Warning* retourque your lug nuts after 50 miles

[Splorin' 461]

I know thats general knowlege but in all my years of brake jobs, tire rotations and oter maintenance I've never actually done it. Not once and never had any trouble.

The story: (you already know it ends with loose lugs)
A month ago I got four new tires at a local Firestone shop. A week and a half ago I replaced my rotors, brake pads, bled the fluid and changed the parking brakes in my garage.
When I went to start my brake job obviously the first thing you do is loosen the lugs. On every wheel all five lugs were "finger tight". I thought "those A-holes at Firestone didn't tourque em". After I finish up each wheel I drop it to the ground and make sure to tourque each lug to spec, twice.
Yesturday on the way home from work after a few miles I think I feel some new vibration... no its just in my mind...
A few more miles, no there is definitely a new vibration...
A few more miles, now its lightly thumping but everything is running fine What is this?!
A few more miles, HOLY ****! The Thumping is LOUD the vheicle is shaking! What happened?! There must be absolute carnage under the front end!!! I'm a moron for not stopping earlier! This is going to be beyond my ablity and it's going to cost THOUSANDS!!!
I press on because at this point the damage is done, I'm only a short distance from home, a shop I trust is just blocks from my place and my daughter is home alone.
The X is just thumping away HARD as I limp into the shop. I park, hop out and immediatly look for damage under the front end. I'm expecting to see rods hanging everywhere and fluids of every kind spilt. I see NOTHING! What?! how can this be?! I start shaking things and seacrching everywhere, nothing. This must me something internal that cant bee seen and its going to be bad.
I leave it in the hands of the shop and walk home. A couple hours later they call and tell me that my lugs are loose and I nearly lost the front driver side wheel and say that every lug on the Explorer is "finger tight". This is embaressing... I explain how they were all loose when I did my brakes after the new tires. The mechanic tells me that all the studs are still in good shape and the wheel is fine (no ovaling) thankfully.
So now here I am, an embaressed idiot who didnt bother to retorque his lugs warning you not to learn your lesson the way I did. It could have been much worse.

 

[Tech By Trade]

Funny you should mention this. I just had to replace a missing lugnut on the rear driver of my truck after the summer to winter swap. Luckily it was the only loose one.

 

[drdoom]

My question is what was the torque setting when you installed them?

 

[Splorin' 461]

I acutally wasnt sure of the torque spec. In my experiance its usually 100 or 110 foot pounds so I split the diffrence with 105.

 

[guy48065]

I acutally wasnt sure of the torque spec. In my experiance its usually 100 or 110 foot pounds so I split the diffrence with 105.

I'm surprised they would loosen with that much torque applied. Are you sure you didn't use an inch-pound wrench? ;-)

Is that the spec for steel or alloy wheels?

 

[drdoom]

105 is what I heard as well, been setting mine at 100 foot pounds.

 

[Splorin' 461]

I'm surprised they would loosen with that much torque applied. Are you sure you didn't use an inch-pound wrench? ;-)

Is that the spec for steel or alloy wheels?

Haha!
No, there was NO possiblity of mistaking inch pounds for foot pounds.

 

[swshawaii]

Unlikely the reason, but did you use anti seize or grease on the lug nuts? Probably wouldn't hurt to check the caliper anchor plate
bolts after replacing rotors, 100-155 ft/lbs. :scratch: is VERY tight. Cleaning the treads with a wire wheel and using a drop of red Loctite probably not a bad idea, especially if the bolts were reused.

Tighten your caliper bracket bolts!
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192818

Brake Disc Removal and Installation (100 OR 155 ft/lbs.) :scratch:
https://www.scribd.com/doc/259822382/front-disc-brake-removal-and-installation-pdf
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3075480&postcount=2

 

[Splorin' 461]

I wouldnt want to tighten those caliper bolts up to 122 ftlbs. They certainly wernt that tight when I took em off.

 

[swshawaii]

Oops! 122 ft/lb. spec above is for 2008. Anchor plate bolts for 2003 is 155 ft/lbs. Your call. GL

Need some info on 2002 caliper torque specs and reassembly
http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=375453&highlight=caliper+bolts+torque

 

[Splorin' 461]

So torque until the head snaps off...

 

[Exproblems]

Unlikely the reason, but did you use anti seize or grease on the lug nuts? .com/forums/showpost.php?p=3075480&postcount=2[/url]

I've used "anti seize compound" on my wheel studs for decades on several vehicles and never once had the lug nuts loosen up on me. It all comes down to having good wheel studs, lug nuts and proper lug nut torque. A long handled breaker bar comes in handy when applying the torque to the lug nuts. It works for me!

 

[Splorin' 461]

Follow up

The mechanic said "The threads of your lug nuts have worn out. Techincally they are supposed to be replaced every ten times you take off the wheel but no one, including myself would ever do that. Get new lugs and you shouldn't have a problem".

Ive never heard that rule before, maybe ifs Ford specific, Ive also never had trouble with lugs comeing loose, ever. Worn out Lugs seems legit to me.

 

[Onuma]

Techincally they are supposed to be replaced every ten times you take off the wheel

I've never heard of that rule. It sounds like partial-BS, rooted in a loosely-understood truth.

It may be true that your lugs are wearing out, but I don't think taking them off 10 times (or any other arbitrary number) is the sole culprit. Possible bad metallurgy, corrosion, contamination, etc., are more likely to blame than frequency or quantity of tightening/loosening.

At the end of the day, replacing the lugs is a simple step and it couldn't hurt. Neither could some Loctite Blue. I wouldn't go with Red unless you plan on using a heat gun or torch every time you want to remove the wheel lugs -- that actually might cause them to wear out faster.

(in case of any confusion, here's the difference between the various colors: http://us.henkel-adhesives-blog.com...ween-Red-Blue-Green-and-Purple-Threadlockers/ )

 

[drdoom]

Never wore one out, not one, although I do see their point, technically the lugs are wearing constantly, but is it appreciable?. Only time I've ever replaced any was when some toolbox at the tire shop crossthreads them. Then the stories begin...welllll, they were already like that, or some other load of bunk. Having personally mounted thousands of tires from go kart to 18 wheeler I don't waste my time fussin' or listening to the static anymore, I just fix it when I get home. Everybody makes mistakes, you just have to move on.

 

[drdoom]

I would like to add that when you replace hubs, wheels, rotors, studs, or any part of that assembly, you should ALWAYS carefully re-torque just as the title of this thread states. Also be mindful of any contamination in the layers, rust in particular, anything that interferes with precise mating of hub, rotor, wheel, and lugs. And of course be it overkill or not, re-torquing is really not a bad practice. Good peace of mind.