Thaddeus

Hey,

Just dodged a little bullet.

One of the things that "brightened" my days when I first bought my 928 was, somebody had put the lug nuts on with an air wrench. When I went to remove them, 5 out of 20 nuts sheered off, leaving the "head" of the nut down against the wheel. There's a Porsche-approved way of dealing with this, involving hole saws... NO, you do not want to go there. I was pretty much all 'funned out' by the time matters were back in order, let me tell you.

So today I am nitpicking my new (to me) 993 and decided I'd remove the nuts and put some anti-seize in there. Good thing I did! Many of them were too tight, and one would not come loose with only a hand wrench. No way. If I'd had a flat on the road, it would have been "tow time". I had to use my air wrench to remove it. Thank God none sheered, and I had spare lug nuts on hand to replace the ones that were over torqued.

Whoever put those things on there used an air wrench. I suspect it may well have been a Porsche-certified tech, too, because the car recently had the pads and rotors replaced before I bought the car. The work was done, I understand, at a local Porsche dealership. I have no proof, so will withhold the name of the dealership, but I know where I will NOT be taking my car for service unless I can saunter into the service bay periodically to "inspect" what's being done...

Why Lord. Oh why? Why can't people just do their jobs the way they are SUPPOSED to be done?

BobbyT

I had a similar experience with my Lexus RX300 when it was newish. I noticed a low tire with a nail in it while the car was parked in my garage, so I thought I'd just take the wheel off and run it down to the tire shop for repair. I broke a Snap-On 3/8 extension trying to loosen the lug nuts. Wound up calling AAA, and their guy had a hard time using an X-shaped lug wrench and all his strength. The nuts had to be somewhere north of 200 ft/lbs, from the factory.

I took the wheel to Lexus, with smoke coming out of my ears, and showed the service manager where I had dinged the wheel when the tool broke. Lexus really came through--replaced the wheel, and gave me a new tire.

Thaddeus

That's good to know.

Slow Guy

For lug nut removal nothing beats the Gorilla Bar, expands out to add leverage. Costs less than $15. It comes w/ 2/4 size sockets but the soft sockets fit on the end too. Use it too to barely snug up the nuts but use an old torque wrench for final tighten.

last toy

My shop did the same thing except it was with a lock lug nut. I stripped it clean trying to remove it with the key. They used an air hammer to get it loose enough to remove it. After that I went around and made sure I could loosen all lug nuts by hand. Frozen lug nuts is a common problem since many shops use air wrenches wihout setting the torque. I now tell my shop to make sure the lugs can be loosen by hand before they give it back to me. Although my mechanic buddy did say that the larger heavier wheels like 17 and 18 inch will cause the lug nuts to tighen more if the wheels run hot from a lot of braking.