Dealer Over Torqued Wheels

[Msfitoy]

That happened on my old f150. The shop techs tightened the lugs down so much I couldn’t get them off. I tried every trick in the book but nothing worked, ended up stripping all of them out. Every single lug on every wheel… I had to drill out the studs and replace them all with new hardware. Never took my truck back to that shop lol

I'd gone back, tell them they over torqued the lugs and have them take the wheels off...if they can't and/or break the studs, then it's on their dime to repair...

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[Cmar]

Thanks God for that! No incriminating evidence to be found.

I always say If I had a smartphone back then I'd be in a lot more trouble than I already was.

Yes for some reason these days young (and some not so young) people feel compelled to do very dumb things in front of "smart" phones.

 

[AzScorpion]

Yes for some reason these days young (and some not so young) people feel compelled to do very dumb things in front of "smart" phones.

yeah most are for clicks and views. If it's YouTube they get monetized if they can draw in more viewers. Some guys got smart and have their wife/girlfriends on theirs now. How many times have you seen those clickbait YouTube videos where the wife/girlfriend is on the main page yet has nothing to do with the video? It works because I've fallen for it a few too many times.

 

[JohnnyO]

In my experience the Ranger lug nuts kind of overtighten themselves. I rotated the tires myself until I had my knees replaced, always torqued to 100 ft. lb., and the next time I went to do it there were some lugs I had to use a cheater bar to get off.
With my new knees it's hard to kneel so I just have my bud's tire shop do it.

 

[Cmar]

In my experience the Ranger lug nuts kind of overtighten themselves. I rotated the tires myself until I had my knees replaced, always torqued to 100 ft. lb., and the next time I went to do it there were some lugs I had to use a cheater bar to get off.
With my new knees it's hard to kneel so I just have my bud's tire shop do it.

Well if they were the original 2 piece ones, you were lucky to get them off. I had to drive a six point socket onto one of mine when I replaced them with proper one piece jobbies.

 

[Cmar]

Duke, you're right about it having a Mach 1 vibe to it. From what I remember reading in Dads old Hot Rod magazines is that the Falcon XB cars are the Australian equivalent to the Ford Mustang. @Cmar can correct me if I'm wrong lol.

The hard tops were, very Mustang like, but the 4 door sedans also had the same styling through the front half. The panels were in fact interchangeable. The rear half of the 2 door hard top was unique.
The wide "hips" at the rear were to accommodate wide racing tyres, these cars were built when Australia's premier road race the Bathurst 1000 - so called because it is 1,000 km long on a public road circuit was a three way battle between Ford, Holden (local GM) and Chrysler.

Cars had to be production editions, the only allowed variations were racing tyres, internal safety roll cages, full harness seat belts, and quick fill fuel inlets. They were allowed however to strip out excess weight like all seats and trim except the drivers seat obviously.
The race is still a yearly event but not the same, as the cars are now highly modified versions.

Back in the seventies and early eighties you could walk into a dealership and buy virtually the exact same car that was raced in Bathurst. Unfortunately do gooders kicked up a stink about the general public being able to walk into a dealership and drive out the same day in a 300 HP Ford Falcon GT (in 1970) and so the rules were progressively wound back.

When I was at university I had a mate who was doing mechanical engineering, he bought a 1970 real Falcon GTHO Bathurst special at an insurance auction, someone's pride and joy, that their teenage son had taken out without his fathers knowledge, and managed to total the entire passenger side with a power pole. It was otherwise, an absolute, almost as new, perfect example of the breed. He got it at practically at scrap prices and because the body shell was basically the same as the same model standard Falcon bought an entire Falcon shell with a demolished drivers side but perfect passenger side from a wrecker, and did an immaculate job of rebuilding it. After he graduated he got an engineering job in Germany and after living there for 12 months got it shipped over and blasted it up and down the autobahns demolishing BWW's Porches and Mercs, the Germans were amazed, they had no idea Australians had built cars like that.

 

[got3fords]

In my experience the Ranger lug nuts kind of overtighten themselves. I rotated the tires myself until I had my knees replaced, always torqued to 100 ft. lb., and the next time I went to do it there were some lugs I had to use a cheater bar to get off.
With my new knees it's hard to kneel so I just have my bud's tire shop do it.

I usually spray WD-40 or something on the studs to keep them from seizing. Necessary? Who knows, can't hurt.

 

[Msfitoy]

I've always torqued my own lug nuts down to 95ftlbs...retighten 3 times after initial torque down and never have to worry about them till I take them off at the next rotation...never used any lube...

 

[JohnnyO]

Well if they were the original 2 piece ones, you were lucky to get them off. I had to drive a six point socket onto one of mine when I replaced them with proper one piece jobbies.

Actually the McGards I have now are worse in that regard.

 

[Dean Schaffran]

Hi joeD

Steel remembers when it is hurt.

Phil

Mr Phil,
Good to see that you are still among us even after you went quiet. Hope you're well and still enjoying retirement. Happy '26!
DS

 

[PapaBill]

This is over torqued…… it is a 9/16” or 14 mm bolt. I think the original torque was suppose to be 125 and we took it to about 215 and it broke. I glued it back together so it would look prettier. Notice how far it stretched before it broke.

Looks like it is well past the yield point and into the the plastic range. Past the yield point, a metal enters the plastic deformation range, where it undergoes permanent changes in shape (it won't spring back) and begins to strain harden, requiring more force for further stretching until it reaches its ultimate tensile strength, the peak stress it can withstand before localized weakening (necking) and eventual fracture. Yee haw!

 

[Cmar]

I usually spray WD-40 or something on the studs to keep them from seizing. Necessary? Who knows, can't hurt.

Well most manufacturers tell you not to lube them , but if I lived in somewhere like North America or Europe where there was a real winter with salted roads and rust everywhere, I would seriously consider it.

 

[got3fords]

Well most manufacturers tell you not to lube them , but if I lived in somewhere like North America or Europe where there was a real winter with salted roads and rust everywhere, I would seriously consider it.

Yeah, I've seen my fair share of dry, rusty, stuck hardware, I figure a spritz with a light lube can't hurt. And every time you disassemble rusty hardware, you remove some metal.

 

[Cmar]

Yeah, I've seen my fair share of dry, rusty, stuck hardware, I figure a spritz with a light lube can't hurt. And every time you disassemble rusty hardware, you remove some metal.

So true, eventually they come off, (piece of pipe over the end of a breaker bar) after the thread strips off either the stud, or bolt, or the nut!

 

[P. A. Schilke]

I usually spray WD-40 or something on the studs to keep them from seizing. Necessary? Who knows, can't hurt.

The lugnuts should be installed dry by design and the way wheel retention testing is performed. Oiled studs should not be used, cleaned off with solvent...otherwise you are way overtorquing the lugnuts. A very bad idea..

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