Sounds like you are ready for any type of action.
Tire shop over torqued my wheels
- Thread starter Patman
- Start date
Correct. 30" breaker bar has many uses.
Patman
Staff member
It was an honest mistake. When they looked up the spec they saw 140 and thought it was nm instead of ft lbs. No harm done and they are friendly people there. They even have a shop dog named Rusty
A torque wrench is inexpensive, buy one, torque them yourself for peace of mind.
Amazon has lots, I like the Lexivon brand for a very good price, they are a good tool. They take a beating, and still accurate. When it arrives, in the case is a paper showing actual torque vs setting .
For torquing wheel nuts, no need to get that exact, 2 or 3 lbs is irrelevant.
Amazon has lots, I like the Lexivon brand for a very good price, they are a good tool. They take a beating, and still accurate. When it arrives, in the case is a paper showing actual torque vs setting .
For torquing wheel nuts, no need to get that exact, 2 or 3 lbs is irrelevant.
I would have never guess anyone with a performance car would not have their own torque wrench for this purpose. All my cars that have aluminum rims need 1 to 2 re-torques every time the rims are taken off. Granted I am in a winter state so twice a year I switch out rims. Still If I lived in Florida I would have $100 torque wrench and socket to take care of a semi critical issue when your going 100mph or 70mph in a sweeper. I want to be the guy knowing my nuts are on and ready to take a pounding. I am not letting someone who could possibly not caring about my nuts be that last person touching my nuts when I flying through a corner at 60 mph++
Walmart was the only place I can remember that ever torqued the wheels properly after installing new tires. I don't ever remember not cursing a tire shop after I did a tire rotation or brake job after they replaced my tires.
Can you clue us all in on the secret to not getting the 25% assigned to work on your car? Or the ones that got 15 minutes of "training" and were let loose?
I've ruptured sockets, by hand, trying to get overtorqued lugs off, so I leave little to chance when it comes to this. Doesn't take much effort to spin lugs on by hand, then torque them, but then, I don't work in a shop and have to speed through a queue.
Too many possibilities for miscues, including from the OP, whose tech misread the spec, to assume anything.
I still use a simple “bar style” torque wrench my dad bought for us to use 37 years ago. They aren’t expensive, and the long handle gives good leverage. I use it often for wheels.
Well now, to be honest, I too have busted sockets. And once I snapped a stud. Still, I don't think it hurts anything to spin them on tight with an impact then torque them. You wanna sit there and hand thread them all the way down snug, go for it.
Pretty much the only time I have tire work done at a shop is when I buy the tires. I rotate them. I plug them. It doesn't really bother me if I have an emergency repair done or a shop rotation and when I get home, I re-torque them.
Here's a dirty little secret of mine, the place I buy tires, I can see them torqueing them on. They note how tight they torque on the paperwork. I don't mind if they torque to 150, that's spec for my F150. 150 is darn hard to break - I cut it back to 125 when I do it. On F150 #4 - never had a problem.
Do they lie on the paperwork? Possibly. NTB and Discount Tire would fire them would fire them if they did.
