Why the hell do they do wheel nuts up so tight!!

In some cases you can tighten the wheel nuts to the recommended settings perfectly then when the car comes in a year later you are hanging off each corner trying to undo them.

Iam looking at you VW passat.


Its far from rare for a alloy wheel and its nuts to corrode and have a welding effect in the hub, have this quite a lot with BMW's and VAG's, and you have to be a little careful with what lubes you are using to stop it happening otherwise they can loosen off later.
 
Reason #4353465 not to use kwik-fit, windy guns to do up wheel nuts. Proper mechanics use the torque wrench and a chart. Usually in the vicinity of 90Nm. Given that I've always been able to remove my wheels using the bar in the spare wheel kit. Though often my weight on the bar is not enough, have to lift it.
 
pmbuzz said:
Had the same thing when we had all that snow a while back, got a puncture, thought to myself right ill change that in a jiffy, no probs.........oh no, could not shift one of the wheel nuts as it was actually a slightly different shape/size to the others, ended up calling the aa out which took much longer than it should have, therefore spoiling my plans for the evening and incurring the wrath of the mrs who was stuck in the car waiting !!!
Click to expand...

That's the worse thing.
I can handle my plans being disrupted.
I can handle having to change a wheel in the rain.
I can handle some stupid cow going into the back of me on a roundabout.

I can not, for the love of god, handle my misses being in the car when something goes wrong. Why is it they feel the need to moan and whinge? It makes things a lot harder and more stressful. They act like it's all your fault and just make things worse. Last time I broke down a couple of years ago while waiting for the AA I called a taxi to take my misses home because I couldn't cope.
 
I've had this problem before. It isn't such a huge problem on standard wheel nuts, although I still can't see why anyone wouldn't want to follow the manufacturer guidelines for torque levels.

On a locking wheel nut, it's extremely bad sport to be undoing/doing it up with an air gun. I've seen many snap, and generally crack it off "by hand" then do it up until it bites before torquing it up with a torque wrench.
 
I had this last year on my dad's 307. Got a puncture, fortunately just round the corner from a mechanics. He came out but couldn't get the locking nut off. After about an hour we found the solution was hammer, chisel and muscle.
 
I'll either drive the car on a spare set of wheels to get tyres put on a different set which I'll swap over at home or I'll tell them to put the wheel nuts on loosely and I'll tighten them up with my breaker bar.

I've had my car and expensive wheels damaged by these idiots before so I'd rather do it myself than risk any further damage.
 
Got your socket on an old extension bar (to space it off the wheel not for leverage) and proceed to give it 5-6 sharp smacks with a big hammer!!

Easy then...
 
reefoid said:
I had this last year on my dad's 307. Got a puncture, fortunately just round the corner from a mechanics. He came out but couldn't get the locking nut off. After about an hour we found the solution was hammer, chisel and muscle.
Click to expand...

These come in useful if the locking nut shears :)
 
Last time I was at a tyre monkey place they broke my key doing the last bolt up with the air gun!:rolleyes: So they had to replace the locking bolts with normal ones. Took all of about 5 seconds per wheel to screwdriver of the rotating ring then hammer on an old socket and off they came. Pointless things anyway imho - do wheels really get stolen? And if they do, do locking nuts actually really offer any resistance? Not from what I've seen, anyway.
 
I have never had a wheel fitter do bolts all the way up with an air gun, they always do the final turns by hand.
 
Liampope said:
Last time I was at a tyre monkey place they broke my key doing the last bolt up with the air gun!:rolleyes: So they had to replace the locking bolts with normal ones. Took all of about 5 seconds per wheel to screwdriver of the rotating ring then hammer on an old socket and off they came. Pointless things anyway imho - do wheels really get stolen? And if they do, do locking nuts actually really offer any resistance? Not from what I've seen, anyway.
Click to expand...

I'd notice someone who started hammering in the middle of the night trying to get a slightly smaller socket onto a locker to steal my wheels.

Someone who just had to jack the car up and whip the wheels off I wouldn't.
 
They are off.

I got two new keys from Mcgard. one rounded off, the other survived. The locknuts are not going back on.

So that's three broken keys to undo one nut.
 
dalin80 said:
Its far from rare for a alloy wheel and its nuts to corrode and have a welding effect in the hub, have this quite a lot with BMW's and VAG's, and you have to be a little careful with what lubes you are using to stop it happening otherwise they can loosen off later.
Click to expand...

I've had that as well. Had a blow out, jacked up, took the nuts off could i getb the wheel off??

I even let the jack down and it wouldn't shift. Had to call the AA out. £70 cash later and it's off.

As an aside i reckon those nuts were up to about 500nm at least. That's me standing on aa 3ft breaker bar and still not moving. mathematically i make it nearer 800nm nut i don't beleive that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom