living along with cleaning them and servicing . First thing i did after picking the caravan up, that had to be delivered,, was check all the wheel bolts.And to check the jockey wheel was inflated and locked in to the right possition for travelling. You see we did have wheels come off new caravans after servicing them.

From memory, the official advise is to always re-torque wheel bolts after 2,000 (I think) miles.

 

[optimusprime]

And allways after a service . Then again before a trip .

 

[optimusprime]

I took my wheels to the tyre depot in my other car , one at a time .This was after i had refurbed them .I put a lot of work into the wheels to get them right .The chap who did 3 of them was very good .Then on my 4th visit he was out to diner .So the manager did the last one.He managed to damage it ,so not very happy when i returned home to find it scratched . This was the reason i took them one a a time so i could fit them back on the car myself.

 

[ICarr]

Thanks for the thread I thought I'd lost my strength last night trying to get my nuts off!!! Copper greasing this weekend!!!

 

[whitenemesis]

Vaseline would be much kinder....