Check Your Lug Nut Torque

[timbop]

I swapped out a flat tire on my wife's car at a few weeks old. There is no way the factory set those lugs at 150 pounds.

Yeah, when I went to take my aero covers off I damn near came out of my shoes taking the first nut off with how easily I could spin my lug wrench. Yeah, my son took his air wrench when he moved out so I had to do it old school

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[Jimrpa]

I thought Sandy Munro said screw fasteners we’re the cause of failures and everything should just snap together. You mean to tell me that the Mustang Mach E wheels don’t just snap onto the vehicle? ?

 

[phidauex]

Always good to have a few torque wrenches around! My biggest goes up to 180 ft-lbs, my smallest only 7 Ft-lbs.

To everyone checking torque, remember that fasteners “relax” after installation, so torque at the time of assembly will always be higher than the measured torque later. If you just keep coming back and re-torquing a fastener (that you don’t have reason to believe is actually coming loose) then you will just keep putting more and more load on the fastener, leading to its eventual failure (Happens to head bolts all the time).

If you actually think it is loose it is better to loosen it all the way and then re-torque from scratch.

 

[jgcom]

Same here. Less than 130 ft-lb on almost every nut. I had to order a 21 mm socket, so I didn't check until now, ~ 1 month after delivery.

 

[Scooby24]

In my experience fresh new lugs and wheels don't retain their torque as well as they do after the first couple of mountings (more grip maybe with roughed up surfaces?)...so I believe most new vehicles should have their torque checked shortly after buying.

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