phil74501

I bought some phone dials off of Ebay for my car. Wheels and tires for $300 plus shipping. I tried to put them on today. The freakin' lug nuts were on so tight that I couldn't even budge three of them on one wheel. And I didn't even try the other three wheels. The tire and brake shop that I go to was the last ones to have the wheels off of it. So it had to be them. And I was so looking forward to putting them on today.

BeerBurner

There seems to be a lot of tire shop griping today...

edit: whoops! This isn't OT so you probably have no clue what I'm talking about... Anyway, sorry to hear about the jackasses working on the car! I've had problems with these people in the past...

BB.

sharky47

When I went to have a nail hole repaired a few weeks ago, I brought my own torque wrench and socket. I removed and installed the wheel/tire, all the shop did was the actual repair. Other than filling it to 50lbs of air, they did a satisfactory job.

phil74501

Well it took about an 12 foot long wrench and lots of elbow grease...but I got 'em on. I've wanted phone dials for a long time. The tire shop I go to is one of the best around here. I guess the kid working the air wrench got a little over zealous. Oh and I may have exagerated a bit about the length of the wrench I used.

hockeydude

so...What happened to the BBS???....

AR10

When you have anybody work on the wheels, insist on tightening the lugnuts by hand only
with a torque wrench and in a criss cross (star) pattern. This will stop most problems with warped rotors and other problems.

phil74501

They're sitting in yard.

TRWright

I recently had the same problem on my Rover---twisted the stock tire-iron like a friggen pretzel. . . .

Kevin Baker

Not trying to excuse poor workmanship, but when you consider the possible outcomes, I'd rather have them a bit too tight. How would you like to see the evening news with a story of a wheel coming off a car on the freeway killing a family whose car it struck after bouncing off the retaing wall at 70 mph and possibly killing the people in the car it came off of. They should ALWAYS be hand torqued.

hockeydude

Do you want them to be sitting in your yard? i could help you out if that's a problem....

phil74501

I live on a dead end street in a small town. I think they're pretty safe. Plus they aren't more than 25 feet from my window. Well within range...if you know what I mean.

I just left them sitting there because I had to take out the new tires for a test drive. You know see how much different the 15's handled compared to the 16's.
By the time I got back it was almost dark and I needed something cold to drink.

Really haven't decided what to do with them yet. Probably take them to the salvage yard or sell them on Ebay.

SchnellerUmsetzer

85-90 lbs of torque witht a soft socket!

smlporsche

Actually you should have them torqued to 94 ft. / lbs.

It's also a good idea to put a light coating of copper based anti sieze paste on the studs first. That way you can get the proper torque settings and they will not be that hard to get off next time (From the Porsche 944 workshop manual)

tifosiman

I worked a similar case for a not-to-be-named national chain. They rotated the tires on a minivan, and forgot to check the right rear wheel. The woman left the business, picked up her kids from the baby sitter, and headed home. The right rear wheel came off while she was driving over an overpass. The minivan spun, and slammed into the concrete railing. The railing prevented the van from falling to the road below, but one of her children in the back was not strapped in, and she flew thru the side glass window and fell to her death onto the highway below.

Wheel-offs are a big concern in the automotive service industry, so shops will tend to err on the side of the lugs being too tight.