Hey I'm about to start painting my calipers and I have to take off my wheels to do so. I don't have a torque wrench though. Can I just use my lug wrench to tighten them and maybe drive for about thirty miles before I can get them retourqued?

 

Lower the wheel to the ground after hand tightening. Then use your lug wrench to tighten the lugs. Go around the wheel tightening the lugs. Go around a couple of times on each wheel. You will not have a problem............

 

you really shouldnt have a problem just hand tightening them, but i had a near death expierince with my lugs, so i had them professionaly torqued to spec for only 10 bux.. its worht the peace of mind.

go to any tire shop, they should be able to do it for you easily

 

Only thing is NOT to go around the wheel tightening them. Always tighten alloy wheels with disc brakes in a criss cross fashion, moving from one lug to another that is across from it. Tighten about half way first, then come back and tighten all the way. You just need to judge your torque and not over torque them. On these you are more likely to over tq than under tq. You are looking for about 80 ft*lbs of tq (I think 76 is the more exact number). That is pretty easy to overdo with a lug wrench. Just use your judgement. For example, 76 ft*lbs is the same as applying 76 lbs of force on a 1 ft long wrench. So that may help.. depending on how much time you have spent turning wrenches But just make sure they are all even. And in the future, you can get a tq wrench fairly cheap nowadays.

 

just painted mine. had same concern. but i've done a better job torqueing then most places i've paid.