kunk1963

Hello Everyone, Have a Technical Question. I routinely take my wheels off to Clean them and the wheel well etc, my question: Are the Lugs and Lug Nuts effected by the number of times they are Torqued after taking the wheels off and putting them back on to get ready for Car Shows? Thanks in advance, Michael

bob guzzy

No, if there was my lug nuts would have self destructed long ago.

I rotate tires more than anyone on the planet, not on the new corvette, but if this was true my wheels would have fell off long ago

kunk1963

Thanks Bob, I used to Clean the Grand Sport that I sold in Apr all the time and never had any problems but I had a friend mention it to me so I thought I would ask just to be Safe before I start doing this with my New Z06...

Madsen

All is good. Just don't over tighten the lug nuts over spec.
If you do the nuts will strip there threads.

subfloor@centurytrans

If you insist on using a torque wrench on the lugnuts you'll have problems pretty quickly. It happened twice on my C6 and to two of my friend where the lugs either snapped off completely or got stripped inside the wheel hub.

Once we just started tightening them the old school way the problem never happened again.

ect

what's the old school way?

subfloor@centurytrans

Lug wrench, until they're tight.

NoOne

That is seriously terrible advice. Wheels must be torqued properly, not just for safety but for wheel balance.

If you do not properly torque all 5 bolts evenly, impossible to do by hand, you can run into issues cause by improper torquing like warped rotors.

There is a reason there is not only a torque spec but also a tightening pattern.

StingerBG

What he said ^^^ And IF you use the torque wrench correctly (meaning you take your time and apply proper pressure until the wrench clicks and be sure not to turn extra after the click) then you should NEVER have any problems as you will never go past the torque max for that specific bolt. Plus you really do run the risk of warping rotors and having unbalanced wheels by doing this by hand. I've seen it many times!

subfloor@centurytrans

No, it's not terrible advice at all.

Following the advice of GM lead to myself and two others getting stranded at the track.

Tightening them with a lug wrench eliminated those issues completely and never caused ANY problems whatsoever. We're not talking leisurely Sunday drives either, but rather two race cars that ran low 10 second ETs (one of them went 9.950), would trap in excess of 130MPH and cut 1.3 60ft times while simultaneously pulling the wheels off the ground.

If it was bad advice, believe me I would have experienced it.

NoOne

Makes you wonder if they tighten their parts in the transmissions to their liking or to spec.

I was really trying to be balanced in my response but it baffles me that came off the keyboard of a sponsor.

Bill Dearborn

Use a torque wrench!!! Go to a track event and you will see every experienced participant using a torque wrench to check the torque on their lug nuts each morning before they go on track.

I pull my wheels and swap them with track wheels all the time. Sometimes I have the wheels off the car several times per day. I torque them properly and recheck torque after the car has cooled after a track session to make sure they didn't loosen on the track. Lug nuts and studs will last a long time doing this.

When in installing the wheel make sure they are on properly with nothing keeping them from sitting flat against the hub. I install all of the lug nuts either by hand or with a small battery powered impact driver using the star method. Once they are all on and the wheel is properly mated with the hub I go back with a torque wrench and do the final tightening. My battery powered impact driver can only get to 50 lbs torque so the nuts are nowhere near tight enough. Lug nuts can last for many years when treating them this way.

If you are concerned about looks don't use an impact wrench to remove the nuts as the impact will tend to mar the finish on the nuts.

Bill

Mariano

Correctly tightened fasteners, i.e., torqued to specification, make use of their elastic properties, to work well they behave like springs. When load is applied, the bolt stretches and creates compressive force across the joint members.

For the more science minded:

Behavior of Bolts and Nuts
Elasticity is defined in Hooke's Law of Physics: The stress in a bolt is directly proportional to its strain. The stress-strain of a bolt has an elastic range and a plastic range. In this elastic range Hooke's Law is true.

All of the elongation applied within the elastic range is relieved when the load is removed. The amount of elongation increases when more load is applied. When a bolt is stressed beyond its proof load (maximum load under which a bolt will behave in an elastic manner), the elastic elongation changes to plastic deformation and the strain will no longer be proportional to stress.

In the plastic deformation a part of the elongation will remain after the load is removed. The point where this permanent elongation occurs is called the yield strength. The further application of load takes the bolt to a point where it begins to fail this is termed its ultimate tensile strength (UTS). At this UTS-point, if additional force is applied to the bolt it will continue to elongate until it finally breaks. The point at which the bolt breaks is called the tensile point.

kunk1963

Thanks for all Ur Responses... I use a torque Wrench every time after putting the wheels back on and snugging them up...

meyerweb

Maybe your torque wrench needed to be calibrated? It's ludicrous to believe GM's torque spec will snap the lugs GM supplies to work at that torque spec.

corvette dave

Only reason I can think of.

NoOne

Yes and you only need 3 lugs on a 5 bolt pattern too, doesn't mean its right or I would do it.

And yes, a straight line trip down the dragstrip is a leisurely drive as far as the wheels go.

SquatchMachining

This comment is gonna get some hate I think, but the main thing that destroys lugs and studs is friction.


I have used Anti-Seize on wheel studs for over 10 years. Race cars, street cars, you name it and I have never had a lug nut that was properly torqued (or any lug for that matter) come loose on its own. But time and time again, they come loose easily with no fight and the threads, both internal and external look great even after wheels have been removed hundreds of times.

Boiler_81

I would not advise doing this. The anti seize acts as a lubricant, when torquing the wheel stud to specification you will get a lot more bolt stretch when using a lubricant vs torquing it dry. It is possible to torque the stud to yield if you have lubed the treads. Torquing a bolt to yield can result is breakage of the stud.

My brother has a 1967 435 HP coupe he bought several years ago. Just after he bought it he was driving on the Interstate and had the right front lugs fail resulting in the wheel coming off. It did extensive damage to the car. We suspect the failure was the result of the previous owner over torquing the wheel studs.

10mm_

Also I have found that torquing them over and over will eventually damage the threads and require wheel stud replacement.