Lug Nut Torque

I asked that same question of my Ford dealer and they said there is none. They torque all the lugs to 100 pounds. And, I always always always double-check their work. Mis-torqued lugs are the #1 cause of warped rotors.

Ry.

Thanks- I've been using 100 and I always recheck torque, too on both my vehicle. I just got my Explorer back from the dealer after they replaced the front bearing seals, and of course the lugs were all torqued to about 130 lbs, plus or minus 15 pounds!!

i think its close to 80lbs. but i'm not positive. the ford guys gave me a "free tire rotation" one time (coupon i had in the mail) so i let them do it one day. i've replaced a total of 5 studs up front and 3 in the rear because they cranked the lug nuts down too far. took me and a friend WITH breaker bars to get most of them off.. many of which completely snapped the stud in the process.

i'm good on replacing wheel studs now.

I torque mine to 95

The Factory Lug Nut spec is 100 Ft/Lbs ... but that will vary with how accurate your torque wrench is... Most FORD cars and lighter duty trucks are torqued to 100 ft/lbs... there are some exceptions though.. Like a new Escape is supposed to be 95, etc....

2 1/2 grunts on the lug wrench!

Robb

I've had manuals say from 90-100, so i do 95. works for me

i torque about 250 lug nuts a day... i know my stuff

I have never seen anyone actually use a torque wrench on a lug nut.

Off Subject...

On one of the car related shows today they were showing fasteners and how to properly torque nuts and bolts. They showed 4 examples, one with a dry bolt, one with a bolt lubed in motor oil, one bolt lubed in torque oil, and one that was lubed with torque oil and "properly" warmed up. All 4 were torqued to 100 ft/lbs. The dry bolt was really only 70 ft/lbs, the motor oil one was 50 ft/lbs, the torque oil was 95 ft/lbs and the only one that was "truly" accurate was lubed with torque oil and tightened and released 3 times with the 3rd time staying tightened to warm the bolt up and allow it to reach its full stretching potential.

I have been a diesel mechanic for 9 years, I went to school for 10 months and never had it been explained like that to me.

Did anybody else see that show?

I don't lube bolts, but I do double or triple torque them.

it is actually our company policy to have 2 people with different torque wrenches torque down the wheels on a vehicle...

Originally posted by aldive
I have never seen anyone actually use a torque wrench on a lug nut.

Click to expand...

That's because you've never watched my rotate mine or my Wife's tires After having my '95 T-bird's rotors warp 3 times in the 25K that I owned it, I make it a habit of using my torque wrench any time I have my tires off for some reason or another. The guy we bought my Wife's '93 Sable from told us he had to have the front rotors resurfaced and the rear brakes adjusted about every 10K-15K miles since the rear brake shoes never adjusted. The first thing I did when I got the car home was loosen up the lugs and torque them to the proper specs. I also instructed my Wife to use the parking brake every time she parks since that is what my Ford Service CD says that it takes to adjust the rear brakes. My Wife has put about 30K on the car so far and the rotors have not been turned. The only time they have been turned on my Explorer was when I did the brakes.

I use my impact wrench on the lightest setting and then go around and torque everything to 100 ft/lbs. Haven't had a warped rotor since my T-Bird. I thought it odd that every time my T-bird's rotors warped it was within a couple of months of having some service done on the wheels.

I have also noticed that the Discount Tires that I use also use a torque wrench whenever they reinstall the tires. Not enough shops do it though.

since we are a shop, we use impact guns to put the lugs on.... but we use torque-sticks with them.... the one for the x is blue and is set too 80 ft/lbs... if the gun has too much output and exceeds the 80, it snaps the stick into a bunch of pieces i have snapped one before.. not fun... good thing for safety googles

I'm to the point of not trusting shop w/ putting my wheel's on unless I've been there b4 and I know they torque correctly. We have a pretty big air compressor in our garage w/ an impact wrench, there's been a couple of time's that our impact wrench on it highest setting wouldn't get the lug-nut off. If u can't get the lug-nut off w/ an impact wrench, w/ the psi set up too high, how on earth could u get it off in the night, on the side of the road, w/ the crappy tool's Ford supplies to change a tire?

My friend wanted some help w/ his 99 Jetta, and I had to take his front wheel off for better access. The impact wrench couldn't get it, I turned the psi up (I know it bad, but it was at night and I didn't want to have to jack his car up again in the morning), still nothing. Got my dad's breaker bar out, broke one loose, on the second lug-nut I broke the actual impact socket. My friend and I thought it was pretty cool because neither of us had broken an impact socket b4, let alone w/o an impact wrench. Then my dad came out to help, he didn't think it was as cool.

So now whenever I have a place do something w/ my wheel's I make sure that they aren't over tightened, and if they are I make them re-torque my lug-nuts.

Originally posted by Rob_B
how on earth could u get it off in the night, on the side of the road, w/ the crappy tool's Ford supplies to change a tire?

Click to expand...

there is NO way i could have gotten mine off after the dealership overtorqued them. 2 folks with breaker bars having a hell of a time with them is not good. i'm guessing it has more to do with them stripping the threads and just forcing the lugs on than anything.

How does it work in a racing situation such as a NASCAR pit stop when they change 4 tires and refuel and make chasis adjustmwnts in about 15 seconds?

The tire guys use a special impact wrench, powered by N2 and set at over 100 ft pounds of torque, but they don't manually check nut torque.

How does it work in a racing situation such as a NASCAR pit stop

Click to expand...

Worst case they are only going a couple hundred miles on each set of tires. And they occasionally lose a tire here and there.

Most torque values stated ANYWHERE are for lubed threads, unless stated otherwise, are they not?

At any rate, I lube mine with anti-seize and torque to the minimum value...