I had tires rotated at jiffy lube, I know I know but I figure how can you mess up a tire rotation. Well yesterday I was changing my oil and I figured let me try my new electric dewalt impact wrench out on my lug nuts and check my brakes. The gun couldn't break the nut so I grab the trusty lug wrench and I still couldn't break them. I was just about jumping on the fricken tire iron without luck. It started to rain so I gave up for the day. I looked at my manual on the drill and it says it puts out 395lb torque , now correct me if I'm wrong but the torque on the lugs is like 82 lbs torque if I am correct. Could this douche really have torques my lug nuts over 300lb torque ? Sounds like a hell of a lot of torque.

I'm talking it back this week for them to break it but was just curious.

 

actually its 76 but yea if there were torque correctly you shouldn"t be hard to take off,
honestly thats why i do everything myself if i cant i take it to someone i know really well cause these days i dont trust any one to work on my car,

 

I can see an oil change being difficult for these guys but a tire rotation!?

It's just so much easier to have them rotation the tires for 10 bucks on a lift which takes 3 mins to do. Never ran into this issue in the past.

 

ive read many stories similar to yours where people took their car in for and oil change and at the end they wound up driving the car out of the place with no oil in the motor or the oil plug not on right or vice verser...but im not surprised they torqued your lugs nuts that tight,they do that with alot of cars they why when you get a flat on the side of the road you cant change it unless you have a 350lb torque gun...but yea it might be easier to have them done at a shop but me personally i would rather do it myself to make sure there on and torque right,cause if torque to much they can warp your brake rotors and you dont want that

 

Read closer, the drill puts out 395 pounds in the driving or "forward" gear. It does not have that power reversing something off. It's like this with all impact guns, electric or pneumatic. However it should have had plenty of power to get the nut off.

I wouldn't necessarily say the nut is on there with a lot of force though, it might be stripped. Wheel studs can only take so much torque before they break.

 

Mitchell repair book states tCs should be torque at 78 lbs.

From what I have heard; the more & more you over tighten: you can wear out wheel bearings. Which makes sense why some owners are repairing them within 50k.

My dealer techs over tighten everytime I let them rotate. I had flat one time; the dummy tighen it SO much: even my next door neighbor barely got the wheel off. At the time, he was 20 years old and very strong kid. I just remember seeing his blood veins pop out in his arms lol

Now, I rotate them myself. And I loosen the wheels when they are warm still. I guess that makes it easier (I research it on net) when you loose them by hand.

 

Little side note, any decent shop will use Torque Sticks to tighten the nuts with an impact and then verify with a torque wrench.

 

This is my first impact , didn't know that .

Well if they did damage anything , they will repair/replace it which is why i am not going crazy trying to get it off.

 

I consider myself a strong person as i workout 3-4 days a week and could not get it. I had my older brother which is bigger than me try it and it was the same thing, no luck.

 

its the shop fault for not carrying they do it all the time,i have a portable torque gun,and i can set it to the exact torque spec as i need it to be without over or under tightning it,but yea if someone uses a torque to put back on the lug nuts theres no way you can take them back off with your body unless your super man or have a decent quality gun,

 

Its just scary to think. These techs overtight these wheels so hard. What if a woman is stranded in middle of no where & can't get any help. Truck drivers aren't like they used to be; they are too worried about getting robbed or hijacked. Who knows what could happen to the woman...

I had blow out last winter. I got stuck changing out the wheel at 4 am while I was on three lane road without a shoulder. A truck driver blocked the lane while keeping his distance. Thank god, I torque them correctly or I would been screwed. Took me 4 minutes! lol

 

x2 but these days all females have some kind of cell phone or emergency road side service........im sure they wouldn't even attempt to change a tire,probably wouldnt even know where to jack up the car,no offense to any one..

 

Orange torque stick to be exact. I work at a merchants tire, there's so much turnover at places like this without any training at all. Dealer shops aren't much better around here. My only advice is if you want something done right go out and talk to whoever is doing the work and slip em a 5 spot. If someone does this to me i go up and above the normal service.

 

idk why theyd torque them so much... from now on just do it urself! save the money. chicks love guys that work on their cars lol

 

Guy said "we normally torque them to 90lbs." I said there is no way it's at 90 but regardless can you just break them and retorque to 80lbs. He said not a problem.

 

Holy christ.


So i watch the guy bring my car in, take the lug nuts off via air gun then put them back on and with the same gun. He comes in and says "here you go all done." I said ummm does that air gun have a torque setting (i saw it, I knew it didn't but didn't want to be an outright dick right off the bat) ? He said No. I said then how do you know how tight the nuts are? He paused and said "Well i just didn't push the gun all the way like the last guy did so you should be fine." I said don't you guys use torque wrenches? He said "Well, we do but if i put it on with a torque wrench it would make the nuts a lot tighter. So tight you probably wouldn't be able to get them off again." I was utterly dumbfounded.
I took my keys and went to a local mechanic. I walk in; guy says how can i help you. I said when you put on tires do you use a torque wrench. He paused and gave me an odd look and mumbled "uhhh yea why ?" I explained the story to him. He came out to my car with a torque wrench and said he will make sure they are torqued. Come to find out that about 4-5 lugs were just about hand tight! I tipped the guy and went on my way. At least at this point i know the tire won’t fall off. When i get home next week all my tires are coming off and i will make sure everything is correct. In the future i will NEVER, i mean NEVER have any of these stupid **** EVER touch my car.


*Side note: i am away on business which is why i don't have access to tools. I am 5 hrs away from home.

 

He is right.

 

I work at a walmart tire and lube express. (I know, I know... horrible reputation worldwide) However, the shop im at actualy has a good crew of guys who do things by the book. We use torque sticks first, then torque the wheels twice with a torque wrench, then do a figure 8 and torque them once more. I know you think thats overkill, and Id agree... but thats walmart policy so thats what we must follow. Torque for TC is 76 ftlbs