Bit of a question really - this actually both scared and surprised me - when you tighten your wheelnuts do you do it properly (as in torque them up) or do you do it the dangerously innacurate way and use a wheelbrace - or even worse - an airgun ?

I went to get a set of tyres on a car today and the trainee moron putting the wheels back on held the airgun on for a good 3 seconds on hammer - 1 second with the gun hammering is too tight. A modern air gun can deliver 4 figure torque and even a small one almost 250ft/lbs.

I wonder how many people are driving around blisslfully unaware their wheelnuts are over or undertightened !!

I use a wheel brace as I dont have any better tools, leveraging until about the most it will move before I have to put my weight into it, which is hopefully about right. Being a bit of a perfectionist if did have a suitable torque wrench Id be sure to do it that way

As it happens I HATE watching the apprenticeship monkies work on my car. They always jam the gun in, scuff the alloys and overtighten it.

The idiots at kwik-fit once got my old mini up on the ramps and tried undoing the 120lb/ft hub nuts with an airgun and they wondered why the car wanted to shoot off the ramp.

Wheel nuts I always do by hand, do 1,3,2,4 until they feel right.

Wheel Brace, tighten it up, then an extra quarter of a turn.  No way im carrying a torque wrench in the car, and I would think its safe.  If it wasnt then every car for the past 100 years would have had the wheels fall of.

Strange but it is possible to tighten up to the correct torque and the wheel not held by it, usually caused by a bit of metal getting into one of the threads.

I would always use the right tools for the job, providing I had them handy, you cant always have a torque wrench out on the road and in those cases you use what you have available, remember though that not tightening them up enough can mean your wheel parts company with the car at 70mph going down the motorway.

Torque wrench always here, dont trust any other way!

Quote from: Poison_UKTorque wrench always here, dont trust any other way!

The "Problem" with a Torque wrench is that for them to actually be accurate you need to get them checked and reset periodically.  No big deal if you have the kit, or access to the kit.  However for most people that isnt an option.  I prefer by hand, Ive never had a wheel come off anything in all my years driving.  Personally I find that incorrectly set Windy guns and Torque wrenches cause way more problems than just doing it by hand.  If its a real performance car (and i dont mean a run of the mill hothatch) then yeah, there is some sense in setting the torque exactly how it should be.  A normal day-to-day motor it isnt going to make a blind bit of difference.

i use a torque wrench, only use the gun for removal

A normal day to day motor is exactly the type of appliation where nuts should be tightened to torque

Modern brake systems have much finer clearances, overtightening your wheel nuts can have an adverse effect on this - you also risk stripping the nuts or the hub

I always just do it by hand... and never realy thought about checking them properly.... never had any work loose or stripped any...

I guess I could be overtightening them all the time and not even know it.... but I cant see how that causes any problems ? (as long as you can still get them off and it doesent strip them...) ...as long as theyre all tightend pretty much evenly...

Wheel brace as tight as my wife can.

Ive been in the trade over 30 years never used a torque wrench on wheel nuts, be it car, van, or lorry.
Zip them up first then wheel brace, (big one on lorries)
Never had one come off, never had a stripped thread, never had a complaint there to tight.
Its down to experience you know when a nut or bolt is tight, the only time I use a torque wrench is on cylinder head bolts, crank and big ends, even on them I will often recheck with a bar.
The accuracy of my arm I know, a torque wrench I dont.

Quote from: MarkA normal day to day motor is exactly the type of appliation where nuts should be tightened to torque

Modern brake systems have much finer clearances, overtightening your wheel nuts can have an adverse effect on this - you also risk stripping the nuts or the hub

ive epxerienced torque wrenched wheelnuts on my present car.  they supposedly set them exactly as they should.  I needed to take the wheel off to change the pads and ended up using my powerbar to take them off.  Its OK if you are doing it yourself, with kit you know it good.  However for the great majority of people its far better to tighten them up to a point you can take them off again without being forced to go home for tools, or resorting to calling out the RAC so you canget use of their windy gun.  Most places dont get their wrenches set up on a regular basis because its not cheap.  I only do any of mine before I do a job like a head gasket, or brake parts, and only because my sis owns an airtool company and i can go down and adjust the tensions on certified hardware.  Most people dont carry a full toolkit in their car, so its most often just not practical to torque up wheelnuts to the correct level every time.  I know there are reasons for the correct torque on everything, but the practicalities outweigh the benefits.  In the past year my car has run just under 20k miles.  The wheels are still on it, would suggest "good enough" is exactly that yes?

80 ft/lbs is hardly difficult to loosen

Quote from: Mark80 ft/lbs is hardly difficult to loosen

I know, however getting a garage that actually sets things correctly, on calibrated hardware isnt easy.  I dont do my own tyres either anymore, I lost access to the gear when my mate sold his garage.  I have to go to someone for them to set it, and ive only every found one garage that actually did things properly.  They used to windy everything up, and they used to set their equipment up every morning to make sure it was right.  However these days they are cripplingly expensive (£90 per corner for NCT5s).  Their main market is Trucks, and those _do_ have to be exact.