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Breaker Bar Madness

M

martinmalley

CEG'er
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
139
Location
Central Ohio
I'm not saying this happened to me, but a friend of mine, who was headed home from my inlaws Sunday had his wheel fall off.

After carefull examination, it was decided that the lug bolts sheared. I, I mean he, realized when he put new lower control arms on several weeks ago, he used his breaker bar, as it was closer to me, I mean him, than his ratchet.

So now he will head up to Findlay, Ohio, where he hopes Jay and Mark's garage, who are installing his new lug bolts, don't try to make a boat payment from this little exercise.

He has already set his torque wrench to the specified 128 Nm to re-torque all the freak'n lug nuts on the CSVT. And hopefully, he can get the slight distortion at the bottom of the fender back in place so it's not pushing his skirt out of place.

The good news is that it happened as he pulled off the freeway to see what was wrong and the wheel fell off when I reached the top of the ramp.

Don't let this happen to you!!!!
 
Make sure he loosens all of those lug nuts before retightening. I have seen the Ass Hats at tire shops put lugs on with an impact wrench and then use a torque wrench. Then tell me they are all at torque spec!!!!!!

Yea, they are all at least 80 ft/lbs!!!!!! Had one come back at over 200 ft/lbs.

To me lug nuts are more important to torque correctly then a cylinder head. You blow a head gasket or pop of bolt no big deal but $$$$. You pop lug nuts at highway speed or on the track and it could be your life!
 
Maybe I've been lucky but I've never torqued a lug nut in my life.

It's a good thing nothing too bad happened as a result of your wheel coming off though.
 
I tighten lug nuts with a 1/2" ratchet - like the normal size. I tightened the lugs on my truck and was putting everything away and my bro started freaking out telling me the lugs were not tight enough. I told him to take his Snap-On torque wrench, set it to 100ft/lbs and tell me how many didn't make the spec. All 20 of them were at least 100 ft/lbs - I don't need a breaker bar to tighten lug nuts.
 
What kind of problems happen when cylinder heads are not torqued to spec or are torqued different amounts? What about Rod Ends? Eventually the uneven or overtorqued areas will warp, break or leak. Would you build an engine without using a torque wrench?

Same thing can and does happen with improper tightening of your lug nuts. Studs can snap or stretch, or you can bend or warp your wheels or even the brake rotor itself.

Sure all of them were at least 100 ft/lbs but how much torque was actually on them? Did you set the wrench to 150 and see if it popped? Did you set it to 200 and see if it popped? BTW what is the torque spec on the trucks lug nuts? I doubt it is even 100 ft/lbs. It will be printed in the owners manual.

Most vehicles it is 76-90 ft/lbs. That can be achieved with a standard 3/8 ratchet. Breaker bars and impact wrenches should never be used to tighten lugnets. To me shops that put them on in that manner and then leave a person stranded because they cannot take them off with the factory supplied tool should be liable for all tow charges and damages. What they are doing is dangerous.
 
Similar thing has happened to me, I mean someone I know. He must have forgot to torque his lugnuts all the way and his wheel worked it's way loose. Luckily he was down to a crawl to try to figure out what the noise was when it came off my car I mean his car....
 
2000SilverSVT said:
What kind of problems happen when cylinder heads are not torqued to spec or are torqued different amounts? What about Rod Ends? Eventually the uneven or overtorqued areas will warp, break or leak. Would you build an engine without using a torque wrench?

Same thing can and does happen with improper tightening of your lug nuts. Studs can snap or stretch, or you can bend or warp your wheels or even the brake rotor itself.

Sure all of them were at least 100 ft/lbs but how much torque was actually on them? Did you set the wrench to 150 and see if it popped? Did you set it to 200 and see if it popped? BTW what is the torque spec on the trucks lug nuts? I doubt it is even 100 ft/lbs. It will be printed in the owners manual.

Most vehicles it is 76-90 ft/lbs. That can be achieved with a standard 3/8 ratchet. Breaker bars and impact wrenches should never be used to tighten lugnets. To me shops that put them on in that manner and then leave a person stranded because they cannot take them off with the factory supplied tool should be liable for all tow charges and damages. What they are doing is dangerous.
Click to expand...

Wont find the spec in the manual - it has 3/4 ton axles under it now. I dont think I could get near 150lbs with a 6" ratchet - I doubt they are over 120. As far as stretching and hurting lugnuts and studs - I'm not worried about it. I tighten my lugnuts with a 3' bar to a very specific 'feel' and leave them at that. I then drive ~50 miles to a 4x4 event with 34" knobby tires, low gears, decent hp, and a driving style that can't keep axles under my rig - lugnuts are my last worry. I've never had a lug come loose, strip, or damage the stud. The whimpy ass lugnuts on my SVT have been wrecked by the tire shop - so that pended me to replace 8 lugnuts and 8 studs - but that was not from my error. I dont use air tools on my car even though I've got them - I'll use them to loosen things, never tighten. I've had the wheels off of my car many times, tightening the lugs the same way I always have - no problems yet.
 
I set my torque wrench to 128 Nm as listed in the Ford shop manual and re-torqued (backed off, re-torqued) the lugs on the other three wheels and they didn't seem lose or tight.

I do remember using the breaker because it was close by. Perhaps I only over did it on the one wheel (it was the first side I did when I replaced the A arms).

I'm sticking to my original diagnosis, but it is a mystery!
 
martinmalley said:
I set my torque wrench to 128 Nm as listed in the Ford shop manual and re-torqued (backed off, re-torqued) the lugs on the other three wheels and they didn't seem lose or tight.

I do remember using the breaker because it was close by. Perhaps I only over did it on the one wheel (it was the first side I did when I replaced the A arms).

I'm sticking to my original diagnosis, but it is a mystery!
Click to expand...

I thought it happened to your friend?
doh.gif


LOL...
 
That happend to my wife last spring. She was probably doing about 50 mph, the wheel came off and the front end dropped and dragged about 50 yds as she steered it off the road. Tore up the fender real good. Here's the best part. I just found the wheel a couple of days ago. It went across some RR tracks and into a ravine. I had to wair unit all the summer underbrush died down to find it.

Did you lose your wheel or did you keep it in sight?
 
Actually, the car fell onto the tire. I had pulled off the freeway (I'm a lucky dog!) and when I came to a stop at the top of the ramp, Kachunk. The tire was trapped under the fender and the rotor was on the ground.

Sharing my disaster with folks at work, I heard more than a few stories of tires heading on their merry way, one even hitting a parked car about a 1/4 mile away!

So this weekend I'll tackle the increasingly-bad driver's side half shaft. Just hope it doesn't break while my wife's driving it :shocked: ! Then I can buy a new EGR valve ($48 at at Autozone) and perhaps I'll be done spending money on my "new" ride for a couple of minutes. RHPAW (ridden hard, put away wet) ARANOEU (a ridiculous accronym no one else uses).

Times like this (also have to fix a cooling system leak on the wife's Windstar, my son's civic needs a tie rod end and a half shaft and my daughter's focus needs a new thermostat) I just have to take a breath and think WWFSMD (What Would the Flying Spagetti Monsater Do)?
 
martinmalley said:
Actually, the car fell onto the tire. I had pulled off the freeway (I'm a lucky dog!) and when I came to a stop at the top of the ramp, Kachunk. The tire was trapped under the fender and the rotor was on the ground.

Sharing my disaster with folks at work, I heard more than a few stories of tires heading on their merry way, one even hitting a parked car about a 1/4 mile away!

So this weekend I'll tackle the increasingly-bad driver's side half shaft. Just hope it doesn't break while my wife's driving it :shocked: ! Then I can buy a new EGR valve ($48 at at Autozone) and perhaps I'll be done spending money on my "new" ride for a couple of minutes. RHPAW (ridden hard, put away wet) ARANOEU (a ridiculous accronym no one else uses).

Times like this (also have to fix a cooling system leak on the wife's Windstar, my son's civic needs a tie rod end and a half shaft and my daughter's focus needs a new thermostat) I just have to take a breath and think WWFSMD (What Would the Flying Spagetti Monsater Do)?
Click to expand...

Good answer, good answer. I like the way you think.
 
I never let grease monkeys put an air/impact wrench on my wheels. EVAR!!

The last several sets of tires I've purchased, I've gone through Tirerack.com and just dropped off the wheels to the installer. I put them on myself.

Last time a mechanic put an air wrench on my car it was the BMW. Even after I had the shop manager write in large print to hand tighten the lugs. Nearly got into a fight with that asshat because the first thing he reached for was not a torque wrench but a 30" breaker bar... :rolleyes:
 
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