Barn996

Decided to take off the Blizzaks and 17" twists this am and put on my 18" summer wheels and tires. Skied my last day yesterday and somehow that signified a time to change from winter to summer tires. While there I checked pad thicknesses and rotors (all good) and wiped off the calipers. Used anti-seize on the lug bolts and torqued to 92 ft.lbs. Put 36psi in the fronts and 38psi in the rears.

sweet victory

This is going to be good. Why'd you use anti seize?

Sneaky Pete

Good for you Steve! I've had mine off for about 3 weeks and I'll be cutting the grass tomorrow.

jennifer911

What a coincidence. The driver from the Porsche dealer (just 2 minutes ago) picked up his Majesty’s GTS to have the summer/winter wheels switched over. Because ‘center lock wheels’ the dealer keeps the off-season wheels locked up in their 5-star tire hotel. The first year or two they stored and changed them for free, but now the charge is horrendous. I wonder what kind of big deal it would be to just get a big wrench etc and keep the snows at home. The convenience factor alone would be worth it.

We don’t have much snow here, but the temp does drop to freezing and it rains all the time. The Pirelli Sottozeros won’t handle deep snow like your Blizzaks but seem perfect on light snow and have super traction on cold wet frosty pavement. Also, they handle fine on dry pavement and seem to wear like iron. We also skied over the Easter weekend and took the Porsche, as it was the only car handy that still had snow tires. The snow that was forecast didn’t materialize, but at reasonable speeds, the Pirellis ran fine on the warm dry road and were much quieter than the max performance summer tires.

Astro

Just did mine 3 weeks ago and have been a much happier driver ever since. Car handles much better, although I feel the crappy roads a lot more due to the lower profile of the summer tires. I just do the hand tighten with the lug wrench... Maybe it's time to get a torque wrench ??? But I've not had any issues.

brad@tirerack.com

I'm kinda bummed to be taking my snows off. I like em squishy and comfy!

johneecatt

What is this 'snow' you speak of...???

JMLavoie

Barn;
Did the same on Good Friday but I believe it calls for 96 lb-ft/130 (metric).
You might be a bit low at 92 lb-ft.

Barn996

Ooops, guess my memory is fading. Thanks for the info, I'll torque today to 96 ft. lbs..

Dharn55

I thought about taking off my winter wheels and tires the other day when it was 70 degrees out, along with the hardtop. Then decided to wait a week or two.

IT SNOWED TODAY! That's Chicago weather.

jennifer911

Barn, my dad serviced and repaired antique and vintage cars in his shop. He would curse people who used anti seize on lug threads and the bolt head seat. 90 ft lb measured on a torque wrench will tighten down and put a certain amount of stretch on a dry or lightly oiled bolt/stud. The extreme pressure qualities of anti seize mean that the same reading on a torque wrench will put much more tension and stretch on the same fastener. This sometimes caused the studs etc to break when he tried to remove them.

As you know a torque wrench gives a very indirect reading depending on the amount of friction in the threads, washers, and the backside of the bolt head. Somewhere in an engineering manual will be two torque settings one for normal and one for anti-seize coated bolts.

balefire

No torque wrench doesn't sound safe.
Worst case scenario could be something like this.

balefire

Same thoughts. Same delay. Can't wait for Chicago real spring!

jennifer911

Balefire, maybe this calamity was caused ‘BY’ the use of a torque wrench. In the old days your helpers, installing race wheels at the autocross venue, would have spun on the lug nuts and then tightened them good N tight with any old lug wrench handy.

With today’s keen understanding of the importance of proper torquing protocol, maybe the car owner instructed the helpers to just spin the nuts on finger tight. Himself, or the head mechanical guy was then meant to come by with a torque wrench to finish the job. Was this good example of Murphy’s Law in action? Or maybe some payback sabotage?

Dennis C

Nice.... My snows are still on, but I did ski in Vail yesterday and Keystone today.