macgyver35

One of my biggest peeves is mechanics or tire shop workers that over torque the lug nuts down as if they needed to hold up one end of the Golden Gate Bridge.
I wanted to see if some other Jeep wheels I have would fit the '11 WK2 Limited I bought a couple of weeks ago, so I went to take one of the front wheels off.
The 4-way lug wrench wouldn't budge them. I grabbed my half inch torque wrench, a 1/2 to 3/8 adapter, and a 7/8 socket.
The adapter snapped before the lug nut broke loose.
I grabbed the Jeep lug nut wrench in the spare tire well. I put an 18" long 1 1/4" wrench on the end to get some extra leverage. I'm a big burly guy and I had to put nearly everything I had into that wrench to break one lug nut loose.
If you look at the pic, that black tire iron used to be straight.
It ridiculous and completely unnecessary to torque them down that much. Had I had a flat away from home I'd have never been able to change it on the roadside. My wife would have never had a chance.

I finally had to go buy a 7/8 deep well impact socket and a half inch breaker bar to just get the rest of them loose, and then properly torque them back down.

dave1123

I deal with Dunn Tire. They are a nation-wide company so IDK if you have a store in your area or not, but they torque jeep lugs to 100 lb/ft and have you come back in 25 miles for a free re-torque. I have a Millers Falls electric impact wrench made by Ingersol Rand and that's all it will generate. After Dunn torques my lugs, I can take them off with that or my cross wrench no problem. It will re-install them at that torque as well. A 1/2-20 lug will stretch at 150 lb/ft so I would replace yours ASAP. JMHO.

There have been several times in my life where I had to put a jack under the wrench to break loose a wheel lug. That's just too mucking fuch!

Bustedback

Never use a torque wrench to loosen fasteners.

macgyver35

I know. I was working with what I had.

andrewmp6

Years ago i had to change a flat tire for a friend on the side of the road.The lugs was super tight on it i ended up breaking one of the lug studs clean off it lol.I don't understand why people will take a impact with out a torque stick and run a lug nut down tell it won't move.It can cause a lot of problems like warpped rotors or even cause the rim to come off.

dave1123

To err on the other side is just as bad. My wife had 4 tires put on her K-car at Sears, then hit the road for her friend's house about 100 miles away. She got about 35 miles on the highway and the car seemed to handle funny. She got off and stopped at the nearest gas station. All 4 wheels were loose! Luckily she got it before the lug holes were worn out, and the mechanic torqued them for her. He said "Let me guess...Sears, right?" My wife was no one to mess with and she had the mechanic write it up. She went back to Sears and pitched a B****. After contacting corporate, she got a $100 prepaid Sears card. She was livid! I told her to chill and I used it to put 2 snow tires on my Chevy 2wd truck, then checked the lugs right there in the lot. I saw the manager watching me from the showroom. They were only 80 lb/ft. We haven't been back to Sears since.

Fred/N0AZZ

The lugs in fact may have been over tightened but you lacked tools at home to remove any lugs properly from an unknown car. One a high quality air impact with deep impact sockets will remove any of them, my 1/2 drive (Mac) has to be set on lower settings for tightening them as well. Second I have for over 40 yrs always carried in all my cars a truck sized 4 way lug wrench not a small one or take apart, it will remove even the most stubborn ones on the road, I suggest it for everyone who plans on changing there own tires.


As pointed out above to tight is almost and bad as to loose, they need to be torqued as required then redone after a week or so of driving/100 mi.

macgyver35

Sure, a big honking impact will make short work of just about anything. But this in no way excuses the idiot that over-tightened them in the first place.

My larger point is that, even at 5'10", a burly 240 pounds, and having forearms bigger than most guys biceps (my wife calls me Popeye), I had to go to ridiculous lengths to loosen the lug nuts, and had I been trying to do this on the side of the road, any impact wrench I had back at the house wouldn't have done me (or my wife) a darn bit of good. I shouldn't have had to destroy the Jeep-provided lug nut wrench to get them loose.

Paco182

Ridiculous stuff this. Too much torque can be as dangerous as too little. On a trip to southern Utah, the wheel studs broke off on my uncles truck from being over torqued (stretched out) at the tire shop.

Superslow

FSM for my 98 xj says the torque spec for lug nuts is 85-115 ft. lbs. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

RamboXJ

I had the wheel studs on my K10 snap off twice because of incorrect torque. Not to mention tire shops screwing things up like cross threading them. Pisses me off.

TRCM

Not true....if you need to know what it was torqued to, you have to use a torque wrench.

NOW, if your torque wrench is only calibrated in 1 direction, then yes, but most of what we buy are for both directions.


Ok, after years of hearing this, I have yet to get any one to explain HOW it warps rotors, as long as the rotor was properly seated when they were torqued. If the rotor was crooked when they were torqued, yes, the torque can bend/warp the rotor. But, if the rotor was properly seated and flat on the hub, as long as they were torqued to at least the minimum torque, the rotor will stay flat...no way for it to warp.

Can someone explain how this supposedly happens ?? In my almost 40 yrs of driving & wrenching, I've never warped a rotor, and on most of my vehicles, I tighten the lug nuts with an impact after having checked the impact for what torque it is putting at at the level I am using it.